Gwinnett Buzz

While I have been largely out of the loop recently, I did follow the Gwinnett property tax hike battle.  I want to take a moment to note how pleased I am that my fellow Gwinnett residents were so upset over this proposal.  In this new era of big government, big spending, and likely higher taxes, it was refreshing to see that Washington’s line of thinking won’t fly in Gwinnett.

On this topic, I found this article in the AJC comparing the reaction of City of Atlanta residents to Gwinnett County residents over similar property tax increase proposals to be very telling.

Kudos, Gwinnett!  Remain vigilant and keep our elected officials accountable!

I want to first apologize to my readers for my lack of updates in recent weeks.  A lot has been going on in Gwinnett during the month of May, and, unfortunately, I have struck out on providing timely, insightful commentary.  I have had other demands on my time from my non-blogging life recently.  Hopefully, I can begin to better balance these pulls and resume providing the content that you have come to expect from the Buzz.  As always, thanks for reading and for being patient!

The second of two garbage haulers awarded contracts under Gwinnett’s socialized garbage program has sued Gwinnett County.  Advanced Disposal is seeking “$40 million in damages against the county and the agency that oversaw the operation’s start-up” to cover expenses incurred in ramping-up to serve Gwinnett residents forced by the Board of Commissioners to use Advanced’s services.

While I remain vehemently opposed to the board’s socialistic garbage program, I cannot argue against the suits being brought by Advanced Disposal and Waste Pro.  Love or hate the solid waste ordinance, these businesses made good faith efforts to prepare to fulfill their contracts with the county.  Though I hate that Gwinnett taxpayers will ultimate be on the hook for any settlements or awards in these cases, we only have our county commissioners to blame for foisting this program upon the citizens of Gwinnett.  Their abysmal leadership on this matter should be front of mind when any member of this gang stands for reelection.  Firing them is our best recourse.

The Gwinnett County School Board has scheduled two public hearings for its 2010 budget.  The first meeting is tonight at the Instructional Support Center on Old Peachtree Road in Suwanee.  The second meeting will be May 14 before the board meeting where a vote will be taken on the budget.

The big point of emphasis here is that, despite growth in the budget of 5.4 percent, the board managed to avoid raising property taxes.  With the county portion of Gwinnett property tax bills expected to increase, this is good news.  In an ideal world, newcomers to Gwinnett who are driving the need for nine new schools should have to shoulder the bulk of the cost to build these facilities.  Furthermore, families with children enrolled in a Gwinnett school should pay a nominal tax surcharge to reflect the greater value they receive from the school system.  Nevertheless, holding the line on tax rates is the most we can realisticly expect, so kudos to the school board for not dipping further into taxpayer wallets.

Tuesday night, the Gwinnett County Commission approved a waste transfer station on Alcovy Industrial Boulevard in Dacula.  What struck me about this decision was not whether the approval was warranted from a land use perspective.  I appreciate that waste transfer stations are difficult questions for commissioners.  In similar projects in the past, I have seen legitimate arguments for the board to vote either way.  I do not know the particulars of the Dacula project but those details and whether the case should have ultimately been approved is not why I felt compelled to comment.  I must question part of the rationale Commissioner Mike Beaudreau offered in his opposition to the project.

“I’m firmly against this proposal,” Beaudreau said. “With roughly 14 transfer stations already in Gwinnett County, we’re really getting into the speculative business here and approving something speculative in nature.”

To imply that the commission should base its decision on whether a proposed business venture is “speculative” suggests a view of government as marketplace arbiter.  This is not the role of the Gwinnett County government.  Whether the approved transfer station is speculative, whether there is too much or too little competition in Gwinnett’s waste transfer marketplace, these are business questions.  Such questions are best answered by the free market, not Mike Beaudreau.  The question before the Gwinnett Board of Commissioners should be only be considered from a land use angle.

As I have discussed numerous time on the Buzz, our elected officials should limit the considerations for their decisions to whether a project has a material impact on other nearby land owners.  Unforunately, MIke Beaudreau seems to view the role of government as larger than it should be.  While there is little the residents of District 3 can do at this point, Beaudreau’s sympathy to government interference in the free market should be noted should he run either for reelection or for higher office in the future.  This type of big-government advocacy from Republicans is what has caused seriously weakened the national party, thus opening the door for the hard-left, socialistic policies of the Democrats that are being being slickly packaged for a naive American public.  Demanding limited government from elected Republicans is not just a national issue, but something that must start at home with local officials.

The Atlanta Falcons will hold its second annual “Friday Night Lights” preseason scrimmage August 7 at Brookwood High School.  Admission will be free.  An interesting tidbit is that this will be the first “home” game for Brookwood alum and Falcons kicker, Jason Elam.  When Elam was a Bronco, Brookwood played their home games at Parkview.

Coca-Cola will hold its annual shareholders meeting Wednesday at Gwinnett Center in Duluth.  Unfortunately, attendees will have to put up with some uninvted guests.  A radical left wing group (is there any other kind of left wing group?) plans to protest Coke’s alleged killing, oppressing, polluting, blah, blah, blah…

Here is a tip for anyone that might be going.  The best way to deal with radicals such as the “Campaign to Stop Killer Coke” who live in these anti-capitalist, anti-corporate fantasy worlds…IGNORE THEM.  All they are after is attention and if they don’t get it, they will simply go away.

This is another story that has been sitting in my queue for a few weeks, but I thought it was important to highlight not just the exciting development news but primarily to point out what a breath of fresh air new Commissioner Shirley Lasseter has been.  Last month, the Gwinnett County Commission approved the “construction of twin residential highrises on the south side of [Gwinnett Place] mall.”  I think this is an excellent project that could potentially spur revitalization in the decaying Gwinnett Place area.  For this reason, I cannot understand why Sears Roebuck opposed these towers.  The company would have apparently preferred the area to remain strictly zoned for businesses.  In fact, I would think that such a development would be beneficial to Sears by increasing potential customer traffic in the vicinity as well as making the overall mall area more attractive to shoppers that may now opt for Perimeter Mall or Mall of Georgia.  Regardless, I feel the company’s opposition holds little merit as I fail to see a negative material impact on the retailer.  However, the biggest takeaway from this story is the job that Shirley Lasseter is doing.

You may recall that Lasseter’s predecessor, Lorraine Green, had opposed a similar - if not the same - high-rise project in 2007.  Green, in her typical unfriendly position on private property rights, said at the time:

“We realize that [the area] has to have a little work done,” Commissioner Lorraine Green said. “But … if we let everybody come in and do hodgepodge developments with every 3 or 4 acres, we won’t be better off.”

Contrast this to the more reasonable (and common-sense) approach taken by Commissioner Lasseter:

District 1 Commissioner Shirley Lasseter said she backed the project “in hopes that this will bring a new start to that mall and to the CID and to Gwinnett County.”

Lasseter’s view was echoed by Gwinnett Place CID executive director, Joe Allen.

What a refreshing change in District 1!  Commssioner Lasseter is thusfar showing courage in her decisions along with a definite appreciation for property rights along.  Her judgment in the high-rise proposal shows that she brings a healthy dose of common sense to boot!  To date, she has been a significant upgrade over Lorraine Green.  Keep up the good work, Shirley!

I am a Gwinnettian.  Though technically not a native (I lived in Dekalb County for my first four years), I have lived in Gwinnett virtually my entire life.  If I did not have a soft spot for my county, I would not have bought my first home here nor would I invest my time in publishing the Buzz.  That being said, once I step foot outside of Georgia, I am an Atlantan.  Someone in Alabama or Florida neither knows nor cares where Gwinnett is but they sure know Atlanta.  In fact, even here in our own city, the concept of “Atlanta native” is far more commonly heard than “<insert county> native.”  The point is this: as much as I care about Gwinnett County, Gwinnett is simply a part of the whole that is Atlanta, which is a top tier U.S. and - and by virtue of the 1996 Olympics - international city.  However, last night, with the first home game of the Gwinnett Braves, our county symbolically took a step back from this illustrious association.

For my entire life, Atlanta has been a major league city, home to a minimum of three major professional sports teams at any given time.  Unfortunately, Gwinnett apparently thought being part of such a city was not sufficient and, as such, decided to hitch its wagon to a minor league horse.  In doing so, Gwinnett has attempted to more closely identify itself with second-tier cities such as Durham, NC, Louisville, KY, Norfolk, VA, and Syracuse, NY.  For these cities, a AAA minor league baseball team is a big deal for they do not have the luxury of being home to a major league franchise and all that brings.  So, what can a minor league baseball team bring to Gwinnett County?  Do our county commissioners, who crammed the stadium through, fancy themselves as “mayors” of a twin “city” to Atlanta?  Surely not!  Gwinnett is hardly Ft. Worth to Atlanta’s Dallas.  Gwinnett has many positive aspects, but it is merely a suburban county whose identity is largely tied to being a part of the Atlanta metro area.  Unlike a city seeking a major league sports franchise, a minor league team can bring little cachet to Gwinnett County.  Thus, the only significant benefit that the Gwinnett Braves can bring to our county is simply that of another entertainment option.

While being an entertainment outlet is not a wholly unworthy cause for an organization’s existence, this benefit is significantly degraded when one recalls how the team’s stadium was shoved down Gwinnett taxpayers’ throats.  Gwinnett County cannot build a police precinct or a school without a referendum on the tax initiative funding such a project.  However, Gwinnett commissioners committed the taxpayer to an excessive investment for Gwinnett Stadium with a mere commission vote.  This expenditure looks all the more foolhardy in light of a looming tax increase due to the inability of the commission to balance the county budget.  This is precisely the kind of fiscal irresponsibility by elected officials that tea parties across the country are protesting.  Maybe the next Atlanta Tea Party should be in the parking lot of the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center!

So when the G(overnment-funded) Braves took the field last night at the sparkling Gwinnett (Taxpayers’) Stadium, rather than being a great moment for Gwinnett, it was a moment to memorialize government excess and to lament the symbolic downgrade of our county from part of a world class city to a second-tier minor league community.  For Gwinnett, April 17, 2009 will be the day that Gwinnett County was sent back to the minors.

Last night, I attended the Atlanta Tea Party in the streets surrounding the state capital building in Atlanta.  I was pleased to see speeches from two Gwinnett legislators during the festivities preceding the airing of “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel.  Rep. Melvin Everson (R-Snellville) and Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth) both took the stage to address the 15,000+ throng that showed up.  Rep. Everson was a very powerful and fiery speaker!  I particularly liked Sen. Shafer’s comment about how Republicans were punished last fall but not because they were too conservative!

For those of you who are my Facebook friend, I have already posted photos and one video from last night.  For those who are not, I will try to get those same images and videos posted to Flickr and YouTube soon.