Welcome to the City of Brookhaven!

On Tuesday, July 31, voters approved the incorporation of Georgia’s newest city and DeKalb County’s largest city with 49,000 residents and 12 square miles.

The idea for a City of Brookhaven was born of the belief in representation by people who actually live in our community and in keeping our tax dollars local, providing services that are truly focused on the needs of our community, and operating efficiently with full transparency.

What Happens Next?

As prescribed in the city charter, Governor Nathan Deal will soon appoint a Governor’s Commission on Brookhaven.

The purpose of the commission is to facilitate creation of the city structure by researching and making recommendations for the start of city services and location of city offices.  The commission will have five members with at least one from each of the four city council districts; one will be designated to act as chair. The commission’s actions are advisory and non-binding; they will not adopt laws. To facilitate the first elections, the commission will conduct a training seminar for all qualified candidates for mayor and city council.

Citizen Task Forces

Citizen Task Forces have been formed to assist the Governor’s Commission on Brookhaven.  We are seeking volunteers who have expertise and/or experience in Zoning & Planning, Police, Parks & Recreation, Roads & Drainage, and Finance. If you have interest, please send an email to info@brookhavenyes.org.  We will pass your name along to the Governor’s Commission after Governor Deal makes his appointments.

Brookhaven’s First Elections

The qualifying period for candidates seeking office begins at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, August 13, and ends at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 15.  You can learn more about the qualification process by clicking here.

Brookhaven’s first elections for mayor and four (4) city council members will be Tuesday, November 6.  Click here to see a map of the city council districts.  Candidates for the city council must reside in their respective districts.

Candidate Orientation Session

The Dunwoody Crier has organized an orientation session for prospective mayor and city council candidates.  It will be this Saturday, August 11, from 9:00 a.m. to noon in Gable Hall of St. Martin in the Fields Episcopal Church on Ashford Dunwoody Road.

Topics to be covered include the qualifying process, campaign finance disclosure and compliance, running a campaign, and most importantly, what it takes to serve as mayor or on the city council of a brand new city.

On that final topic, a panel of first members of the city councils of Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, and Johns Creek will be on hand to share their experiences and answer your questions.

When does the new City of Brookhaven open for business?

The City of Brookhaven will officially “open its doors” on Monday, December 17.

This is an exciting and historic time!  We encourage everyone to participate and help make the City of Brookhaven a vibrant and successful city of which we can all be proud.

With Your YES Vote Today, Brookhaven Wins

Today, Tuesday, July 31, is your last chance to vote for the City of Brookhaven.  Your regular polling place will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

The Brookhaven ballot question reads as follows:

“Shall the Act incorporating the City of Brookhaven in DeKalb County according to the charter contained in the Act and the homestead exemptions described in the Act be approved?”

At BrookhavenFacts.com, we’ve shown you the many good reasons to vote YES for cityhood.

This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity.  The issue will not appear on a ballot again.

Here is a recap, complete with hyperlinks:

Cityhood does not add taxes to your property tax bill.  It shifts property taxes away from the county to the city.  And it will cap the applicable millage rate so that your taxes won’t go higher than 3.35 mills without asking for your vote in a public referendum.  When is the last time DeKalb County asked your permission for a tax increase?

Your new City of Brookhaven will be able to opt-out of future DeKalb County bond issues.

Brookhaven is a cash cow for DeKalb County.  We represent 14% of DeKalb County’s real estate tax base, but only 8% of the population.  We are 27% commercial, whereas DeKalb is only 21% commercial.

The total amount of tax revenue that will be shifted away from DeKalb County for the benefit of our local community is $25 million to $27 million.  A top county administrator confirmed this twice, once on Channel 2 News and again in the DeKalb Champion.

The county’s adjusted Homestead Option Sales Tax (HOST) revenues mean that Brookhaven will have a projected budget surplus of at least $1.1 million.

Brookhaven is home to several major corporate offices and commercial properties totaling $687 million in assessed value.  However, if we don’t incorporate, a major commercial area (Perimeter Summit) will seek to be annexed into the City of Dunwoody without any neighborhoods.

Your voice is diluted in DeKalb.  Cityhood will vastly strengthen it.  Instead of a CEO from Stone Mountain and county commissioners from Decatur, Druid Hills and Stone Mountain, your representatives will be people you see at the local grocery store or coffee shop.  Your councilmember will live within a mile or two of your home and represent only 12,000 people.  At 138,000 people, a county commission district has 11.5 times more people.

DeKalb County records show that the county assigns a mere 3-5 police patrols to Brookhaven on a regular basis.  Your new City of Brookhaven will be able to increase this number to 8-9 patrols at all times.

DeKalb County spends millions every year on parks in other areas of the county, but only sees fit to spend $331,040 for 6 parks in Brookhaven.  Your new City of Brookhaven will be able to allocate at least 3 to 5 times the resources for our parks.

In a campaign flyer, CEO Burrell Ellis touted the construction of “8 new libraries, 8 improved parks, 2 new recreation centers, and a new YMCA.”  None of these were in Brookhaven.

In the past 3 years, DeKalb County has repaved only 6.8 miles of roads in Brookhaven.  By contrast, the City of Dunwoody has repaved 19 miles in the past 2 years.  Sandy Springs has repaved almost 100 miles in the past 4 years.

DeKalb has a 10-year repaving backlog.  Not even “Pothole Pete” can keep up with it.

There has been extensive coordination between DeKalb County and the “No City” campaign.  Taxpayer resources have been used to push the “No City” campaign.

The “No City” campaign publicly denied this connection, but documents obtained from DeKalb County show that the denial was false.  They have no credibility.

And Mayor Eva Galambos trumpets the success story that is Sandy Springs.  It is a model for what we could do here in Brookhaven, but only with your YES vote.

If you want to control your taxes…

…retain $25 million to $27 million of our local tax dollars for the benefit of our community…

…have our neighbors instead of distant county politicians make the decisions for Brookhaven…

…and ensure that we substantially improve our police coverage, parks, and roads compared to DeKalb County’s poor performance…

…we request your YES vote for the City of Brookhaven at the polls TODAY.  Today is our one and only opportunity to make this change for the better.

Vote YES to Make Brookhaven Shine

A supporter in Brookhaven Fields wrote this commentary in the Brookhaven Patch (click to read) – complete with photographs — regarding the condition of the streets in his neighborhood.

The article prompted an interesting analysis in the comments section.  The analysis reveals county versus city performance on road resurfacing and is drawn from DeKalb County’s own records:

In 2010, the county paved a total of 1.9 miles of roads in Brookhaven. One Point Nine!!!!! Here is the full list:
Brooklawn: .41
Clearview: .23
Granger: .13
Hermance: .08
Navajo: .04
Oglethorpe: .22
Old Briarwood: .05
Rennes: .11
Tennyson: .22
Wawona: .15
Wilmont: .21

2011? 1.97!!!!!

Here is the list for 2011:
North Druid Hills Road: 1.97

They paved 1 road in Brookhaven in all of 2011!!!

2012 in an election year? 2.93.
Brookhaven Dr- .48
Coosawattee- .2
E. Brookhaven Dr.- .8
Ellijay- .26
Fairway Cir- 1.06
Oaklawn- .13

Source:

http://www.co.dekalb.ga.us/publicwrks/roads_drainage/pdf/pavingList.pdf

So in three years, the county has paved a total of 6.8 miles in Brookhaven.  Dunwoody has paved 19 miles in the past 2 years. Sandy Springs has paved almost 100 miles in the last 4.

Not even “Pothole Pete” can keep pace with what Dunwoody and Sandy Springs are doing!

We also want to share some impressive before-and-after photographs (click to see) of City of Dunwoody code enforcement in action.  These were taken in apartment complexes near Peachtree Industrial Boulevard between Tilly Mill and Winters Chapel Roads.  They show what can be done on Buford Highway in apartment complexes that DeKalb County has long neglected.

Vote YES on July 31 to gain these vastly improved services.

Ethics Complaint Filed Against DeKalb County

As reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (click to read), yesterday we filed an ethics complaint against the DeKalb County Government and its coordinated “No City” campaign.  Click here to read the complaint.

Documents we obtained through an open records request reveal that DeKalb has used taxpayer resources to benefit the “No City” campaign.  This is illegal.

To give you an example of how pervasive the connection is, in this e-mail exchange (click to read) Jodi Cobb, treasurer of the “No City” campaign, asks CEO Burrell Ellis and DeKalb County spokesman Burke Brennan to make a particular public statement on Friday, April 20.

When CEO Ellis and Mr. Brennan respond favorably to the request, Ms. Cobb responds:  “Fantastic! Thank You. Any help we can get to help fight the city is appreciated.”

The next business day, Monday, April 23, CEO Ellis was on television news (click to see) saying exactly what Ms. Cobb requested that he say.

We can’t trust these folks.  They emphatically denied any connection between the “No City” campaign and the DeKalb County Government – especially CEO Burrell Ellis – in a recent public forum.

Click here to see a Brookhaven Patch video of the false “No City” denial, which begins at the 2:00 mark.  Ms. Cobb holds up a bunch of fliers and participates in the false denial at the 2:15 mark.  Please watch the video.  They’re not telling us the truth.

This e-mail (click to read) from Davis Fox, paid county assistant to Commissioner Kathie Gannon, is the most infuriating.  In an attachment titled “Items to Support the Brookhaven Opponents,” it suggests a cynical deployment of county resources to thwart the cityhood vote.  At the same time, it details the results of years of DeKalb County neglect for our community.

A “Yes” vote on July 31 is our one opportunity to end this neglect and opt-out of DeKalb County politics as usual.

Click here to read more about the ethics complaint in the Dunwoody Crier.

Your Tax Dollars Supported “No City” Campaign

Throughout the campaign to incorporate Brookhaven as Georgia’s newest city, we have reminded you that DeKalb County is coordinating the “No City” effort.

To prove what we have been telling you, we have been sending open records requests to DeKalb County since mid-June.  After much delay and requiring us to pay the county $700, we finally received some documents today!

Using county resources – your tax dollars – to benefit a political campaign is not just improper, it is against the law.

DeKalb has done exactly that.  We will be filing a complaint with the Georgia Campaign Finance Commission tomorrow to address the violations we are about to show you.

Please forward this information to your neighbors so that they are aware of how DeKalb County and the “No City” campaign are working in tandem to fool you into voting against cityhood.

Click here to read an e-mail in which “No City” treasurer Jodi Cobb pushes CEO Burrell Ellis and DeKalb County spokesman Burke Brennan to release a statement about the location of the DeKalb County North Police Precinct.  CEO Ellis and Mr. Brennan issue the statement at Ms. Cobb’s request, and she replies:  “Fantastic! Thank You. Any help we can get to help fight the city is appreciated.”

Click here to see an e-mail in which Davis Fox (paid county assistant for Commissioner Kathie Gannon) uses county e-mail to forward an invitation to a “No City” fundraiser to Richard Stogner (DeKalb County Chief Operating Officer), Jabari Simama (Chief of Staff to CEO Ellis) and Joel Alvarado (DeKalb County Lobbyist).

But this e-mail (click to read) is the most infuriating.  It was sent by Davis Fox using county e-mail to Stogner, Simama, Alvarado and Commissioner Jeff Rader.  It includes an attachment entitled “Items to Support the Brookhaven Opponents” and here is some of what the attachment identifies as action items:

A cost comparison of local tax bills for DeKalb, Gwi, Cob, Atl, Dun, Dec. Remember Vernon’s “best deal in town.” DeKalb will come out pretty good when water and sewer rates and sanitation fees are counted. In 2007 we were lower than everyone except Rockdale.

Visible Progress at County Parks:  Erect “One DeKalb Works” signs in the parks, release a schedule of improvements planned to the local neighborhood organizations, and start working on the following parks.

Briarwood Rec is having a new playground and picnic pavilion installed. Get this project moving faster. Also work is scheduled on the front entrance. Ensure that the pool will reopen on time this summer (closed last year) with deck furniture, etc.

Murphey Candler shoreline erosion is horrible. We’re in violation of State regs. Problem has existed for years. Engineering has requested a permit form DNR. Start the work now. The CEO would get major points if he toured the shoreline and park with the neighborhood.

Confidence Builders:  We have a good story to tell and we’re not presenting it to the neighborhoods. The CEO’s communication team can lead this effort.

Message to Department Heads:  Brookhaven is not lost. This is not like the other cities. The opponents are widespread and are organizing by raising money and hiring an experienced campaign manager. County Departments need to continue to provide a high level of service to Brookhaven. The County is going to work to keep these customers by demonstrating our capabilities and the showing the risks of cityhood. This is the moment of truth for the customers. Show them we are doing something to keep them.

And last but not least…

Armed with the above analysis, information and tools, the anti-Brookhaven organization will have the ability to reduce the credibility of the CV [University of Georgia Carl Vinson Institute] study and the rationale for a new city.

Your tax dollars are being spent to influence your vote.  But there is still time to end DeKalb County politics as usual.  Vote YES for Brookhaven on July 31.

Brookhaven’s $687 Million Commercial Tax Base

Question:  What do Cox Communications, AT&T, PepsiCo, AutoTrader.com, Crawford & Co. and Zurich Insurance have in common?

Answer:  Each of these companies has its corporate headquarters or major corporate offices in the proposed City of Brookhaven.

DeKalb County and its coordinated “No City” campaign are trying to convince you that your new City of Brookhaven lacks a sufficient commercial tax base.

There’s a reason they are not telling you the truth.  It is to protect Brookhaven’s commercial tax surplus for DeKalb County’s continued redistribution and misuse.

Pictured above is the Perimeter Summit office complex, just south of I-285, which includes corporate offices for Cox Communications, PepsiCo, AutoTrader.com, Crawford & Co. and Zurich Insurance. This is in the proposed city.

The total assessed value of the Perimeter Summit complex is $200 million.

Your new City of Brookhaven will also include Lenox Park, which is tucked off of North Druid Hills Road adjacent to Buckhead.  Lenox Park is home to large-scale AT&T offices.

The total assessed value of the Lenox Park complex is $222 million.

And don’t forget Town Brookhaven, which has a total assessed value of $83 million.  It’s subject to a 10-year tax abatement.  Each year, more of the taxes from this development will benefit the City of Brookhaven.

None of the taxes from Town Brookhaven were counted as part of the University of Georgia Carl Vinson Institute study for the proposed City of Brookhaven.  It’s a windfall that DeKalb and “No City” aren’t telling you about.

This doesn’t even include the various commercial properties along Peachtree Road, Buford Highway, Dresden Drive, and around the intersection of Ashford Dunwoody and Johnson Ferry Roads.

Brookhaven represents 14% of DeKalb County’s real estate tax base, but only 8% of the population.  We are 27% percent commercial, whereas DeKalb is only 21% commercial.

According to the University of Georgia Carl Vinson Institute, Brookhaven’s commercial tax base totals approximately $604 million in assessed value.  Add in Town Brookhaven and it becomes $687 million.

DeKalb’s top administrator Richard Stogner has confirmed on two separate occasions that the City of Brookhaven will shift $25 million to $27 million of our tax dollars away from DeKalb County for the benefit of our community.  He said it once on Channel 2 News and again in the DeKalb Champion (click to verify).

That’s more than enough revenue to run a full-fledged city, especially considering that the City of Dunwoody – with equivalent population size and land area – is only operating on $21 million in expenses this year.

If Brookhaven does not incorporate, the Perimeter Summit commercial property owners are ready to annex their properties into the City of Dunwoody.  Here is what Dunwoody Mayor Mike Davis had to say about Perimeter Summit at a recent forum (click to verify):  “The money is in the commercial areas.  That’s a winner for us.  Do we want your neighborhoods?  We’ll talk, but we’re really not interested in your neighborhoods.”

A “No” vote on July 31 will ensure that DeKalb County will siphon your tax dollars elsewhere.  A “No” vote will also ensure that Dunwoody will annex our commercial property and make our community less essential to DeKalb County.

A “Yes” vote will ensure that you retain your commercial tax base, keep $25 million to $27 million in our community, and gain local control over police, parks and roads.

YES for Your Neighbors, NO for County Politics

NONE of your “local” elected officials — three county commissioners and CEO Burrell Ellis — lives within the proposed City of Brookhaven.  They are not local at all.

This means they have no vested interest when they make decisions that impact you.  It also means that when they make a bad decision, like the zoning decision to allow a digital billboard in the heart of Brookhaven on Peachtree at North Druid Hills, they don’t actually have to live with their decision.

The “No City” campaign has decided to use this billboard to court your vote in next week’s election.  We consider it a monument to the distant, detached and dysfunctional politics they are fighting tooth-and-nail to protect.

Each DeKalb County commissioner represents a minimum of 138,000 people.  Compare that to the proposed Brookhaven city council, which would have four councilmembers who represent approximately 12,000 people each (plus an at-large mayor makes five).  A county commission district has 11.5 times more people!

Your voice is diluted in DeKalb.  Cityhood will vastly strengthen it.

The small city council districts make it much more likely that a local representative who makes bad decisions will be booted out of office in the next election.  Your representatives will be people you see at the local grocery store or coffee shop.  They will have to live right here in our community with the decisions they make.

Click here to see a map of the proposed city council districts.  As an example, there is one district that is comprised of ONLY the Ashford Park and Drew Valley neighborhoods.

A “yes” vote gets citizens a local representative of your choice who lives within a mile or two of your home.

A “no” vote keeps the political CEO from Stone Mountain and county commissioners from Druid Hills and Decatur in charge.

And keeping our local services under the influence of CEO Burrell Ellis will continue to work to the detriment of our wallets.

Brookhaven represents 14% of DeKalb’s real estate tax base, but only 8% of the population.

CEO Ellis recently sent out a campaign mailer touting “8 new libraries, 8 improved parks, 2 new recreation centers, and a new YMCA.”

None of them are in Brookhaven.  Instead, CEO Ellis only sees fit to spend $331,040 annually on ALL the parks in Brookhaven!

Vote YES to End DeKalb County’s “Politics 101″

Three of the four ballot committees seeking your vote in the City of Brookhaven referendum – two on the “yes” side and one on the “no” side – have filed a mandatory report with the Georgia Campaign Finance Commission disclosing who contributed to their campaigns.

The exception is the “No City” campaign, a group the Dunwoody Crier reported some time ago has received direct assistance from DeKalb County’s $225,000 paid lobbyist.

In an article posted today on the Brookhaven Patch, the “No City” campaign revealed that they plan to wait until after people have started voting next week to share this information with the public:

When contacted by phone, [NoCityBrookhaven Treasurer Jodi] Cobb said, “This is standard politics 101. You don’t file your disclosures until the last day of the grace period.”

When asked how much NoCityBrookhaven has raised, Cobb responded, “We haven’t disclosed that yet. The smart campaign waits until the very last minute.”

BrookhavenYES has filed its campaign finance disclosure and has been open and transparent in holding more than 20 meetings, large and small, in every corner of the proposed City of Brookhaven.  There have been no such public meetings held by the “No City” campaign.

To us, cityhood isn’t about “Politics 101.”  It’s about you.  It’s about our community.

And on July 31, your YES vote will end politics as usual in DeKalb County.

Check Our Sources:

DeKalb County Lobbyist in the Dunwoody Crier

“No City” Treasurer on the Brookhaven Patch

Vote YES to Retire “Pothole Pete”

“Pothole Pete” is a nickname that Brookhaven resident Pete Cabrelli never imagined he would have.  Until he took matters into his own hands and fixed his own neighborhood road, on his own time and with his own money.  Here is Pete in the AJC and on 11Alive News.

The pothole, and the one next to it, went unrepaired by DeKalb County for over a year.  Ironically, DeKalb was on the very same street a month earlier telling neighbors to move their pro-city yard signs further into their yards.  Here is a Brookhaven Reporter story on the county’s sign enforcement effort.  It was in the same neighborhood.

$120 million.  That’s what DeKalb estimates it will cost to repave the 400 miles of deteriorating roads, a 10-year backlog, throughout DeKalb County.

Where will the money come from?  Perhaps more bonds, which means more taxes.  Maybe an increased millage rate, which also means more taxes.  It’s most likely the roads will just continue to be neglected.

Any county effort to clean up its roads won’t be concentrated in Brookhaven, which is a key difference between DeKalb County and the proposed City of Brookhaven.  According to the Carl Vinson Institute at the University of Georgia, the city will be able to allocate 300% more funds per mile of Brookhaven roads than DeKalb currently does!

DeKalb County responded to “Pothole Pete.”

And DeKalb County’s response speaks volumes about the inefficiencies of many of its services as well as its inability to effectively and proactively address the issues that spread over the 270 square miles and 690,000 people that live in DeKalb.

DeKalb’s reaction to “Pothole Pete,” according to the AJC article: “The six-member crew removed the material that Cabrelli had put in place and refilled the holes.”

The potholes that “Pothole Pete” fixed were about 2 feet by 2 feet.  Pete fixed both potholes by himself — just one person.  It then took DeKalb County 6 road workers to undo and replicate the work of “Pothole Pete.”

DeKalb spokesman Burke Brennan told the AJC:  “Patching potholes is one of the easiest things we can do, but we have to be notified or notice them.”

The potholes “Pothole Pete” fixed had been in existence for more than a year.

In the case of the large metal plate on Dresden Drive less than 50 yards from the DeKalb County Fire Station and the DeKalb County Tax and Tag Office (see picture above), surely the county has noticed the problem.  This problem remains unaddressed.

The proposed City of Brookhaven, led by our neighbors and focused on our neighborhoods, will provide better services.

DeKalb County – with 270 square miles, 690,000 residents, 2,600 miles of roads and a $120 million repair backlog – does not have the time, resources or inclination to address our infrastructure problems on a neighborhood level.

As examples of what will happen if we vote YES for cityhood, we point to Sandy Springs and Dunwoody.

At the end of this year, only 4 years after incorporation, Dunwoody will have paved 12% of the city’s total road mileage.  And Dunwoody operates with a budget surplus.

Sandy Springs continues to repave 30 miles of roads per year.  Sandy Springs also operates with a budget surplus.

Remember the $120 million to catch up with the 10-year backlog?

DeKalb only paves 40 miles of roads per year in the entire county.  That’s only 10 more miles than Sandy Springs, a city with 600,000 fewer people!

It’s great that Brookhaven has “Pothole Pete.”  But we shouldn’t need him.  Your YES vote on July 31 is a vote to properly address our community’s infrastructure needs.

Check Our Facts:

“Pothole Pete” in the AJC

“Will Roads Be Improved?” in the Dunwoody Crier

DeKalb Invests in Parks, But Not in Brookhaven

The parks are great in DeKalb County.

As long as you don’t live in Brookhaven.

Wade Walker Park is about to open.  And according to reports in the Stone Mountain Patch, the project is estimated to cost $20 million!

According to DeKalb County documents, the county spends $331,040 to operate Ashford, Blackburn, Briarwood, Lynwood, Murphey Candler and Skyland Parks. That’s 6 parks in North DeKalb!

That’s right: six parks. That is a mere 1.6% of the cost of the Wade Walker improvements.

Why stop there, DeKalb County?

Here is where DeKalb has sent YOUR tax dollars.

In 2008, DeKalb County constructed a $7 million water park in South DeKalb.

To top things off, CEO Burrell Ellis decided it would be a good idea to build a $1 million dollar Soap Box Derby Track in South DeKalb.  Ellis keeps trying to find ways to fund this pet project.

Forget the fact that Lynwood Park can’t get a new playground or sand for the sand box. Forget the fact that Ashford Park had overflowing toilets for two weeks. Ignore the fact that Blackburn Park is run down and neglected.

Add it ALL up.

The six parks in Brookhaven get 1.1% of what these other parks will get just for improvements!

To add insult to injury, in 2005, DeKalb County approved a $230 million bond referendum for the improvement of transportation, parks/greenspace, and library infrastructure. And $40 million of the parks bond money was spent on county operations and NOT on parks.

In the proposed City of Brookhaven, the 49,000 residents would have a parks and recreation department dedicated to improving parks in this area ONLY and YOUR local tax dollars will be dedicated to parks in this area only.  The city could dedicate at least three to five times the resources that DeKalb County allocates to our parks.

Meet Morgan Falls Park in Sandy Springs.  It is an example of what could happen here.

It is time to make a change. It is time for a more local focus and time for better parks.

It is time for a City of Brookhaven.

This article was written by a supporter and is republished with his permission.  It was originally published in the Brookhaven Patch.

Click the links to check all the facts presented.