With that said, one of the most intriguing races is the one for State House, District 79 to replace Fran Millar, who is running for State Senate. It pits former Dunwoody City Councilman Tom Taylor against Tammy Anderson, the wife of Dunwoody City Attorney Brian Anderson. Both have deep roots in the community with a history of stepping to the plate. Both played a role in getting the city of Dunwoody started. As a councilman, Tom was instrumental in the start up of the police department and helping the city procure its parks from DeKalb County. Tammy has not held an elected position, but she helped write the charter that created the City of Dunwoody.
In reading through their web pages and from material gathered from other sites, Tom seems focused on the state adopting a strict zero-based budget. Tammy's top priority appears to be gaining local control of our public schools.I don't think we can go wrong with either candidate. It's simply a matter of what you deem most important to our community. For me it would be an obvious decision if I was backing a candidate based on their collegiate allegiance (like myself, Tammy is a graduate of the University of Texas). Unfortunately, it's not that easy.
As for the race for Governor, according to a poll in Thursday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Roy Barnes has a commanding lead on the Democratic side, while John Oxendine holds a slim lead in the Republican primary. Click AJC to read the accompanying story.
10 comments:
Let me make my comments on your blog, first! King John is hosting a fight between Glory_Jackson and Famous Farmhouser and Rick Callihan is roasting "chickens in a bag" while he says some good things.
When will someone face up to the City Council and demand that they focus their attention on other, important aspects of being a city??? This Council will go out of its way to address and expand public safety services (police, fire, and EMS) but hasn't done one thing about infrastructure and roadways. Sure, they have a repaving plan and maybe sometime in the next few weeks we'll see some actual pavement laid, but there is no,none, NADA planning for intersection evaluation and/or improvement, traffic flow enhancement, or other features that would make Dunwoody a more livable and commercially viable suburban city.
Keeping single-family residences the predominant (although just barely!) housing option in Dunwoody is one thing, but avoiding the real source of revenue growth for the City (the Perimeter and local businesses)has got to be a higher priority than taking over a fire department and/or 911 center and ultimately devoting 50-70% of the City's budget to these services.
It's interesting that Council would broach a 1 mil tax increase for fire and EMS, but they'd never think to ask for a similar 1 mil tax increase for road improvement!!
Dunwoody had a reasonably low crime rate and property loss rate before the City came into being, and for all the good work the Dunwoody police have done, we haven't cut crime in half (even though we've doubled or tripled the amount of patrol officers) and spending an additional $1-$1.5MM to control the occasional fire and EMS response (any statistics out there?) just can't compare with spending that $1.5 MM on improving the intersection at Womack and Tilly Mill, Peeler, N.Peachtree, and Tilly Mill, etc. in the short term.
As others have said before, it's time for the Mayor and the City Council to stop acting like a Home Owners' Association and start to act like a City government.
Chip
Chip,
I've mentioned this before to council that more money should be spend on road improvements and less on police, but council simply doesn't agree. All good people with a difference of opinion. Hopefully it doesn't come back to bite us!
Chip,
I love the comment! LOL. Yes, I do put chicken in a bag as a method of food preparation. But it's more than just a bag, come on.
You're not mad because you did not win a Smoking Bag are you (I have one extra to spare, you should try it. email me and we'll hook up for the exchange)? I thought that was one of my better posts this week.
If I posted only on the city council stuff I'd lose half of my readers. If I posted only about beer and chickens in a bag, I'd lose the other half. I'm trying to mix it up a bit. The blog thing takes lots of work. I sat through that meeting Monday for five hours. And they took out the water fountain that used to be outside the council chambers!
It is hard (and probably not appropriate) for John H to post critical things about his own council, and Bob F. needs his beauty sleep. That leaves me and The Crier, and Glory Jackson I guess.
You are welcome to write a blog entry once a week (or whenever) and I'll post it on my site, giving you full credit. Come football season (Go Steelers) I'll be missing some of those Monday meetings.
You can simply watch the live feed of the meeting, or show up in person for part of it. I think there is plenty of room for a new blog as well. Come join the fun.
Regards,
Rick
the chicken cooker
Bob,
Aside from the endorsement of Eric Johnson for governor (I actually took down that post since I am now voting for Nathan Deal, after seeing the AJC poll results)I don't think I have endorsed anyone yet. Stay tuned later this week though.
Also, what are your thoughts on the redistricting of Dunwoody elementary schools?
Rick
Rick,
You're right - I do need my beauty sleep! As for the redistricting, you know I'm getting my ammo ready - ready to come back at you with my guns loaded!
Rick, now you know better than to bring up "redistricting"....LOL.
Rick:
You mean I could be a sort-of "DunwoodyTalk" press corp, covering the City Council....does the fedora and a "Press" card for the hat-band come with this position?? I've already got the nubbed pencil, steno pad, and sleeve protectors!!!
I'm almost ready to accept, except (that's a strange grammatical construct) that I've noted we've already gone "off point" in the lovefest between Blogger Bob F. and Dunwoody Mom and you about schools. It's hard to corral cats, I'm told.....
Anybody but lonely ole me out there who thinks we ought to spend some money on roads and curb the growth in public safety spending until we actually demonstrate it's a need-to-have versus a want?
I'll be in touch via email over the weekend.
Chip
So Rick endorses or drops his support based on AJC poll results? That seems a bit spineless.
Anon,
my original choice was ray mcberry (a few months ago) but he is still around 2%, so I think my vote would be put to better use. I'm happy with Deal or Johnson, but not Handel or Oxendine.
Anon,
Posting as 'Anon' is my idea of spineless
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