COMMUNITY
WELLNESS
SCHOOLS
It wasn’t all fun and games when the DeKalb Democratic Party held its annual awards dinner Saturday. Photos of award winners are on page 5.
Shiroya “Kiki” Cornelious, who nearly died following surgery to remove 21 inches of her large intestine, plans to take part in the Walk for Lupus Now fundraiser on May 8. 7
A group of business, government and civic leaders have formed EduKalb, an initiative to improve education in the county. 9
Party for the party
‘I’m still here’
Focus on education
May 8, 2010
Copyright © 2010 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
Volume 16, Number 2
www.crossroadsnews.com
Uncertainty looms in State Court race School Board to vote on tax increase, bus cutbacks
By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
Five lawyers who have been campaigning for months to replace DeKalb State Court Judge Edward E. Carriere Jr., may not get their chance at the ballot box on Nov. 2. Carriere, who has been on the bench since 1998, is one of 836 DeKalb County employees who have taken the county’s offer of early retirement. He did not return telephone calls to his office this week, but his clerk, Toni Cook, said he is leaving the county on Aug. 31, instead of his previously announced retirement date of Dec. 31. With less than six months left on Carriere’s term, it could fall on Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue to appoint his replacement. Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said that as of Thursday, Carriere had not tendered his resignation to Perdue. Under Georgia Constitution Article VI, Section 7, Paragraph 4, “An appointee to an elective office shall serve until a successor is duly elected and qualified, and until January 1 of the year following the next general election which is more than six months after such person’s appointment.” Brantley said that if and when Carriere sends his resignation to the governor, Perdue can do one of two things. “The governor could keep the seat open or he could appoint someone, which would cancel the previously scheduled election and put off the election until 2012,” he said.
“Tunde” Akinyele
Sherry Boston
Nicole Marchand
Qualifying for the bench, and other nonpartisan races, will be June 28-July 2. Word on the street this week is that Republican state Sen. Dan Weber is the likely appointee for the position. Weber, the incumbent representative for District 40 in Dunwoody, did not qualify for re-election last week. He did not return phone calls or respond to emails. Brantley said any talk of a specific nominee would “just be speculation.” “There is a judicial nominating commission of 20 respected members of the legal community, including the attorney general,” he said. “The commission will interview candidates and present a short list to the governor. Until he gets that short list, he wouldn’t know who is on it, but that is not to say that the person who is being speculated about wouldn’t be on the list.” If the Nov. 2 election to replace Carriere is pre-empted or cancelled, only one other open judicial seat – to succeed DeKalb Superior Court Judge Robert Castellani, who is retiring in December – would be on the
Anton Rowe
Phyllis Williams
ballot. Nicole Marchand, Sherry Boston, Akintunde “Tunde” Akinyele, and Anton Rowe – who have been campaigning for Carriere’s seat, said this week that if their race is aborted, they would like to be considered for appointment to the position. Until then, they say their campaigns continue. Phyllis Williams, the fifth candidate was unavailabe at press time. Akinyele, who was the first to declare for the seat in September 2008, said that until Carriere turns in his resignation, no one knows for sure what will happen with the seat. “The campaign continues until we know differently,” he said Wednesday. While he has spent a lot of has spent a lot of time and money on his campaign, Akinyele, said that he but has to deal with whatever happens. I have worked hard at it, no doubt about that,” he said. “But I am not upset. The law Please see STATE COURT, page 5
Amnesty program nets over $1.9 million By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
Old traffic tickets are providing a bonanza for DeKalb Recorders Court. Through noon on Thursday, motorists had settled 10,710 outstanding traffic citations and paid more than $1.9 million in fines. Chief Judge Nelly Withers said that the court had collected fines totaling $1,979,751 by 12:48 p.m. on May 6. She said they are still processing amnesty tickets and collecting fines and would do so through May 7. On April 30, the last day of the six-week amnesty, the line of people outside the Decatur-based court stretched down Camp Circle to Memorial Drive. The motorists, some armed with folding chairs for the long wait, were hoping to settle their old tickets at the old fines schedule and benefit from reduced fees that were being offered between March 22 and April 30 to help resolve more than 500,000 outstanding tickets dating back to the late 1990s. That day, Withers said they were open past midnight and still ended up issuing 600 blue tickets to people who were still on line at closing. Those blue tickets allowed motorists to return this week and still benefit from the amnesty. “Volume has been heavy all week with the
Motorists with outstanding traffic tickets waited for hours on April 30, in a line that stretched to Memorial Drive, to take advantage of savings and keep their license from being suspended.
blue ticket holders,” she said. The lines at the court are also swollen by motorists who are being reported to the state Department of Driver Services (DDS) for failure to appear. Withers said they are reporting 300 a day and she expects the long lines to continue into next year as the court tackles its huge failure-to-appear and warrant backlog. “I guess the bottom line is, until we get through all those cases, citizens can expect long lines daily,” she said. “Realistically, this could take until the third quarter of next year.” A new higher fee schedule kicked in at the court on May 1 and the court is now
reporting motorists with outstanding traffic citations to DDS for their licenses to be suspended. Yolanda Crowder of Stockbridge got a speeding ticket on Jan. 4, 2000, and didn’t want to lose her license. “They are digging up old tickets,” she said. “I never heard anything about it; I thought they had thrown it out.” One motorist was so angry, he expressed his displeasure on the side and rear windows of his SUV sitting in a nearby parking lot. “Tax collectors w/badges,” was written on one window. Another read: “U fail 2 give me new court date, now 5 yrs later its my fault. WTF.”
By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
A property tax increase and the elimination of all magnet transportation will be on the agenda when DeKalb School Board members meet May 10 for a final vote on its $735 million budget for 2011. After the board’s Budget Committee failed to reach a consensus at its May 4 meeting, board members Jay Cunningham and Eugene Walker said they will propose a 1 mill increase to the full board to help balance the budget and minimize the impact Jay Cunningham on the classroom and staff. Cunningham, who represents District 5 in South DeKalb, said a 1 mill increase would gross $18 million and help the board preserve the jobs of all 200 paraprofessionals and the 59 media clerks Eugene Walker targeted for layoff. After removing the four school closings from the budget last week, which would have saved $2.4 million, the committee started the meeting with a gap of $113.4 million. Committee members voted to remove four other items from the list of cuts. They preserved the seventh period for schools, kept targeted points and preserved 100 of the 200 paraprofessionals and 30 of the 59 media clerks but were still $101.9 million short. Cunningham said it was time to be truthful and adjust the millage rate. “We are going to come up short,” he said. “At the end of the day, we are going to be right back here.” Cunningham said the tax increase would allow the board the cushion it needs to meet its obligations to children and its employees. Finance Director Marcus Turks shared with the committee that DeKalb County Tax Assessor Calvin Hicks had revised his estimate of the amount of decline in the tax digest. Hicks is now anticipating a 2 percent decline, instead of the 7 percent previously announced. If everything else stays the same as last year, the DeKalb Tax Commissioner’s Office said Thursday that a 1 mill increase would cost the owner of a $200,000 home Please see SCHOOLs, page 8