State Sen. Kasim Reed continued his whirlwind tour of locales around South Fulton County earlier this week, conducting town hall meetings designed to inform residents on the move to consider incorporating South Fulton into the cities of South Fulton and Chattahoochee Hills and to answer questions on the measure.

Reed told residents Feb. 13 at the South Annex and again Feb. 15 at Rico Community Center that while he was not convinced that South Fulton County needed two new cities he had a moral obligation to make sure residents were given a choice to make that determination and the time to look at the facts and to vote.

The South Annex and Rico meetings were attended by overflow crowds, more than 300 at the South Annex and more than 200 at Rico. Large numbers at town meetings has become the norm since those meetings began several months ago. Residents’ questions and comments at recent meetings continue to focus more on incorporation and its outcomes rather than in opposition to it. That momentum was accelerated recently when Fulton County Commission voted to add 3 mills to the existing 4.731 millage rate.

Adding to the ongoing question of taxation, Reed said studies on that issue will soon be available and that the numbers will likely show that the new cities will be able to break even in three to four years. Specific answers to questions on what millage rates for the cities would be required will be furnished in plain dollar figures to avoid any confusion, he said.

One of the questions that continues to surface sporadically involves the rapidly shrinking time-frame alloted for the passage of bills to consider creating the cities. Reed, Commissioner Bill Edwards, Fulton County Blue-Ribbon Panel member Rex Renfrow and others have explained that the window of opportunity, set to expire this year, is due to a temporary suspension of the requirement that no city in Georgia can be established within three miles of an existing city. That requirement, suspended with the measure to incorporate Sandy Springs in 2005, has been declared a target of Georgia Municipal Association. GMA has stated its intention to ensure that the three-mile limit is restored in 2006 or 2007, thereby functionally negating any possibility of future incorporation efforts. Consequently, said Reed, bills must be introduced this session to ensure that residents have the right and the time needed to make an informed decision about their future.

A Rico area resident asked if the new cities would have to purchase facilities such as the Rico Community Center from Fulton County. Reed said the purchase of such facilities would have to be negotiated, adding that Commissioner Edwards could assist with those negotiations.

Responding to questions about the uncertainty of future services provided by Fulton County, Edwards said residents were correct to surface their concerns, adding that future possibilities only a handful of years from now would engender a clearer perspective of the lackluster funding realities residents currently face.

“You have been courageous people in the face of diminishing services,” Edwards said.

A question at the South Annex meeting centered on whether the creation of a third city that includes the Fulton Industrial area might be a viable possibility. Reed said that while many options are possible, the City of South Fulton would require the tax base supplied by the Fulton Industrial economic engine.

“If you have no Fulton Industrial, you have no city. The property tax would be four mills higher than Atlanta’s,” Reed said. “Oakley (Industrial) alone doesn’t do it.”

Reed said at both meetings that, in response to concerns that Atlanta might pursue annexing the Fulton Industrial Boulevard area, Mayor Shirley Franklin has said repeatedly that she will not pursue annexing Fulton Industrial.

Asked if there were any disadvantages to doing nothing to create the new cities, allowing instead the current unincorporation to continue, Reed gave a two-fold answer that spoke precisely to some of the reasons that initially gave rise to the idea of incorporation.

“If you can’t control the county commission you can’t control your future,” he said. “As for areas of South Fulton being annexed by other cities, I can hold it up for a while but I can’t hold it up forever.”

The bills to create the cities of South Fulton and Chattahoochee Hills can be viewed at www.legis.state.ga.us. The bills, SB 552 and SB 553, can be accessed by clicking on the “Legislation” area on the right side of the home page and entering the Senate Bill numbers in the search feature.

Reed’s bills and other information pertinent to the incorporation issues can be obtained at www.southfultonconcernedcitizens.org.

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