Suburbs secede from Atlanta
'Detroit of the South' bludgeoned by troubles
By John T. Bennett
As Detroit – beset by violence, debt and social woes –
prepares to undergo a historic takeover by the Michigan state government, the
city of Atlanta could be sliding toward a similar fate.
Some are quietly wondering whether Atlanta is in
danger of becoming “the Detroit of the South.”
The city has experienced an ongoing succession of
government scandals, ranging from a massive cheating racket to corruption, bribery,
school-board incompetence and now the potential loss of accreditation for the
local DeKalb County school system.
For several years, problems of this sort have fueled
political reforms, including the creation of new cities in northern Atlanta
suburbs. Due to the intensification of corruption scandals in DeKalb, some
state-level reform proposals could become national news very soon.
‘Super-white majority’ cities
As a result of the unsavory politics in urban Atlanta,
northern suburban communities acted to distance themselves. Beginning in 2005,
many communities began the process of incorporating into cities.
Thus far, Milton, Sandy Springs, Brookhaven, Dunwoody,
Chattahoochee Hills and Johns Creek have done so.
These cities, after breaking away politically from urban
Atlanta, have become so successful that a libertarian think tank, the Reason
Foundation, has featured Sandy Springs as a model of effective
government. The Economist has also applauded the northern Atlanta
cities for solving the problem of unfunded government pension
liability and avoiding the bankruptcy that looms over some urban areas. The new
cities may soon be able to create their own school districts, which would free
them even further from the issues besetting Atlanta.
While incorporation has been popular with residents of the new
cities, not all of Atlanta is as satisfied. The Georgia Legislative Black
Caucus filed a lawsuit in 2011 to dissolve the new cities, claiming they were a “super-white majority” and diluting
the voting power of minorities.
A key leader in the black community and a driving
force in support of the lawsuit, who wishes to remain anonymous, bemoaned the
“disturbing tendency of black electorates to not elect the smartest and
brightest, or even the cleverest.”
Nonetheless, he believes that there is a social
contract between the northern and southern parts of the county.
“So when you allow powerful groups of citizens to opt
out of a social contract, and form their own, it may benefit the group opting
out, but it hurts the larger collective,” he said.
The lawsuit would have canceled incorporation and tied
the cities back into the very county that they purposefully left.
State Rep. Lynne Riley, a Republican who represents one of the
new cities, called the lawsuit “frivilous” and
“disrespectful to the citizens of these cities who are most satisfied with
their government.”
The federal trial court rejected the lawsuit, and the court of
appeals affirmed the dismissal. However, an attorney for the Black Caucus plans
to file an amended lawsuit.
Meanwhile, the same concerns that spurred
incorporation continue to mount.
Failing schools
DeKalb County contributed to what the New York Times called “the biggest
standardized test cheating scandal in the country’s history” in 2011.
Now, the county is faced with losing its regional
accreditation. Losing regional accreditation is, by any objective measure, a
devastating indictment of a school board, with severe consequences for students
and families within the district.
When nearby Clayton County, Ga., lost its regional accreditation
in 2008, it was the first school system in the country to do so in 40
years.
The result in Clayton, according to the Pew Foundation, was that
thousands of students left county schools, the district lost millions of dollars
and hundreds of teachers were fired.
In response to the Clayton County crisis, after
witnessing the fallout and the harm to the state’s reputation, the legislature
acted to prevent a repeat. In 2011, the Georgia legislature essentially gave
the governor authority to remove board of education members when a district was
placed on probation by the accreditation agency.
Last December, DeKalb was placed on probation. Then,
in January, the governor of Georgia used his new authority and removed six
members of the nine-member DeKalb Board of Education.
This year, well after the accreditation issue broke open, DeKalb
school board elections were held. Four of nine board members were up for
reelection. Voters in one of the four districts returned their
incumbent board member for another term, despite knowing that accreditation
was at risk.
This week, a federal judge sided with the governor and
agreed that the six suspended board members can be replaced. The decision
places the dispute into the Georgia Supreme Court’s purview.
As the issue looms, the mere mention of losing accreditation has
impacted the housing market in DeKalb, with at least one potential buyer directing his realtor
not to search for homes in the county.
School leadership
Recently, at the helm of the DeKalb school system stood Crawford
Lewis. The former superintendent has been indicted on racketeering charges.
Along with several of his associates, Lewis is accused
by the DeKalb DA of fraud, theft by a government employee, bribery and a web of
racketeering. The charges arose out of Lewis’ practice of steering lucrative
government contracts toward favored companies.
According to the indictment, Lewis also
used government funds to pay for a hotel room, which he used as the venue for
an affair. Lewis had this affair with a person who held the position of
“Executive Director of the Office of School Improvement.”
One of the numerous complaints about the DeKalb school
board was that it voted to pay for Lewis’ legal defense. There had been a
$100,000 cap on the costs allowed for legal defense, but the school board
waived it for Lewis’ benefit.
The CEO in charge
At the very top, the head of DeKalb’s government is the position
of CEO. The current CEO, Burrell Ellis, is being investigated for a list of
concerns, including alleged bid rigging. Police searched Ellis’s home and
office recently, and local news outlets report that while no
charges have been filed, search warrants are reportedly aimed toward potential extortion, bribery, theft,
conspiracy, and wire fraud in connection with private vendors who contract
with the county.
Most recently, Ellis sought approval from the county ethics
board to establish a legal defense fund to benefit himself. The board rebuffed the request.
A corrupt school board becomes a
civil rights issue
Instead of being treated as a story about rampant,
inexcusable corruption, the school board fiasco has morphed into a civil rights
issue. Atlanta’s NBC affiliate reports that the Georgia NAACP “accused
Republican Governor Nathan Deal of being part of an alleged conspiracy to get
rid of black office holders and deprive black voters of their rights.”
State Rep. Tyrone Books pointed out that criticism of
the governor needed to include a word about black politicians who supported the
governor’s removal authority.
“How can we complain about him when we have black
folks standing there embracing the removal of black officials?” asked Brooks,
D-Atlanta.
The state legislature is trying to prevent public funds from being used in the
legal defense of the ousted board members. Because the ousted board
members see their positions as a civil rights entitlement, the attorney’s fees
required for their defense will quickly rise, unless legislation puts an end to
the entitlement.
One of the suspended board members, Eugene Walker, responded to the judge’s ruling with a familiar
appeal: “Minorities should not feel secure if contrived allegations
from anonymous sources with hidden agendas can go to private agencies and to
have their civil rights stolen away.”
DeKalb has changed from majority white to majority black over
the last several decades. As the Atlanta Journal Constitution gingerly put it: “The county’s
transition from majority white to majority minority was politically rocky .”
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