The DeKalb County Commission voted unanimously on Tuesday to halt construction of a soapbox derby track favored by CEO Burrell Ellis, a project the commission insists it never approved. Ellis' reply: not so fast.
"This is as clear as this board can be: stop what you're doing," Commissioner Elaine Boyer said of the 6-0 vote (with one absentee) demanding the county halt any work being done at the site on Rock Chapel Road near Lithonia.
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation revealed last week that county taxpayers have paid $91,819 thus far on clear-cutting trees and other work on the track that Ellis authorized without commission consent.
Despite growing controversy over the project,estimated to cost $1 million, Ellis said he was blindsided by the resolution and was unclear on his next step, other than asking county attorneys if the board had the power to stop construction. He stopped short of saying he would immediately halt work in the meantime, saying that the board’s 2011 vote to add the derby track to a potential projects to be completed with parks bond money was tacit approval of the track.
While the board stopped short of killing the project, the clash is the latest between Ellis and the board over questions of authority at a time when DeKalb is struggling with the same financial woes as many other counties. The administration is working to find $8 million in savings for this budget year because property values continue to slide. The county also has yet to develop long-term plans for its pension and employee and retiree healthcare, two areas where costs are rising even as the county brings in less money from taxpayers.
“This has become election year politicking, but I want you to know we did this right,” said Ellis, who raced derby cars as a child and has made the track a pet project. “Now, if that authorization from the board is no longer valid, we will operate in accordance with the organizational act and the law.”
The commission bought the 10-acre site, located next to the Bransby Outdoor YMCA, last year for $585,000 in a complicated swap with the YMCA. The county spent another $130,000 on designing the track, a 900-foot two-lane asphalt ribbon through granite outcroppings. All of the money has come from the voter-approved bond fund to buy and develop more parks.
But the commission delayed a construction contract four times since January, saying the $1 million price tag was too high for a facility expected to be used for eight events and generate $15,000 each year.
Commissioners were waiting for a plan for what could be added to the park to increase usage when they found out the prep work was being done.
That discovery led commissioners to question whether the county can continue to use parks bond money for the project, since the board never signed off on the contract. A court would likely need to rule on the matter.
But if the parks bond could not be used, county taxpayers could end up paying the nearly $100,000 tab out of the county’s main account. That fund is so depleted by the recession that the county raised the tax rate 26 percent last year to make ends meet.
In the meantime, William and Beverly White are dumbstruck in what was to be their retirement oasis next to the track site. They didn’t know what to make of the sudden loss of the trees that buffered their home from noise and activity from the YMCA on the other side of the site, until they read about the track work in the newspaper.
“We didn’t know it was coming and now that they’ve done what they’ve done and we’re stuck next door,” William White said.
Victor McCrary, a hardware salesman who lives in a historic home across the street from the site, said he, too, never heard from the county about its plans and questioned the spending until more residents could be involved.
“We talk about fiscal responsibility and being good neighbors in our community,” McCrary said. “It just seems that this is not justifiable right now. We need to stop and think about this for a minute.”
One piece of the project was halted Tuesday, when the administration withdrew the original $1 million contract. That bid was set to expire at the end of the month but was likely to be rejected by the board if it had voted.
Instead, commissioners said their resolution trumps that contract and will force different action. It dictates Ellis to prepare a financial report on all taxpayer money spent on the clearing the land or other contracts for the project.
Elllis said he had submitted a report last week but would update it if necessary. Commissioners would next hash out the report in committees while deciding what to do next with the track site.
“We are not saying this project can never happen,” said Commissioner Lee May, whose district includes the site. “We just want work to stop and to get the information we need to do something there. Unless we have a purpose for that property, it’s really just an eyesore.”
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