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Barry Amos is at it againIts hard to keep a good bureaucrat down. Fired just 12 months ago from Tyrone, in part for changing zoning laws that took away property rights for downtown redevelopment, Barry became Stone Mountain’s new City Manager. In less than 9 months on the job a business owner has a legal problem with Stone Mountain for the same reasons Tyrone is being sued. Bill & Gail Finnie, owners of Stone Mountain’s Continental Coffee & Sweets Shoppe had to go to court to keep Barry from tearing down their building and destroying their business in the name of redevelopment which is supposed to bring in more business, while running off existing businesses. But a Dekalb County Superior Court Judge has said no to Barry and the Council. This is the second such case in the last year that Courts have ruled against local governments. Fairburn lost an identical case in Fulton County in 2008. It is clearly against the law to use redevelopment as an excuse to violate property rights. Even with 100’s of legal precedents against this type of illegal actions by governments, Tyrone is hell bent on using taxpayers’ money to fight their lawsuit to the bitter end. The Courts use a formula to determine damages in these type of cases which is based on time. The longer a government violates property rights, the more they have to pay property owners. Most governments try to quickly settle such disputes to avoid large judgments. But Tyrone likes to gamble with taxpayers money. Margot's blog | login to post comments![]() |