While Burrell Ellis has his head in the sand, some commissioners are attempting to make budget plans should Brookhaven become a city in July. Should it pass, the Police Fund could lose $16.5 million or the equivalent of 233 full-time positions.
The practicable thing to do is make necessary cuts, but instead, a property tax of 9.3 to 11.4 percent is more likely.
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Friday, April 20, 2012
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23 comments:
Why do some people think that Burrell Ellis has his head in the sand, when realistically, there is nothing in that head at all. Air is the only thing taking up space along with ego.
CEO BE is nothing more than a carbon copy of VJ. Take a look at Lee Mays who forgets how he voted on items on the commission. I do not see how the Bankruptcy Court could allow him to file bankrupcty so many times in such a short time span.
The citizens of the unincorporated parts of the screwed up county are going to pay higher taxes because of no choice.
The bungling idiots in Decatur threaten to cut 223 police officers, when in fact, they have NEVER laid off anyone in the past.
If and when Brookhaven becomes a city, those officers from the North Precinct will be blended into other precincts, thus reducing the number of vacancies that have accruing in the last year or so.
The end result will be no lay offs and higher taxes for those in unincorporated Dekalb county.
No surprise here. The BOC will not raise taxes again after the beat down they recently received on the latest increase. It's an election year and they know raising taxes isn't the thing to do if they wish to remain in power. They know this. Layoff's are also off the table too. I'm willing to bet that if the City of Brookhaven passes (and it will pass) you'll see another early-out retirement program for those with 20 years or more. This will free up a lot of positions, there is no tax increase, there is no layoff's and there isn't a reduction in service. The County actually can reright the sinking ship with another retirement program. This will create the proper balance of employees needed to fully function as an operating body within the county. The BOC can stand up in front of the cameras and say "I was able to keep your jobs even after the racist City of Brookhaven did us all wrong."
It's a win for those that have the time, the rest of us are screwed as we'll never make it.
If they do another opt out who will they give it to? Supervisors...three year mpos...it's getting harder to find badges below 2800...
Too many DeKalb residents and taxpayers have no clue as to what is
about to happen. You would almost
believe that the AJC BELONGS to Burrell Ellis. Unless when reporting the Brookhaven and Avondale exit,the consequences and
effect must be explained.
Its time to march.
Passive Homeowners Associations,
activist groups must show up
Brookhaven will not pass!!! Jacobs is a self serving politician. People see his agenda and are mad that he is manipulating the populous into his fifedom. These guys are no better than Ellis.
If Brookhaven incorporates, the county's police fund will lose enough money to pay for 233 full time police officers?? How many DeKalb Officers are assigned to Brookhaven?? Brookhaven is 1, maybe 2 territories in North Precinct, but their tax revenue pays for more than two entire precincts. Yeah, I'd be ticked off too if I paid for 233 officers and only 8 or 9 for an entire week!! Maybe the rest of the county needs to start pulling its own weight!
In regard to the guy above me, property taxes don't work in terms of whether you're "pulling your weight." It's a question of how much the property is worth. Brookhaven is disproportionately wealthy compared to other unincorporated areas. So, they pay a lot of taxes. Of course, if Brookhaven is incorporated, that money will no longer be there. So, the county government will have to lay people off and/or raise taxes on the unincorporated areas. It's going to trigger more of these incorporations.
Just offer another early out for Police only with 20 years of service and that will help get rid of some salaries fast.
No more early outs! Leave my pension alone!
The pension will be fine. The best thing to do is open up a long term window for all workers reaching age 50 with a combine 25 years of service and allow them to leave with a full pension. There will never be a problem with having too many people on the payroll. The county has shot itself in the foot by having a retirement system that keeps people for too long before being able to retire and live out their lives after a long time working. 25 years is stil a lot of time and years to give to any one place as a job.
Anon 11:04, thank you for disagreeing and agreeing with 9:38PM at the same time, and adding absolutely nothing to the discussion. When such a small segment of the county can break off, but have such dire consequences for the rest of the county, something is wrong! When 40,000 people are footing the bill for almost 700,000 people, something isn't right! DeKalb needs to stop catering to the leeches, and start trying to attract members of society. You can't keep taking from Brookhaven and Dunwoody to try to solve the problems of South DeKalb! That's why they're trying to leave! To the rest of the county, Shape Up or Ship Out!
But even it's a town why would they not pay county taxes because the city would still be in Dekalb county.
I suggest cutting the entire DCTV budget. No one watches it, it only does self serving promotion for Boorell and the numb nuts on the commission. Nothing but puff pieces about how great DeKalb is. Well, my buddy was pistol whipped a few nights ago, followed home by a gang. His car stolen and he ended up with several stitches in his head. Odd, DCTV didn't carry a story about that.
DCTV is a waste of money.
Next on the chopping block should be the racially exclusive "Porter Sanford Center." Do they realize not everyone in this county is black? Have they done anything that celebrates any other group? Chinese? Japanese? Vietnamese? Mexicans? Spanish? Italians? Irish? English? Your tax dollars at waste!
A lot to talk about on this issue.
DeKalb employees have been watching this game too long to be fooled by the BS laid out by DeKalb political leadership.
The AJC fails reports that although all county departments were asked to cut back five percent last year. "Several Constitutional offices were among those that overspent last year, including the 5.5 percent overage by District Attorney Robert James. Only Ellis’ office, at 9 percent, was more in the red."
All departments are required to cut back, but CEO Ellis overshot his own departments budget by 9 percent?
Can anyone see the hypocrisy in DeKalb political leadership? Especially the fracken' AJC?
The CEO and BOC refuse to seriously negotiate with Brookhaven citizens, just like they refused to negotiate with Dunwoody. We all saw the negative results to DeKalb Government and positive effect on Dunwoody citizens local government satisfaction.
The BOC is too egotistical to realize they made a serious mistake following Vernon Jones lead on the Dunwoody.
Someone needs to take the "cluebat" (metaphorically) to these people running DeKalb government.
Best of luck guys and gals!
KenC
I watch the BOC meetings on DCTV on a regular basis. Very informative.
Loosing Dunwoody and Brookhaven is absolute complete incompetence on the part of the Dekalb County. Seeing this, I would want to leave too. How cabn these incompetent bureaucrats look themselves in the mirror?
The BOC is telling a flat out lie to the communtiy by saying that if Brookhaven is voted into cityhood, and Doraville and Chamblee incorporate the small pockets of neighborhoods left in the North precint territories, that 233 police officers will be cut. North doesn't have 233 officers assigned to the precinct.
This is a scare tactic to get voters to vote "No" on the bill or are they telling us that it really is true they haven't been giving the North residents what they've been paying for all these years!
Attention people don't buy this sh*t no one got laid off when Dunwoody left. Do the math, one or two officers assigned to Brookhaven on any given shift, people quitting and retiring everyday, 100 plus vacancies, no one is getting laid off. Just won't be 10 units working the school zone every afternoon.
Anon 2:20, no, north precinct doesn't have 233 officers assigned to it. That's the why those areas want to incorporate. They are paying for 233 officers! If they leave, that's how much money the county loses!
The minimum # assigned to the area called Brookhaven is 3 (161,171 and 191) but more typically it's 4 officers and a sgt working 24/7. The rest of the shift usually has 3 or 4 additional officers and a sgt who typically work in a territory associated with Brookhaven b/c of the call volume. During peak days/hours add the robbery/narc team containing Lt, Sgt and 5 officers (b/c the perps still show up in mass to rob the hispanic community along Buf Hwy) also work the Brookhaven area. Well my math ain't great but that puts a few more than 2 officers working North Precinct's area known as Brookhaven. North is alot less busy than any other precinct but by other department's standards it's busy. And there's alot of killa places to eat!
To be sure, the 223 figure is just a scare tactic. Maybe what they ought to be thinking about is cutting down the catered lunches from 5 days a week to just 4.
As far as Brookhaven,paying the bulk of the taxes, the same is true anywhere else. The metro Atlanta area taxes pretty much fund the rest of the State. If the State had to figure incarceration into what a region paid, then it would be more likely that you would stand a better chance going to prison for committing a crime in the metro area, than in the sticks. It stands to reason that if you spent big bucks on a house, you're going to pay higher taxes. If Brookhaven incorporates they are going to have to go down to Buford Hwy. and pick up some less desirable areas. Then their PD is going to be spending all of their time in the undesirable areas answering the bs calls. Brookhaven would be better off becoming a township, where they could control their own zoning, but would not have to fund their own PD.
With Brookhaven coming and so many officers leaving, they recently had us complete and "Officer Retention Survey" that was to be used to justify using confiscated drug money to buy take home cars for MPO and above.
Whatever happened with the "can't miss presentation"?
I took the survey to be another "look, we care for you and are trying" ploy designed to quiet the troops for a short time.
So what gives...they were all gung ho and now nothing... NOT SURPRISED and This is what I EXPECTED.
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