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Sheriff-Chairman face-off; PTC predictions Opinions about local stuff, not necessarily in order of importance: Sheriff versus County Commission chairman on accounting for federally-dispensed drug forfeiture money: Gentlemen, gentlemen, please. The county sheriff’s department has a drug squad that participates in multi-county investigations and property seizures. Until now, the department has spent the federally-audited money for undercover vehicles, surveillance equipment and a very public helicopter. Chairman Greg Dunn and other commissioners, for some stated reasons and probably a lot of unstated ones, want the county financial department to count those beans and account for all the property bought with the drug seizure proceeds. The sheriff traded in some drug-money-funded vehicles for some new wheels without telling the county commission, and the chairman sent three county employees to the dealership to repossess the county-titled vehicles. That led to an intimidating number of deputies to a big-time traffic stop of the three employees and interrogations while in custody. Not a pretty picture, even if missile-silo-sized egos are in play here. Guys, you look foolish. On the sheriff’s side: Foolish stop, foolish interrogation and foolish intimidation. On the commission’s side: foolish confrontations, foolish public displays of out-sized egos run amok, foolish and childish governmental example of “He took my toy”; “No, it’s my toy!” Fayette County can do better. You guys pointing your weapons at each other from the county office building to the sheriff’s department absolutely need to do better. Take it private, guys. Work out your differences in a mature, adult way. There is a middle ground that will work for both sides. Find it. Voters might punish both sides if both sides have too much pride and ego to seek reconciliation. Chairman Dunn, if you really want to be sheriff, run for the office. If you really want to run a county police department, say so, publicly. Stop hiding behind a controversy that you mostly manufactured yourself. Sheriff, if you don’t want the public checking out your expenditures, retire to private life. As long as you are a public official, expect the public to want to know how you are handling public money. Drug seizure money is public money, whether it’s got a “federal” label on it or not. The public deserves an accounting. *** First considerations before the rookie Peachtree City Council: Monopolize garbage pickup, raise golf cart fees, approve a dense residential development on the city’s western side, and prepare to make homeowners pay for rainwater runoff. If this is what the voters really wanted when they voted last fall, they are getting it in spades. Results: Even a rookie council in a majority Republican city recognizes the dangers inherent in a monopoly (although former Maine resident Judi-ann Rutherford voted to take away residents’ right to choose their own provider). They raised cart fees. They approved a development that the last council tabled. Now we get 23 homes on less than 8.5 acres on the city’s west side. And they take their advice on stormwater issues from the engineering firm that will be paid for developing the utility to handle rainwater runoff. My, my, my. And this is just the first few weeks’ work product for the new council. Look for these issues to bubble up out of the city bureaucracy: 1. A renewed push for a 1,000-acre-plus Westside annexation with multiple thousands of first-time residents and double that number of vehicles pouring from two outlets onto Ga. highways 54 and 74. Traffic and school overcrowding issues will be shushed away or downplayed. Reason given: To develop county land to Peachtree City standards as a protective measure for our borders. That rationale, if followed logically, would take PTC all the way eastward to Fayetteville and all the way south to Brooks. 2. Rezoning and converting multiple dozens of acres now zoned industrial into high-density residential developments. How? First the council-picked land use committees will be tasked with “overhauling” the city’s land use plan. Once they change the land use map to be more developer-friendly, the first rezoning requests will begin to pour in. Look for them to be approved, with the council ruefully explaining that since the land use map calls for such development, the council really has no choice but to go along. 3. “Redevelopment” as the new buzzword. Older areas, including commercial and church areas, will be considered for newer, updated and invariably more intense use. You won’t believe what commercial and residential developments the next four years will bring to PTC. And you won’t like most of them. 4. The independent water and sewer authority seeking new customers — outside PTC. Reason given: more capacity than is needed for city use. More money needed to keep rates from increasing even more than they will. Senoia, across the line in Coweta County, wants to tap on so they can put ever more residents on ever-smaller lots. Why not Tyrone? Why not sewer the county? Oh, my, my, my. Happy new year. login to post comments | Cal Beverly's blog
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