PDK Watch Newsletter, Aug.
15, 2005
We've won a major victory this
past week in our effort to get open and honest government in DeKalb County!
But our victory is now threatened.
Please read the following ALERT carefully, and
act NOW, if you possibly can.
Also, please pass on this message NOW to your
friends and civic e-mail lists to get the word
out as widely and quickly as possible. Time is
of the essence.
Here's what's been happening:
Big Victory in Phase 1 of PDK Open Records
Lawsuit:
Our community has just won
on all major points in its crucial first round
of litigation with DeKalb County to secure more
open and responsible government! After five years
of work by concerned citizens and over a year
of hard-fought litigation, community-funded lawyers
for DeKalb resident Mickey Feltus have obtained
a crucial Court order. It indicates that the
defendants (DeKalb County, PDK Airport, CEO Jones,
and PDK Airport Director Remmel) have violated
Georgia Law by withholding records about flight
operations at PDK Airport that have been requested
under the Georgia Open Records Act. The order requires
that the defendants release ALL the requested records.
For details on this victory from the Atlanta Journal
Constitution and other news media, see http://www.opendekalbinc.org.
Big Threat to Our Victory:
This
ruling--which was in our favor and against County
secrecy on ALL major issues in question--faces
an immediate threat, however. Although the County
Law Department told the Court that the County would
gladly turn over the records if ordered by the
Court to do so, the County is now considering appealing
the Judge's unequivocal order to release the records.
The county cannot win such an appeal on its merits,
but it could use the appeal to try to drag out
this costly litigation and exhaust public financial
support for the Open Records Lawsuit. If the County
does appeal this ruling--instead of complying with
it, as it has said it would do--the County will
be using your own tax dollars to continue to violate
state law. You and your neighbors, in addition,
would have to make still more voluntary contributions
just to carry through this first stage of the suit
so that we can gain access to the records that
are supposed to be available to us as citizens.
This is an outrageous situation!
Your Immediate Action is Essential NOW:
The
DeKalb County Commissioners are meeting this Tuesday
morning, August 16, at 9:00 a.m. at the Manuel
Maloof Auditorium, 1300 Commerce Drive in Decatur,
to determine whether or not to approve an appeal
of Judge Castellani's open-and-shut ruling in favor
of the community's right to know. In the next day
and a half, it is essential that the Commissioners
hear by e-mail from as many of you as possible.
Please let them know that you oppose their using
our own taxpayer dollars to carry on a frivolous
lawsuit designed to block the community's legal
rights under the Georgia Open Records Act. Ask
them to abide by the Judge's clear order to release
the records promptly to the public.
Here's how to write your Commissioners:
It's
easy to write your County Commissioners. A brief
message in several sentences or paragraphs, simply
identifying yourself and what you are concerned
about is plenty. The key is that the Commissioners
hear from lots of you NOW, in your own words. After
Tuesday morning, it could be too late. Send your
e-mail letters, separately, to each Commissioner,
but especially to Commissioners Gale Walldorff,
Kathie Gannon, Connie Stokes, and Elaine Boyer,
whose districts are most directly impacted by PDK
Airport noise, expansion, and pollution:
Commissioner Gale Walldorff Galew@co.dekalb.ga.us
Commissioner Kathie Gannon kgannon@co.dekalb.ga.us
Commissioner Connie Stokes conniestokes@co.dekalb.ga.us
Commissioner Elaine Boyer njmcbrid@co.dekalb.ga.us
Commissioner Hank Johnson HankJ@co.dekalb.ga.us
Commissioner Burrell Ellis BEllis@co.dekalb.ga.us
Commissioner Larry Johnson ll.johnson@co.dekalb.ga.us
Come to the Tuesday, August 16, Commission
Meeting:
Beginning about 8:30 a.m. at
the Manuel Maloof Auditorium at 1300 Commerce
Street in Decatur, some of us will be demonstrating
for Open Records and Good Government, and then
attending the County Commission meeting at which
the Commissioners will be deciding whether to
approve the funds to appeal the Court's decision.
Come if you can, for as long as you can. Parking
is available on the street, as well as in the
large enclosed parking lot at Commerce and West
Trinity (enter off of Trinity), just across from
the Maloof Auditorium, at $2.00 for the full
day. We'll have signs and materials to make signs
available, as well as colored badges that you
can wear at the Commission meeting.
Why Getting the PDK Flight Records is
So Important:
Once we actually get the
records about PDK flight operations from the
County and analyze them, we can then take action
to require the reluctant County to enforce its
own weight limit on aircraft at PDK. That next
phase will also include exposing who has been
benefiting financially from DeKalb's unlawful
conduct, including approximately half the aircraft
owners at PDK who are illegally failing to pay
millions of dollars of taxes annually which would
go to support the County's general revenue fund.
Our environment is also degrading due to the
increasingly large and polluting aircraft using
PDK, and the failure of the Airport to establish
mandatory paths to reduce the noise impact on our
homes, schools, and churches. This open records
fight is a necessary and important FIRST round
in the much bigger battle to protect an open and
honest government, property values, environment,
safety, and quality of life from potentially unrestrained
PDK Airport expansion.
The Importance of Your Continuing Financial
Contributions:
This Open Records and
Environmental Quality effort requires your continuing
and generous support, if it is to be sustained
to ultimate success. If you have not yet donated
to Open DeKalb, Inc., the not-for-profit organization
that has been formed to fund this vital community
battle, please do so NOW by going to www.opendekalbinc.org.
Your neighbor may have helped support the first
round; it is your turn to help with the second.
If you have already contributed to Open
DeKalb, Inc. (or to its forerunner organization, F.O.R.
DeKalb, Inc.), please contribute again, if you
can, and please consider making an on-going commitment
of $25 per month (the cost of the most basic cable
TV service), or more if possible, to make sure
that we can not only win this phase of the Open
Records Lawsuit but carry the overall fight on
to ultimate victory.
The Possibility of Getting Our Court Costs
Repaid:
*** You may have read that the
Feltus Lawsuit might secure repayment for some
of its court costs from DeKalb County. Please
understand that this is only a possibility and
that, even if those costs should be partially
reimbursed, such reimbursement still will not
cover all the debts we have currently incurred
in this vital case. Most important, even the
repayment of court costs would not give us the
necessary funds we will need to MOVE FORWARD
to carry this case to secure our full victory
in Phase 2 of this important effort. **
We Can Continue Winning as a United Community:
We
are so very close to obtaining the information
we need to protect ourselves from:
1) corrupt local government, which doesn't want
to "bother" many PDK jet operators by
taxing their luxury jets and which is refusing
to abide by its own aircraft size limit at PDK,
and from
2) the serious pollution and quality-of-life problems
that is PDK Airport is increasingly causing in
DeKalb County.
Please give us the support we need to help us
carry through this effort to full victory and win
a vital victory that will make open records of
all kinds more accessible to ALL citizens of DeKalb
County.
In Conclusion, Please:
(1) write
your Commissioners NOW,
(2) attend the County Commission meeting on August
16, if you can, and
(3) contribute generously so we will have the
funds to sustain this vital effort.
Sincerely yours,
Larry Foster
for Open
DeKalb, Inc.
and for PDK Watch
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