TODAY'S ISSUE
Democrats feel people "marginalized" by Republican efforts
By Steve Reilly
Former Chairman, Gwinnett County Democratic Party
Special to GwinnettForum.com

(Editor's Note: this being a political year, over the next few issues will appear strictly partisan views in Today's Issue. This one comes from a former chairman of the Gwinnett Democrats, while an offering from the Gwinnett Republican leadership will appear subsequently. -eeb)

JAN. 27, 2006 -- With Republicans controlling the State House, the State Senate, and the governorship since 2004, it's a good time to take pause to examine the result. What the Republicans have wrought is largely a potpourri of bad lawmaking and poor governance.

In 2005, the Republicans developed an immediate affinity for secrecy in state government. Republicans in the General Assembly introduced Senate Bill 5 and House Bill 218, both of which were derailed last year after newspapers around the state sounded the alarm.

Senate Bill 5 would have allowed corporations to initiate major infrastructure projects with any government agency with minimal opportunity for public scrutiny or input. Senate Bill 5 would have made it easier for developers to use eminent domain to take private property from unwilling sellers, an irony given Republicans' professed current concern about this issue.

Having failed last year to pass Senate Bill 5, Republican Senator Cecil Staton this year sponsored Senate Bill 414, which again included language providing private developers the opportunity to use eminent domain to condemn property for private projects.

House Bill 218 would have allowed government to keep secret the details of negotiations with large corporations about financial incentives offered by the state to get companies to locate here until the deal is concluded.

Governor Perdue and the Republicans have undone much of former governor Roy Barnes' education reform initiatives including the mandate for smaller class sizes. The public school budget has been slashed by nearly $1 billion. Governor Perdue tells us he wants to return to the idea of reducing class sizes, but his proposed 2006 budget includes $170 million in cuts in per-pupil spending. The cuts come despite the Governor's record $18.6 billion proposed state budget.

This year Republican Representative Jerry Keen proposed a constitutional amendment to abolish the local property tax for public schools, replacing it with a state sales tax. This scheme would reduce local control over schools and leave school funding subject to the volatility and uncertainty of sales tax collections.

The Republicans passed their voter identification law last year, which required all voters to present government-issued photo identification before being allowed to vote. A well-respected federal judge declared the law unconstitutional and effectively suspended it. Now the Republicans are ramming a modified version of the bill through the General Assembly with minimal debate, with the Governor apparently ready to sign it.

Republican leaders recently suggested a constitutional amendment to change the state budget process. Designed by an out-of-state think tank, the plan (known as "TABOR") would relieve legislators of making tough budget decisions by capping state spending across the board. The plan was previously adopted by Colorado. In November, Colorado citizens voted to suspend the law after it created a fiscal crisis.

The Republican leadership last year revised our divorce laws and passed new child support guidelines. The new guidelines promise to put children squarely in the middle of divorce litigation while discouraging cases from being resolved outside of court. Look for our court system to quickly become flooded with child support litigation as a result of this ill-conceived rewrite of Georgia's child support laws.

Republican Representative Bill Hembree promises to push a bill this year to make Georgia judicial elections partisan battles between Democrats and Republicans. That's the same arrangement that gave rise to Alabama former Chief Justice Roy Moore.

During their short time in power, some of our Republican leaders have given a new twist to the phrase "ethically challenged." First, Republican House Speaker Glen Richardson implemented a program unique among the 50 state legislatures: a House rule that allows the appointment by the Speaker of "hawks," Republican legislators who can enter any committee meeting and vote for a bill favored by the leadership. (That's called "stacking the deck," a decidedly undemocratic idea).

Governor Perdue's appointees this month fired the state ethics enforcement officer, the respected State Ethics Commission executive secretary, Teddy Lee. No substantive reason was given for Mr. Lee's termination, although one can note that Governor Perdue was last year fined by the Ethics Commission for campaign finance violations.

The "good government" legislators from both parties are being marginalized by the Republican leadership. Republican control has brought Georgia poor lawmaking with minimal debate, and strong-arm leadership with a decidedly right-wing tilt. The 2006 elections give us our best chance to fix the problem with progressive Democratic leadership in the General Assembly and the steady hand of a Democrat back in the Governor's Mansion.

ELLIOTT BRACK
New DVD on Dacula history to become cherished keepsake
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com

JAN. 27, 2006 -- If newspapers record local history, you can say that diaries and books and now taped oral vignettes give added dimension to times past.

That's certainly what a new DVD, produced as a part of the Dacula Centennial of 2005, has given Gwinnett. Entitled "Down Yonder in Dacula," it is a collection of interviews with people from Dacula, with an emphasis of what went in the early days of Dacula.

Copies of the disc are on sale at the City of Dacula for $10. Another outgrowth of the Dacula Centennial celebration will be the publication of a book detailing life in bygone Dacula. The book is expected to be completed in a few weeks and will cost $20, and $22.50 by mail. It also will be available at the City of Dacula.

Mayor Jim Wilbanks and Centennial volunteers spent considerable time preparing the DVD. The work was assisted by a grant from the Georgia Humanities Council and the General Assembly.

Those interviewed and captured on videotape for the project add luster to life as it was lived since the founding of Dacula, back in 1905. The town sprang up a few years after the Carolina and Northern Railroad came through its limits. This later became the CSX Railroad, which still chugs and whistles and bisects the community.

Among those heard on the video include J. T. Bradberry, a former grocer and substitute rural mail carrier, who was on the 1938 Dacula basketball team that won a state championship. And there's Irvin Hutchins, who some say steals the show with his accounts of early life in the city; former Gwinnett School Superintendent J. W. Benefield, whose father ran a store in Dacula before World War II; Dr. Leonard Hinton, formerly with the Georgia Baptist Home Mission Board, and later Sunday School Board; and the late Eula Mahaffey, who was born in the year the city was founded, and had her message taped by her grandson before her death. Gwinnett Historical Society's Bill Baughman also appears in the video.

Other voices include W. H. Mobley, a farmer and builder; Alan Hood, retired insurance man, and Mrs. Mary Frances Hutchins (brother and sister), who remember visiting their grandmother in the area; Winford Lindsay Sr., who grew up nearby, retired from civilian work with the Air Force, and now continues to be active in the area; Otis Pharr, formerly with General Motors; Dwight Williams, retired from DuPont; and Blanche Wilbanks, a retired school teacher, and mother of the current mayor.

Showing how up-to-date the DVD is, there's also a vignette from another local resident, Mike Dasher, just returned from the Iraqi war.

The title of the DVD, "Down Yonder in Dacula," comes from another aspect of the town's heritage. Phil Tanner, a third generation fiddle player, tells of the legacy he inherited from his grandfather and father, Gib and Gordon Tanner. His grandfather recorded some early country songs, including "Down Yonder," in the 1930s, which sold for that day an astounding number of records, and made the Gib Tanner name famous. He's today in the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

Tanner also relates the story of Ruba Stanley of Dacula, a 14 year old ry singer, who made a famous recording, one of the first of country music.

All in all, the disc makes a nice contribution to the lore of earlier-day Gwinnett. Today with video cameras more available, producing a video of local history should become a standard of company and individuals marking anniversaries. We commend the City of Dacula for its efforts, and suggest the disc of city history would make a worthy gift for people interested in the area. Producing the video also makes a great contribution to future researchers looking for an understanding of the area.

ABOUT OUR SPONSORS

The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Among our sponsors is AJC Gwinnett News, the county's best daily news source. AJC Gwinnett News is published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution at its Norcross printing plant and comes with the full AJC every day. Visit their web site at www.ajc.com and look for the Gwinnett channel at www.ajc.com/gwinnett. To subscribe to the newspaper, call 770 522-4141.

For a list of other sponsors of this forum, go to: http://www.gwinnettforum.com/about/sponsors.htm



McLEMORE'S WORLD
1/27: Another cartoon character hit?

FEEDBACK
1/27: Since State of Union will be ho-hum, he may read a book

Editor, the Forum;

The 2006 State of the Union Address is nearing., coming January 31.

The president, invoking the name of God at least once, will get to make wild claims about our prosperous economy and deliver bold admonitions toward evildoers. Pundits will have their pre and post Address spins.

Fortunately, the president has the best spin doctors in the business who will use the time-tested tactics of "9/11," "Saddam is in jail", "War on Terror", and "protect America."

On domestic issues, the following topics will take center stage: health care savings accounts, guest-worker programs, the unqualified success of No Child Left Behind, the rebuilding of New Orleans, spending cuts for non-defense discretionary spending, and tax breaks that will affect only the elite in America. But don't expect much about the Abramoff scandal, and the extent to which the President is willing to call out his own party for a culture of corruption.

Perhaps I won't watch television, but read a book instead.

-- Ralph Greene, Snellville

UPCOMING
Backstage pass for Gwinnett Ballet coming this weekend.

The evening will combine raffles for seven glorious prizes with impromptu performances by singers, musicians, and a sneak peek at GBT's upcoming production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Prizes include a trip to New York City including round trip airfare, five nights at the Barclay Hotel, tickets to Lion King in Elton John's box, and tickets to Letterman and Leno.

Other prizes include dinner for two at Joel's with limo service to and from this exclusive restaurant, and a half carat diamond. All purchasers of champagne will receive a semi-precious gemstone compliments of Barron's Fine Jewelers.

"Backstage Pass" will begin at 7 p.m. and tickets are only $25. The event is a fundraiser to support the Gwinnett Ballet Theatre Symphony which will debut on March 10, 2006, when the ballet offers its world premiere of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Gwinnett Performing Arts Center. For tickets to "Backstage Pass," call 770-294-2808.

Second Duluth band "Savory Sounds" event coming on Feb. 11

Coming soon is the second annual "Savory Sounds of Duluth," a food and wine tasting event with both a silent and a live auction to raise funds for the band. This event will be "engineered" on Saturday, February 11, from 6 to 10 p.m., near downtown Duluth at the Southeastern Railway Museum (3595 Peachtree Road, Duluth). Celebrity auctioneers Brooks Coleman and Bill Russell will be "firing up" the live auction.

With an overwhelming success of the first "Savory Sounds of Duluth," the Duluth High School Band Booster Association was able to raise enough money last year to pay for the new band uniforms. This year, the organization hopes to raise enough money to purchase a trailer to haul the band equipment to games and competitions.

The band currently has to rent vehicles and rely on the kindness of parents to move the instruments from location to location. The fundraiser also seeks to help defray the cost of new instruments.

In addition to the two auctions, there will be music performed by local musical groups and an assortment of dishes from local restaurants. The auction items range from a helicopter tour, sporting events, spa packages, restaurant gift certificates, MP3 players, movie passes and a piano! Services such as home-cooked dinners, babysitting or yard work will also be available for bid in the silent auction. Tickets to this event can be purchased by contacting President Dan Miller at danmiller@speedfactory.net. Contributions for the evening are tax deductible.

Last year, the Band donated 140 of their old uniforms, complete with gold braids, hats and plumes, to the combined middle school and high school in New Town, N.D., when they learned that the school had not had new uniforms since 1975. Twenty additional uniforms were sent to the Tennessee School for the Deaf. The band program at Duluth has the largest percentage of students placing in the top 10 percent of their class in comparison to other extracurricular groups.

Persons with items to donate to the auction should contact Mary Buck at marybuck1@bellsouth.net.

For additional information, contact Phyllis Stewart by email (packstew@bellsouth.net) or telephone (770-598-0415).

Senior Leadership seeking new class members for 06-07 year

Nominations for the 2006-2007 Senior Leadership Class are being sought by the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce.

Senior Leadership Gwinnett provides a diverse group of leaders aged 55 and older with a unique opportunity to experience many of the challenges facing Gwinnett. Senior Leadership is an exciting nine-month program. Topics such as growth; health and human services; regional relationships; government; education; power and justice will be covered.

Objectives of these programs are:

• To identify and inspire or re-inspire existing potential community leaders who are willing to get involved and explore community issues and respond through community involvement.
  
• To acquaint these leaders with major community issues.
  
• To examine the complexity of finding good solutions for ongoing concerns.
  
• To give participants the opportunity to meet and interact with community leaders.
  
• To investigate leadership ethics and values.
  
• To assist participants in expanding their leadership skills.

If you or someone you know is interested in becoming a part of Gwinnett Senior Leadership, send via fax, email or mail the nomination form to Meghan Schroder at 770-232-8807, or meghan@gwinnettchamber.org.

NOTABLE
County chooses Alfie Meek to head economic development

Gwinnett County Administrator Jock Connell announced today that Alfie Meek, Ph.D., will head the county's new economic development function. The Board of Commissioners recently approved an ordinance establishing an economic development program.

Meek has been the county's director of Forecasting and Research in the Financial Services Department for nearly four years. That division will now be restructured to include the new economic development functions and will be called the Economic Analysis Division.

Meek holds master's and bachelor's degrees from Georgia Tech and Georgia State University, respectively, and he completed a doctorate in economics from the University of Georgia last year, after joining the county government in 2002. He led the county's efforts to create the economic development ordinance and has worked closely with the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce on this initiative for several months.

Marketing and business recruiting will still fall to the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce along with state agencies such as the Georgia Department of Economic Development. County staff will support the Chamber's efforts by tracking and analyzing economic impacts and recommending inducements.

Gwinnett libraries, Art Center now offer free arts pass

The Gwinnett County Public Library in partnership with the Hudgens Arts Center is offering a free "Key to the Arts" Museum Pass. Made possible by the sponsorships of individuals and private area organizations, a Museum Pass will now be available for check out at any branch of the Gwinnett County Public Library. The Library and the Hudgens Arts Center welcome and look forward to providing the residents of Gwinnett County with a rich, cultural and entertaining experience.

Lucy Elliott Enniss, curator and exhibitions coordinator for the Hudgens Arts Center, says that "Donna Pollet who is with the Gwinnett County library system and is on our Board of Directors approached us with this. Chicago and other major cities offer the same thing. The philosophy is that people who visit the Library would be candidates for museum goers as well. It is a collaboration of the literary arts with the visual arts. The majority of our Children's exhibits are award winning illustrators of Children's books."

Museum Pass Guidelines include:

• Valid Gwinnett County Public Library Card with adult borrowing privileges.
  
• The Museum Pass is free for a family of four with a discount of $2 for each additional visitor.
  
• One week check out period with no renewals permitted.
  
• Should be returned in the book drop or to the desk of any Gwinnett County Public Library Branch.
  
• A late fee of 20 cents per day with a maximum charge of $8 will be assessed to the borrower's card when the Museum Pass is not returned on the date due.
  
• Reserve on line through the catalog, www.gwinnettpl.org or by calling the Library Help Line, 770.978.5154.

Suwanee wins second straight Trendsetter Award

The Georgia Municipal Association and Georgia Trend Magazine have given Suwanee citizens a well-deserved pat on the back in the form of a 2006 Trendsetter Award for "Hearing Voices: Community Input in City Government." This award, the second consecutive Trendsetter Award received by the City of Suwanee, was presented January 22, at the GMA's annual Mayors' Day conference at the Atlanta Hilton.

"Suwanee's approach to community input is impressive," says Stacy Jones, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Georgia's Carl Vinson Institute of Government and a Trendsetter Award judge. "When they got input that would change the scope of their project, instead of saying 'Too bad…we are too far along in our design,' they stopped, listened, and made the changes. The use of volunteers to create a sense of community and ownership is indeed trendsetting."

About some of Suwanee's community-infused projects, residents who provided input to the Trendsetter Award selection committee had this to say:

• "As Suwanee continues to grow, [PACT or the Police & Citizens Together program] keeps it from being a police department that's really a 9-1-1 service. It gives you somebody that you know that can be your primary point of contact with the police."- David Hancock
  
  
• "It [helping build the PlayTown Suwanee playground] was just the most rewarding thing that you can imagine…. Every time we visit the playground, my four-year-old son is so proud to say, 'This is the playground that my mom built.'"- Melissa Fernandez
  
  
• "The citizen involvement in PlayTown Suwanee is the most amazing project I have ever been involved in in my life…. Every time I go there, I just have this sense of pride and I remember all the people putting in all the volunteer work…. I met people I would have never met." - Pat Montgomery

This year's Trendsetter Award marks at least the 20th award/certification received by the City of Suwanee since it was recognized as a City of Excellence in January 2003. The awards have recognized excellence in communications and marketing, financial reporting, planning, policing, and special events as well as the City's Open Space Initiative.

RECOMMENDATION

• An invitation: What Web sites, books or restaurants have you enjoyed? Send us your best recent visit to a restaurant or most recent book you have read along with a short paragraph as to why you liked it, plus what book you plan to read next. --eeb
  
  

GEORGIA TIDBIT
"Sovereign immunity" decree came out of suit against Georgia

Chisholm v. Georgia is the most famous and the most important of the U.S. Supreme Court's 18th-century decisions. The Court's ruling arose out of the sale of supplies during the Revolutionary War (1775-83) made on credit to the state of Georgia by a South Carolina merchant, Captain Robert Farquhar. Georgia later refused to pay for the goods, because Farquhar was a British loyalist.

After Farquhar died, however, the executor of his estate, Alexander Chisholm, who also hailed from South Carolina, brought an action on the still-uncollected account (as permitted by the then-operative federal jurisdictional statute) in the Supreme Court of the United States. Upon receiving notice of the action, Georgia refused to appear in court. It asserted that, as a sovereign state, it possessed immunity from the suit, absent its consent, even though Article III of the U.S. Constitution specifies that federal courts have jurisdiction to decide cases "between a State and citizens of another State." Citing this text, the Supreme Court rejected Georgia's sovereign-immunity argument and ordered Georgia to pay Chisholm the money damages he sought.

In the wake of this decision, however, howls of protest rose throughout the country. Within five years, U.S. Congress had proposed and the states had ratified the 11th Amendment, which overturned the principle of the Chisholm decision by providing that "the Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State."

To this day, Chisholm stands as one of only a handful of Supreme Court rulings that have been overturned by constitutional amendment. Even more important, the Supreme Court has built on the repudiation of Chisholm to hold that the 11th Amendment exemplifies a sovereign-immunity principle that sweeps well beyond the amendment's text. Invoking this principle, the court has sheltered states from almost all money-damage actions brought in any court, even when initiated by a state's own residents based on clear violations of federal statutory law.

• To access the Georgia Encyclopedia, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
  
  

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Daniel Webster on resisting unconstitutional legislation

"The inherent right in the people to reform their government, I do not deny; and they have another right, and that is to resist unconstitutional laws without overturning the government."

--Daniel Webster, via David Earl Tyre, Jesup.

• Another invitation: What's your favorite saying? Share with others through GwinnettForum. Send to elliott@gwinnettforum.com.
  

MORE: Contact Gwinnett Forum at: elliott@gwinnettforum.com

© 2006, Gwinnett Forum.com. Gwinnett Forum is an online community commentary for exploring pragmatic and sensible social, political and economic approaches to improve life in Gwinnett County, Ga. USA.