A few thoughts if you please
The 2010 midterm elections are approaching fast, and the there are so many candidates and offices up for election that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Endorsements are rolling in from groups and individuals whose motives are unknown at best. There are a lot of offices up for grabs for South DeKalb voters, so here is my rundown on some of them.
I haven’t spent much time on the 13th district race, but I have to say this; I hope David Scott loses. Why, you ask? Well to start he doesn’t even live in the district. He would rather fight community gardens in Inman Park than live and play around the people he is supposed to represent. If you need more reasons, just Google him and then tell me you still support the guy.
The folks over at Crossroads News have been on point as of late. A series of articles taking the county to task about it’s roadside maintenance has reaped some benefits. In the past few weeks, I have seen not only county workers, but volunteers and community service folks cleaning up major thoroughfares in South DeKalb. One weekend I saw so many orange bags waiting to be picked up I had to wonder where all the trash came from. Now it is up to citizens to do their part. Trash strewn streets and waist high grass is an eyesore and shows a lack of pride in ones own backyard.
Thanks go to a DeKalb police officer who responded to my neighbors alarm. I came home one day and my neighbors alarm was going off I knew she was out of the country and had a home sitter while she was gone. I walked around the house and saw nothing out of place. I called her alarm company since I did not have the house sitters info, and advised them. They told me they saw the alarm, but it was a motion and not a window or door but would call police anyway. When the police arrived about 15 minutes later, the officer checked things out and alerted the alarm company who killed the alarm. The officer was polite and actually thanked me for alerting the alarm company. I wish I had gotten his name because all the crap that he police put up with, he took the time to be polite and friendly.
Lats but not least. The county needs to work on it’s documents depot. That is where average folk like you and me can go to see many of the documents that help us keep track of our elected officials. My beef with the DocDepot is that minutes from BOC meetings are never up to date. In fact if you go there right now, you will not see any minutes from BOC meetings since early July. I know that the minutes have to be approved by the CEO and there are some other additional hoops before they can be published, but there has to be a faster way. You will find agendas and summaries but no minutes. The minutes offer details that summaries and agendas do not. You would think that meeting minutes from August would be posted by now. In this day and age, information moves at the speed of light, but in government, it still moves at a snails pace.
I cannot for the life of me understand why people in the 4th Congressional District still support Hank Johnson. Can’t you see that Ms.Carter is exactly right. $700+ billion was spent on a stimulus package that hasn’t done a thing to stimulate the economy. It was $700 billion for special interests/political paybacks. Hank Johnson voted for this and where are the jobs???? Why couldn’t they spend some money on much needed infrastructure improvements that would have provided jobs. Now the democrats can’t make a decision on taxes and the entire business community is waiting to see how any tax changes will affect them before they hire additional personnel. Can’t you see that this indecision is bad for our local economy and the job market? Can’t you see that the repeal of the Bush tax cuts would be devastating to the economy and the jobs situation? These are common sense issues, but Hank Johnson and his fellow democrats can’t make common sense decisions. They’ve driven us deeper and deeper into debt and we don’t have a thing to show for it. The health care issue should should have never been addressed until our people were back at work and the economy was healthy again. Again, Hank Johnson and the dems cannot priortize their agenda. Please, please, please give somebody else a chance to make things better. Please consider looking past party politics and voting for someone who truly wants to help. Please vote for somebody who knows how to help. Please vote for Liz Carter next week. If you have read this, thank you!!!
Jim Redovian voted to give Crawford Lewis a contract and then a $15,000 raise while cutting all DCSS employees’ pay. He voted to cut teacher positions and increase class sizes. He approved all the changes that Pat Pope/Reid proposed without so much as a question. I’d say he has plenty of “dirt” all on his own. Mr. Redovian did not show up at any of the forums that EduKalb sponsored to debate Ms. Jester (who showed up for every one of them), yet EduKalb endorsed him. Amazing! I guess you don’t have to show up dressed to play.
Nancy Jester is very much like Donna Edler. They are stay-at-home moms with kids in the DeKalb School System. They have been leaders in their children’s schools, tirelessly working in the trenches. They both have excellent financial backgrounds (actuarial for Ms. Jester, accounting for Ms. Edler). They both are committed to spending tax dollars wisely and honestly and looking at what benefits the students of DeKalb County as the bottom line. We could really use both of these women on the BOE.
I agree with you about Mr. Nooks and Mr. Wilson. They also have children in the system, and I know Corey Wilson has been a leader at Oakview.
I’m not as impressed with Ella Smith, but will vote for her over Walker because of Walker’s close ties with Lewis and the fact that he went along with all of the expenditures of Lewis and Pat Pope/Reid (so did Redovian and the rest of the BOE, but unfortunately they are not up for re-election). I also didn’t like the fact that he tried to get Sembler Corp. (who funded his school board campaign to the tune of thousands of dollars) out of paying millions of dollars worth of taxes that would go to benefit schools and our students.