Wednesday, April 25, 2012
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25 comments:
Sounds like how Fulton County PD was starting to get phased out of North Fulton County several years ago. Residents in Chattahoochee Hills were so fed up with FCPD, they opted to contract Fulton Sheriff Deputies to patrol until they got their department up and running.
Dekalb, its too late to care. Why waste the funds to build the North Office in an area that will be a city? Let the election happen first, then proceed with either finding another location or constructing it on their site. One thing about police precients is that its no guarantee that they will be fully staffed 24/7.
Fulton told this to the Fulton Industrial community after a property owner was willing to donate the office space.
Again, its all bullshit. Everyone needs to leave Dekalb County. Employees and the citizens that live there... "M Happy and Gone"
Ellis doesn't believe Brookhaven is going to incorporate on this upcoming vote (as stated in this video clip). Well he has his head in the sand. Its a relatively sure bet that Brookhaven will separate from the county. The issue at the forefront is Police presence. Sure there may be other issues, such as the recent 26% property tax increase, but the biggest issue, as it was with Dunwoody was "we want more police". Areas of Brookhaven are currently paying officers to work extra jobs there already, proving my point.
With the CEO's nonchalant attitude and false confidence that Brookhaven will remain unincorporated is foolish and a bit arrogant. As with Dunwoody, no communication or effort from the CEO or BOC to keep Brookhaven unincorporated will cost the County tens of millions in lost revenues. We can all be sure guys and gals that once again, we will get the shaft on any fallout from incorporation. You can definitely bet on that. Stay safe
-Anon 1118
They ought to send Dale Holmes, with a translator of course,to reach out to the citizens of Brookhaven. I bet that would change their vote
http://ashfordneighbors.org/
East Precinct is inside the City of Lithonia. Whats the big deal?
Anon 1118, the reason Brookhaven is wanting to incorporate has hardly anything to do with Police and/or fire. The residents there are the government moochers that rely on services and need 911 because their kid stole again.
The issue is the tax dollars they pay and how it is used. The BOC keeps wanting more and more money so they can keep buying their S. DeKalb votes. You have 2 BOC members that can't even run their own finances and we expect them to operate the county????
July 31st.....Hopefully some changes will come!!!
Isn't it interesting how Dick Elliot conveniently forgets to mention that if Brookhaven becomes a city they'll have their own police department. Instead he goes around scaring women into voting against cityhood. Then he puts Lil Vern on to make his brilliant prediction on the vote. Channel 2 and the AJC assign their stupidest reporters to DeKalb. And if by chance the reporter begins to wise up to the corruption and incompetence, their superiors reassign them or terminate them.
Oh like a bankrupt county needs to be building a building when we are losing territory to patrol. Geee no wonder we are going broke. Like those officers can't work out of Center or Tucker....dumb asses wasting money we don't have..Wonder who's pocket will benefit from the construction/contractor that gets the job?
One other small item, just like the South Precinct, N. Precinct is a major node for the counties INET fiber network. So moving both precincts is going to cost an additional 250 grand apiece to build a "bunker" with the enivironmentals and backups needed to run the thing.
The Inet team tried to locate the major nodes in facilities that the county would stay in for at least 20 years or more.
We thought the police precincts would be the ideal locations for the major nodes, never realizing just how stupid the county leaders would act, we never dreamed the county politicians would never refuse to negotiate with the citizens of Dunwoody and Brookhaven. We planned the INET as logically as possible. Never dreaming the politicians would screw us over at every turn.
More to come on that at the next post, this going to be long and reveal the basis of my long distrust with county leadership.
KenC
In 1993-1994, Ron Hart one of the true legands in DeKalb Government came up with the concept of leveraging the counties cable TV franchise contract with Media-one to include a massively large, redundant fiber network to be provided free by Media-one, the contract essentially stated that media-one would provide fiber as specified by the county to every facility the county owned, and included a growth allowance of five percent. There was also a penalty clause to complete the network in five years.
The concensus on the INET team was Media-one lawyers would spot our scheme and come back with a counter-offer of providing maybe 5-25 percent of the fiber requested at best. As I put it, "Hell guys the worst they can do to us is no."
Media-one lawyers proved they can make mistakes just like county employees and signed off on the contract.
Media-one was now legally obligated to provide 400 million dollars of fiber to the county for free.
Continues next post.
The INET team knew we had pulled off one of the greatest schemes in the history of DeKalb government, now we had to watch, wait and plan. Ron Hart came up with the fiber plan that offered triple redundancy to all critical sites, major nodes, major facilities, fire and police services.
AT&T bought at Media-one and then Comcast bought the franchise and realised they were facing a penalty clause of 1000 dollars a day in a year and a half, and made some very smart decisions. Legally they were bound to provide a very exensive fiber network to DeKalb government. Comcast management and engineers made the decission to incorperate the INET as part of a larger fiber network to service Comcast customers.
Work went forward immediately and I realized I was totally out of my league with the training I had. I went to night school that brought me some grief from my wife, It was basically network kindegarten but gave me the foundation to build upon. The INET project would be the crucible.
I was tasked with supervising the prototype of the INET. I had a vague idea of what we were doing. light up a bunch of fiber and route data. Luckily I had some consultants, contracters and some of the best network engineers in the world backing me. The prototyping was difficult with a steep learning curve. We learned and the prototype was a success.
The INET was on its way!
Now the politicians get into the mix.
Continued next post.
With the success of the INET prototype the commissioners approved the first phase of a three year project to light up the INET and provide redundant gigabit servide to all county facilities. By 2003 we completed the project for about 3.5 mill in equipment and several million to EMA our prime consultant.
EMA deserves some attention. They have been in DeKalb government stories recently.
EMA deserves recognition for providing some very smart advice and information to the INET team. The INET project would not have been as successful with out the guidance of the EMA consultant. The DeKalb IT director later played financial games to fund EMA, but that is not the fault of EMA.
Next, Vernon Jones steps in.
Continued next post.
Vernon didn't waste much time, around 2003 Comcast requested renogatiating the contract. CEO Jones was looking for some funding for an obscure project. I never found out what the project was.
Here is the basics.
DeKalb county had a contract with Comcast to provide DeKalb county government with a five percent growth of fiber optic network, free of charge. At 150 sites this provided the county with 7.5 additional sites a year free of charge to the county. Gigabit network fiber worth millions. Vernon didn't understand the implications. My director who did understand, was horrorfied of losing his job standing up to Vern on the issue.
The result, Jones got 300 grand from Comcast to fund his pet project that no one can even remember. County lost millions of dollars of free fiber network from Comcast.
I will continue this story on another day.
Best of luck, guys and gals!
KenC
Stop relying on rumors about the action of the BOC. Watch live or taped over the internet BOCTV,
Live, unedited coverage of most all the committee meetings every Tuesday.
Go to
www.dekalbboc.com com
for the agendas and imbedded video of previous meetings.
300k for a pet project. Hmmm that wouldn't be around the time he bought a farm and townhouse in Brookhaven would it?
Homeless?..... you don't need a precinct if you CAN'T staff it. Officers are leaving and getting fired faster than the county can spend good money to train them.
INET rolls.
Over the years we had some adventures with the INET, some idiot blew a hole through a cable that killed a chunk of the network. We had telephone pole get wiped out and ended up in the animal control retention pond where it resides to this day. Damn lucky no one got killed with that one, we had a redundant link to some fire-stations go down, when I arrived at the intermediate node, Ashford park, I was stunned to find the park building demolished and the fiber ruined. Facility management did not notify us of the demolition.
Precincts.
When we built the INET we endeavored to place the major nodes in facilities that would be around awhile. We thought the police precincts would be a good bet, with added security to boot. Hence, north, south and east precincts are some of the INETS major nodes. We never counted on the inherent stupidity of commissioners in this matter, with the secession of Dunwoody or upcoming secession of Brookhaven and upcoming loss of the N. Precinct, nor selling the S. Precinct to a developer.
South Precinct deserves some discussion because it reveals just how devious DeKalb government and DKPD can go when forced.
Continued next post.
I attended a meeting with Community Development where we learned that the S. Precinct had been sold to a developer in hopes of a redevelopment project for the intersection of Candler Rd. and Glenwood. While we were not particularly enthusiastic of the plan, as network engineers our jobs were to make things happen, and we came up with a plan. We would move the fiber to a "bunker" located on the planned park. Total cost to move the fiber and build the bunker was estimated at 250 grand. The project went nowhere as no money was available. A year later we got into several weeks of intense meetings and planning sessions as DKPD and the BOC had procured a federal grant to move and improve the crime scene unit to the old "Toys are us" facility.
Now this is where things get really murky and interesting.
DKPD had no intention of actually moving the CSU to the facility. Space was reserved for CSU but would not actually move. The plan was a cover for the real intent. Move S. Precinct to the old "Toys are us" building to be paid for by a federal grant.
It was a hurry-up project, the funding would disappear in six months. Both facilities management and myself had grave doubts as to the efficiency of the project, and I doubted its legality.
Thankfully the project went nowhere as the county could not scramble fast enough to plan and secure the funds.
Continued in next post.
The INET team was ready and had plans for the project, apparently others were not ready.
I was glad to see the project canned because I did not agree with defrauding the federal government for a Homeland Security grant. I was amazed that DKPD command staff would agree to such an unethical plan, Chief Bolton was in charge at the time so this provided some perspective on his ethics along with Commissioners who also approved.
Six months later I was retired.
I will make one last point.
Trust your instincts and ethics.
Never allow yourself to get involved in anything that is unethical.
The S. Precinct funding from the feds was unethical and probably illegal, I am glad the project failed.
Best of luck guys and gals!
KenC
Anyone know where I can get a take home for my J2 so that I can be more marketable for private security patrols. I can't afford to put a tank of gas in my pov to ride from apartment complex to night club to shopping center all night long making the rounds. At 3.85 a gallon I don't blame the private security companies, you have to save where you can.
Looking for a new North Precinct? Here is something that makes too much sense! Instead of building, why don't they move North Precinct to headquarters. Rename Center Precinct to North Precinct. I know what you all of you are thinking about,what about the echelons from North Precinct? Rumor is one is running for Sheriff in a different county. If he wins, don't replace him. The others can be filtered out throughout the county. Besides, once Brookhaven becomes a city, I am sure several DeKalb's finest will be hired by Brookhaven Police Department.
The other point I foresee in the future is that DeKalb County Police becomes DeKalb County Sheriff's. This county is shrinking or sinking at a fast rate. Someone better get a clue and realize building a new precinct isn't in the Budget!
To anon 4:59, try s.o.d. Just remember you will have to be a good boy and write your quota each day. The rewards are sweet don't let them beat you down, join them!
We've lost almost all of North precinct....save the money... have a North based at 34, a Tucker, a South and an East.
Do away with a Center.
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