CrossRoadsNews, February 27, 2010

Page 1

FINANCE

WELLNESS

YOUTH

More than 400 business owners got information on available resources at a three-hour workshop sponsored by 4th District Congressman Hank Johnson. 5

The American Red Cross will be collecting blood and platelets from donors at locations in Decatur and Tucker on March 7. 6

Students at Lithonia Middle School have been collecting new and gently used shoes to send to children in Kumasi in Western Ghana. 9

Help for small business

Copyright © 2010 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.

Replenishing supplies

February 27, 2010

‘Soles for Souls’

Volume 15, Number 43

www.crossroadsnews.com

Superintendent steps down temporarily after raid By Jennifer Ffrench Parker

DeKalb Schools Superintendent Crawford Lewis stepped down temporarily from his post Thursday, in the wake of a surprise raid on his Stone Mountain home by DeKalb District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming. After an emergency executive session that lasted four hours, School Board members voted Thursday evening to accept his temporary departure from the job he has had for 5 years Crawford Lewis while the DA completes her investigation of possible wrongdoing in the district’s multi-million dollar school construction program. They appointed Ramona Tyson, deputy chief superintendent of business operations, to Ramona Tyson serve as interim superintendent beginning immediately. The board also voted to pay Lewis’ legal expenses and allow him to keep his $255,000 a year salary during his leave.

DeKalb Schools police guard parking lot outside the School System’s Central Offices on North Decatur Road Thursday while District Attorney investigators search the buildings.

Only Zepora Roberts, the board’s vice chair, abstained. She said the Board need to stand up and say it supports Lewis, who has been with the school system for 33 years. “Action speaks louder than words,” she said. “I am in support of him and would like to see him come back to work tomorrow.” The district is in the throes of balancing its 2011 budget in the face of an anticipated $88 million deficit. Board members were

to get details from Lewis at a 10:30 a.m. meeting on Friday about the 148 central office positions that he was proposing to cut. Board members are also considering tax increases, layoffs, furloughs and school closings. The meeting was cancelled Thursday after the raids. Investigators showed up at Lewis’ Southland subdivision home at 7:30 a.m., and during the five-hour search,

took boxes of documents and hard drives of computers from the home. School system spokesman Dale Davis said that warrants were served on the district offices shortly after 7 a.m. “We are fully cooperating in this investigation,” he said in a statement. Boxes of documents were also removed by investigators from the central offices. Keyes Fleming confirmed that search warrants were executed Thursday morning on Lewis’ Southland subdivision residence and on three school district buildings ­– Buildings A and B at the North Decatur Road central offices, and at the Sam Moss Service Center on Montreal Road in Tucker. “This is all part of an ongoing investigation which was started at the request of the school system’s administration,” Keyes Fleming said. “After reviewing the information we gathered today, we anticipate bringing this matter to an appropriate conclusion.” This is the second set of raids in connection with investigation of bid-rigging, racketeering, theft of federal funds and mail and wire fraud in connection with the system’s construction programs. Please see SUPERINTENDENT, page 3

No new tax for now in DeKalb County’s budget By Jennifer Ffrench Parker

The DeKalb Board of Commissioners approved a $564.9 million budget that includes no new property tax, but that might be short-lived. The commissioners, who voted unanimously for the budget that sliced $17.8 million from the $582.7 million that CEO Burrell Ellis proposed on Dec. 15 with 1.86 millage rate property tax increase, acknowledged that by the midyear adjustments in June, they might be looking at a tax increase. The approved 2010 budget is $51 million less than the $616 million budget that commissioners approved at this time in 2009. But Commissioner Connie Stokes, the board’s Budget and Finance Committee chairwoman, said the budgeting process was far for over. “This is just a begin- Connie Stokes ning,” she said. “This is a work in progress. The story has not been written yet. I suspect we will be making adjustments as we go along.” She said the board will set the millage rate on June 8 and will continue to work on the budget. Property taxes account for two-thirds of the county’s budget and the county is facing an $84 million deficit that is expected to climb another $20 million this year with more declines in the county’s property tax digest.

Balancing the budget To help offset the $30.8 million that would have been raised by CEO Burrell Ellis’ 1.86 mills property tax increase, the commissioners made more cuts and found more revenues. Additional Cuts Eliminate holiday pay for employees.....................................................$7.8 million Cut the work force by an additional 151................................................ $4.5 million Reduce Sheriff’s Office............................................................................ $900,000 Eliminate customer service training.......................................................... $375,000 Reduce District Attorney’s Office..............................................................$250,000 More Revenues Raise..............$4 million from DeKalb Recorders Court Revenue Warrant Program Raise..............$1.2 million from State Probation Fee backlog Raise..............$1 million from a new Law Library Fee Take...............$251,115 more from the County Jail Fund Take...............$1.4 million more from the Fund Balance Borrow..........$2 million loan from the Sanitation Enterprise Fund Transfer.........$2.2 million from the county’s Vehicle Replacement Program

Ellis said that he did not feel that he could responsibly recommend a budget without a property tax increase. “I believe we are just putting off the inevitable,” he said. Even Commissioner Burrell Ellis Lee May, who has said repeatedly that this is not the time for a tax increase, acknowledged Tuesday that it might be unavoidable. “I think it is inevitable that we are going to have to look at some degree of raising taxes,” he said before voting for the budget. “I am not in support of it right

The staff and position cuts come at savings of $4.5 million. On the revenue side, the board is expecting to generate $4 million from the DeKalb Recorders Court Revenue Warrant Program and $300,000 from its Amnesty Program. It also is expecting $1 million from a new Law Library Fee and $1.2 million from the State Probation Fee backlog. It also plans to borrow $2 million from the county’s Sanitation Enterprise Fund and transfer $2.2 million from the county’s Vehicle Replacement Program. But Ellis said it is questionable whether the county can borrow from the enterprise fund and that the law department is investigating. “They tried to do that in the city of Atlanta and it wasn’t allowed,” he said. Other cuts in the budget include eliminating $2.9 million in merit increases, cutting $1.2 million in pension contributions, reducing take-home vehicle costs by $700,000, and cutting $900,000 from the Sheriff ’s Office and $250,000 from the District Attorney’s Office. The dramatic reduction comes in the wake of declining county revenues from sales and property taxes caused by the economic recession and unprecedented residential foreclosures and the impact of the city of Dunwoody. The county’s property tax digest has fallen by $1 billion and more slide is expected. Ellis said it is unrealistic to think that the millage rate will not change.

now because I don’t think we have gone far enough to responsibly look at a proposal for raising taxes but at some point it’s probably going to be inevitable.” With Tuesday’s vote, which came ahead of Lee May the March 1 deadline for approving a balanced budget, the commissioners plan to balance the 2010 budget by eliminating $7.8 million for holiday pay for employees, cutting $375,000 for customer service training, and reducing the county’s 8,300-employee work force by another 151 employees for a total loss of 911 positions. Please see BUDGET, page 3


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