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March 2007
Gwinnett Republicans back another actor for the White House
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fred Thompson, the actor who plays Arthur Branch on NBC’s “Law & Order, topped a list of Republican presidential wannabes at the Gwinnett GOP convention Saturday.
With 62 votes, Thompson bested every Republican who has formally entered the race or is considering running.
That includes former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (D-Ga.), who garnered 24 votes, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who received 21 votes.
Thompson is an interesting choice. After all, he’s served as a CIA director, a naval rear admiral, an FBI agent and even the president of the United States — in the movies, that is, the Internet Movie Database reports.
He’s also been a U.S. senator, not just on celluloid, but in real life. Thompson’s acting career was bifurcated by one six-year term as a GOP senator from Tennessee.
Or maybe we’ve got that backward. Thompson, who’s 64, got into politics long before he was an actor. A real-life lawyer, Thompson served as minority counsel on the Watergate committee in 1973, according to a congressional biographical Web page.
Anyone wondering what kind of president Thompson would make might want to rent the HBO movie called “Last Best Chance,” a what-if flick about nuclear terrorism. In it, Thompson shows he can at least talk the talk.
“Watch this,” Thompson’s character says in the movie. “I don’t want us sitting on our butts if something’s about to happen.”
Well at least he didn’t say “bring it on.”
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Cal Warlick / On Gwinnett
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Imagine how big the carton must be
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Shopping for Gwinnett County inmates is a bit more complicated than schlepping to the grocery store every day.
Consider this: Last Tuesday, the Gwinnett County Commission voted to spend $211,000 for eggs for the county’s correction facilities and the Department of Community Services.
That’s right, $211,000 for eggs.
We figure that’ll buy you at least 1.27 million eggs (probably more, since the county’s buying in bulk).
That’s a lot of eggs.
We find it notable that the county’s renewing its egg contract just in time for Easter.
Does that mean a truckload of purple, pink, green and yellow dye is headed for the county jail?
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Beaudreau to hold town hall meetings
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mike Beaudreau’s 2007 Tour of Neighborhoods begins this week with a stop in Grayson on Monday night.
The Gwinnett County Commissioner has scheduled five town hall meetings with his District 3 constituents.
The purpose of the Beaudreau Town Hall meetings is for him to talk with east Gwinnett residents about a wide range of public concerns, including traffic, crime and park development. Beaudreau, according to a news release, will also talk about how “to improve efficiency and responsiveness in the Quality of Life Unit.”
The meetings are to start at 7 p.m.
They are planned for:
• Monday: Grayson City Hall, Senior Center Room, 475 Grayson Parkway, Grayson;
• Friday: Five Forks Trickum Library, 780 Five Forks Trickum Road, Lawrenceville;
• April 5: Mountain Park Activity Building, 1063 Rockbridge Road, Stone Mountain;
• April 19: Snellville City Hall, 2342 Oak Road, Snellville;
• April 23: Dacula Park Activity Building, 205 Dacula Road, Dacula.
A sixth meeting is to take place at Centerville Community Center. No date has been set for the gathering.
For more information, call Beaudreau at 770-822-7003.
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Perdue appoints Garraway to board
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Sonny Perdue on Friday appointed Snellville City Councilman Bruce Garraway to the state Juvenile Justice Board. The 15-member board, which meets once a month, establishes policies for the state Department of Juvenile Justice.
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Never say die
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When it comes to predicting any bill’s chances in the Georgia Legistature, never say die.
But don’t count on Hugh Floyd’s proposal to add two new members to the Gwinnett County Commission getting passed any time soon. Even Floyd isn’t.
“The main thing is to get the bill[s] in, and between now and [the 2008] session, to work on it,” said Floyd. “It’s going to take more effort.”
Last week, Floyd introduced two bills to expand the commission from four district commissioners and a chairman to six district commissioners and a chairman.
The concept of expanding the commission is gaining some momentum. On March 12, the Sugar Hill City Council passed a resolution endorsing Floyd’s bills.
But if Floyd’s bills don’t win approval from the Georgia House by Tuesday, the issue is presumed dead for this year.
(Well, perhaps not entirely dead. It’s too complicated to explain here, but let’s just say that bills are like Christopher Lee in Dracula movies. He never stays completely dead; in Georgia, some legislation can miraculously be resurrected in the final minutes of a legislative session.)
But even if the proposals are bottled up in the House this year, they are sure to come back next year. 2007 is the first year of the current two-year legislative cycle, so any bill that isn’t passed this session is automatically held over for the 2008 session.
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Cal Warlick / On Gwinnett
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Have you noticed a change in graffiti?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
RELATED
A Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful report says that the number of graffiti sites around the county is down from 2003 but that the vandalism is starting to show up in places previously untouched, including the Mall of Georgia and the cities of Buford and Snellville.
Have you seen a change in the volume of graffiti? Or have you noticed it spreading?
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Cal Warlick / On Gwinnett
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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SOS to Kenney: County, Diebold didn’t steal your election
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Well, perhaps we can finally declare the 2006 4th district commission race over.
On Monday, the Georgia Secretary of State’s office rebuffed a complaint filed by John Kenney, that he wuz robbed.
Kenney, you may recall, was the Democratic opponent of Kevin Kenerly, in the November general election.
(We’re not sure if Kenerly knew that. After surviving a bruising primary race, the county commissioner seem to spend more time coaching his youth league football team than campaigning.)
After getting pummeled by Kenerly, Kenney filed a formal complaint with the Secretary of State.
Kenney’s allegation: “the Gwinnett County Board of Elections and Registration and Diebold Elections Systems modified and/or tampered with GEMS operational software, and altered the Gwinnett County election results.”
It was an interesting allegation. We figured Kenney lost because the 4th district is overwhelmingly Republican. But then, what do we know?
A preliminary investigation by Georgia elections officials found Kenney’s complaint groundless. But last week the state Elections Board voted for a independent review of the county election. That review was conducted by the Kennesaw State University’s Center for Election Systems.
On Monday, Secretary of State spokeswoman Vicki Gavalas, said the review found Kenney’s complaint also to be groundless.
“We knew where that was going before we even got started,” said Kenney, who complaint that the elections board gave him only five minutes to make his case. Kenney insists that the evidence is “substantial” that the 2006 vote from the top of the ballot to the bottom, had been tampered with.
Well John, there’s always 2008.
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No matter how you slice it, it comes up Democrat
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Recently, Hugh Floyd told us he had a plan to add two more members to the Gwinnett County Commission. Since then, the Democratic House member from Norcross has given us a couple of maps showing what he has in mind.
One map shows the existing four commission district seats. One of Floyd’s ideas is to add two new “superdistrict” seats to the current board of four district commissioners. One superdistrict would be made up of Districts 1 and 2, and the other would be made up of Districts 3 and 4.
The second map (the one that’s provoked the most fussing) would erase the existing lines and carve out six district seats. One of them likely would be represented by a Democrat. That’s gotten some of Floyd’s GOP opponents accusing him of trying to get a Democratic foothold on the now all-GOP board.
Floyd says he didn’t draw these maps, the nonpartisan state legislative reapportionment office did.
Some lawmakers said either of Floyd’s plans stand as much chance of getting passed by the state Legislature as John Kerry has of being elected governor of Georgia.
But others, including state Sen. Don Balfour (R-Snellville), say Gwinnett’s getting too big to be represented by four district commissioners and a chairman.
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Au contraire, Mr. Mayor, Dacula is not neglected
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
County Commissioner Mike Beaudreau took umbrage at a resolution by the Dacula City Council and Dacula Mayor Jimmy Wilbanks that complains the commission had neglected the city in funding road improvements.
In the March 1 resolution, Wilbanks and the council called on the county commissioners to “commence immediately to provide for the creation of adequate traffic infrastructure with their areas of authority.”
That’s a rather polite and wordy way of saying, “Repave! Build roads! Improve traffic … dangit!”
Last week, Beaudreau fired back, politely, at Wilbanks and the City Council with a letter refuting their claim that the Dacula area is getting shortchanged in transportation funding.
Beaudreau cited more than $10 million in county funding for road improvements directly affecting Dacula, and an additional $12 million for current and upcoming projects.
“This does not take into account the hundreds of millions of dollars from local and federal funds on the Sugarloaf Parkway extension,” Beaudreau wrote. “All together, Gwinnett has committed $39,789,131 to Dacula and the immediately surrounding area. I trust that you will agree the information shows the county’s substantial investment in this area.”
It’s worth noting that Beaudreau and Wilbanks haven’t been the best of buds of late. Beaudreau is furious at Wilbanks and the council for what he believes is their indiscriminate use of annexation to grow the city’s tax base.
Wilbanks, in turn, is mad at Beaudreau for his campaign to get the state Legislature to clamp down on annexations by cities.
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Cal Warlick / On Gwinnett
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Would you turn in your kids?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Three boys, two brothers ages 7 and 11 and their 10-year-old cousin, are charged with setting a fire that destroyed four houses in a retirement community. They face charges of arson and burglary and appeared before a juvenile court judge on Tuesday.
The mother of two of the boys turned in them and their cousin. By stepping forward, an expert says she taught them the difference between right and wrong —- and that growing up means taking responsibility for your actions.
Would you report your kids if you suspected they committed a crime?
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County’s Internet site gets thumbs up
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A recent study of www.co.gwinnett.ga.us, the county’s Internet site, garnered rave reviews from the focus groups empaneled to critique it.
John Clayton Thomas, the Georgia State University public administration and urban studies professor who led the study, presented his findings to the Gwinnett County Commission.
Thomas told the board that the citizens who reviewed the Web site found it easy to use, up to date, powerful and filled with valuable information.
Gwinnett County communications director Joe Sorenson said the home page will change slightly in the coming weeks to make it more navigable.
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GOP chairman Howard faces challenger
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Greg Howard has drawn an 11th-hour challenger for the Gwinnett GOP chairmanship.
Typically a local party chairman’s race wouldn’t be worth spilling much ink over. But it is unusual to challenge a sitting chairman.
Enter Seth Weathers, a 22-year-old Web designer.
” I feel that the Gwinnett GOP is in need of revitalization,” Weathers said in a news release we found in our inbox this morning. “Our local party needs fresh, new energy going into the 2008 elections. A better job also needs to be done to raise money and build membership as was done in the past.”
Usually the chairpeople of political parties serve until they burn out or get the message that it’s time to go. Being party chairman isn’t that much of a plum, after all. It’s not like getting elected to Congress or the County Commission. The job comes with little prestige and no salary.
Weathers didn’t mention Howard by name in his press statement or during a followup interview. But he did say the party is “very low on membership right now.”
“When you’re a county of 750,000 people and you don’t have 1,000 people in the party, you don’t have 500 people in the party, you don’t have even 200 people in the party, that’s sad,” Weathers said.
Weathers listed more than a dozen elected officials and Gwinnett party activists as supporting his candidacy. Among them, Gwinnett Commission Chairman Charles Bannister, and Commissioners Lorraine Green and Mike Beaudreau.
Howard couldn’t be reached immediately for comment.
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Cal Warlick / On Gwinnett
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For Wednesday, March 14, 2007
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Peeking over the cyber fence?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just click on www.howtoratoutyourtrashyneighbor.com.
OK, that’s not a real Web address. But Gwinnett Commissioner Lorraine Green has launched her own Internet site to better inform Gwinnett surfers about the county’s zoning laws and about how to file property maintenance complaints.
The address: www.cleanupgwinnett.com.
“I’ve heard the comment that filing property maintenance complaints can be confusing or even intimidating,” Green said. “Cleanupgwinnett.com is designed to make the process easy and informative for citizens. It also allows me to file complaints for citizens, should they wish to remain anonymous.”
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Vinson Wall to work for AJC
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We never told him we’d give him a job if he talked to us. We promise.
But GI has just learned that Vinson Wall, the one-time gun-toting Georgia lawmaker from Lawrenceville is coming to work for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
It’s our fault. We reported last month that Wall was returning to Georgia after spending a couple of years working as a Keno dealer in Las Vegas.
“Due to that article, in part, he is now employed by the AJC in the promoter department,” said Ray Roberts, AJC Gwinnett’s field sales supervisor for the promoter division. “Vinson was a good friend of mine and when I found out he was returning to Georgia, I talked to him about coming to work for us.”
For those who’ve never heard of Wall, he was a Georgia House member off and on for three decades. One of the state Capitol’s more colorful politicians, Wall is perhaps best known for pointing an unloaded pistol at as House colleague during a debate on the House floor about capital punishment.
Wall was in training today for his new job and could not be reached immediately for comment. Roberts said Wall will sell newspaper subscriptions at local businesses and public events.
Roberts said his recommendation to hire Wall came with a warning.
“He’s an ex-politician, he’s an ex-salesman, you may have to wear your hip boots when you come out to see him,” Roberts said he told hiring supervisors prior to Wall’s hiring.
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High-rise developer goes to court
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Three years ago, George Thorndyke was a candidate for the Gwinnett County Commission. He lost.
Today, he’s suing the board.
At issue is his proposal to build two 25-story condo towers near Gwinnett Place mall.
Last month, the County Commission turned down his rezoning application. Thorndyke vowed to sue.
On Friday, the developer confirmed that a lawsuit had been filed. He then referred us to his lawyer.
We’ll be watching this one.
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Library activists to go national
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Suwanee mom with a reputation for driving county library board members to distraction has been tapped to head a conservative national advocacy group called Family Friendly Libraries.
Last week, the organization announced that Denise Varenhorst has been named president of FFL.
The group also named Judy Craft, a conservative political activist from Norcross, to be the organization’s vice president. Craft, a political activist, co-founded a local chapter of FFL.
The organization, founded in 1992, has dedicated much of its efforts to keeping Internet pornography out of local libraries.
Varenhorst, some may recall, is the Suwanee mom whose complaints about rude treatment by the library system’s former director led to the resignation of the then-library board chairman and prompted an apology from the former director.
When the library system announced plans to sell its DVD collection, Varenhorst, who argued that the DVDs were vital to home-schoolers, spearheaded a campaign to keep the collection on the shelves.
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Cal Warlick / On Gwinnett
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For Sunday, March 11, 2007
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Cal Warlick bio
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cal Warlick, creator of the editorial cartoons you see on the Gwinnett Opinions pages, is a freelance artist who lives in Lawrenceville. He was born in Columbus and spent some of his childhood in Alabama but graduated from College Park High School. He and his family have called Gwinnett home for 35 years.
Cal previously worked for the (now closed) Gwinnett Daily News, WAGA-TV and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He has illustrated six books and worked in animation as well. In addition to his editorial cartoons, he currently produces sports prints and provides illustrations for outdoor magazines. You can e-mail him at gwinnettletters@ajc.com.
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What do you think of Lisa Taylor’s house?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Bannister: Will he or won’t he? Apparently he will.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rather elliptical utterances by Charles Bannister about his future political plans have left us feeling a bit mystified lately.
The mystery is now over. We think.
Supporters of the Gwinnett commission chairman have scheduled a fund-raiser for his 2008 re-election campaign. The after-work social with potential contributors is scheduled to take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Atlanta Marriott-Gwinnett Place hotel on March 20.
During an interview last week, Bannister told us he was running again, then said he wasn’t “in campaign mode” and then said he would announce his plans to seek re-election later this year. That is, he said, unless he decides not to run again.
We asked Bannister if, perhaps, he would best described as an “unannounced candidate” for re-election. He agreed with that.
But he did not agree with our description of the Marriott event as the first fund-raiser of the 2008 Gwinnett campaign. Bannister said he’d already held the first fund-raiser — back in 2005, his first year in office.
For the March event, Bannister said, “we’re raising money to cover future campaign expenses.”
Okay, we’ll take that as a “Yes, I’m running again.”
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Should deputies earn the same as police officers?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Gwinnett grand jury is urging county officials to raise the pay of sheriff’s deputies to match the salaries of officers. Gwinnett deputies make about $2,000 a year less than Gwinnett police officers.
Deputy County Administrator Mike Comer said Tuesday he disagrees with the grand jury because the jobs are different.
What do you think?
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What qualities should teachers have?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gwinnett County public school principals will ask probing questions at a job fair to recruit new teachers.
What would you ask them? What would you be looking for in a candidate?
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Linder catches Gold Mouse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We know about the Golden Fleece. We’ve never heard of the Gold Mouse award.
But John Linder, Gwinnett’s GOP congressman, won one last week. The award is for having a really cool Web site.
“Congressman Linder’s Web site shows that he has identified the needs of his various constituencies and has developed easily accessible content that meets their needs online,” stated Beverly Bell, executive director of the Congressional Management Foundation
Linder’s Web site, www.linder.house.gov, was among 615 sites evaluated for The 2006 Gold Mouse Report: Recognizing the Best Web Sites on Capitol Hill.
Linder’s and 17 other sites received Gold Mouse Awards.
“I am certainly proud of this honor because it recognizes the effort that has been undertaken to offer online constituent services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” Linder said in a statement.
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Bannister: I’m running. Not now.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For Hamlet the question was “to be or not to be.”
In Prizzi’s Honor, Jack Nicholson asked “do I whack her, do I marry her?”
For Charles Bannister, is it “to announce or not to announce?”
We thought we had a scoop Thursday, when the Gwinnett Commission Chairman told the Insider, “I certainly will not hesitate to say that my intentions are to run again.”
We took that to mean Bannister had launched his 2008 campaign for re-election.
After all, Bannister’s 2004 campaign manager B.J. Van Gundy had just sent us a news release from the chairman calling for planning commission meetings to be televised on the county’s cable station.
The news release, by the way, wasn’t printed on county letterhead.
But when we asked Bannister if this was the first press statement of the 2008 campaign, he replied “We’re not in campaign mode. If I would make a decision to run it would be sometime later this year.”
That sounded like a contradiction, so we asked Bannister whether he’d be candidate for re-election next year.
His reply: “At this moment my intentions are to do so (run again), and later this year, I will make my announcement should my decision be the same.
“I am not running right now,” Bannister said.
Did y’all get that?
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Floyd, so how ‘bout a Dem on the Gwinnett County Commission
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
BEN GRAY / AJC
Gwinnett Legislators Reps. Hugh Floyd (left) and John Heard talk on the House floor.
Some Gwinnett commissioners seem to take it personally that Hugh Floyd wants to put a couple of new members on the board. Mike Beaudreau goes so far as to accuse the Democratic state House member of trying to get someone from his party elected to the all-GOP board.
The District 2 commissioner might not be entirely off base. While Floyd’s plan to add two superdistrict commissioners doesn’t sound like it would get a Democrat elected to either post, he has a Plan B that almost certainly would.
Floyd insists “this is not just a ploy for me to get a Democrat in.”
(We haven’t actually seen either plan. Floyd hasn’t introduced either proposal because state law prevents him from dropping either bill for at least a week after they’ve been advertised in the county legal organ.)
Plan B would redraw Gwinnett’s current commission district map and add two new districts to the board, Floyd said. Plan A merely overlays the current map with two new superdistrict seats, one of which would be be made up of Districts 1 and 3, and the other, Districts 2 and 4. Since the existing seats are all held by Republicans, there’s little chance the added superdistrict posts would be any different.
But Floyd says a second plan he’s thinking about introducing would create one Democrat-leaning seat that would include Gwinnett’s western I-85 corridor. One of Floyd’s Republican House colleagues, John Heard, said he’s seen the map and agrees that it does create a commission for a Democrat.
Some Gwinnett Republicans, among them Senate Rules Committee Chairman Don Balfour, said rapidly growing Gwinnett will ultimately need more representation on the board.
Floyd said it’s hard to draw a political map with more districts that doesn’t include a Democratic seat, especially in southern Gwinnett, which is trending that way. Floyd also pointed out that he didn’t draw the Plan B map, the nonpartisan state Legislative Reapportionment Office did.
“If Democrats get elected to the commission one day, it’ll have more to do with changing demographics than redrawing maps,” Floyd said.
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Are you in favor of adding commissioners?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One of Gwinnett’s most powerful state lawmakers said Wednesday he’d consider a proposal to add two members to the Gwinnett County Commission.
What do you think of the idea?
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