Watchdawgs Needed

Public Scrutiny Helps Projects

One of the best ways to ensure good government is to keep it open to public scrutiny. Mostly, Athens-Clarke County staffers understand this. They follow Georgia's Open Records Act and respond helpfully to citizens asking questions about facts or procedures. In the past few years, committed citizens have given the "good ole boys" and business interests a run for their money in influencing county policies.

But one area where citizens have a hard time finding out what's going on is in planning for new development. For the convenience of developers, ACC's planning department has applications and procedures available on-line and even issued a "Developer's Guide" (although they no longer call it that).

There is nothing wrong with this: planners must deal with developers every day. But shouldn't there be a "Citizens' Guide," too? The process is so tilted toward developers that citizens often cannot find out what is happening until it is too late for their input.

Interested citizens are all but begging to be "watchdawgs" on projects which will affect them. Why shouldn't they? Too many projects have had lapses of enforcement for county staff to say they are on top of the problem.

Even active neighbors are getting caught by surprise by big projects with big impacts, like the current 100-acre subdivision off Jefferson River Road. Perhaps, if interested neighbors had been involved as they wanted to be, the erosion and sedimentation problems from this project wouldn't have been written up in the daily paper.

Forester Bob Barker of the Community Tree Council calculates that Clarke County has lost some 1,400 acres of tree cover in the past three years - several times the rate of the previous 20 years. Our commissioners are struggling to come to terms with certain aspects of development at the 11th hour, but so far there is nothing to prevent the clearcut-and-grade-it-flat approach of some cheapskate developers. Even the protections that do exist will be satisfied if the developer plants small trees once the project has been completed.

Increasing population plus out-of-town investors are driving development of Clarke County's last remaining open spaces. Our tax system encourages development rather than retention of open land, since land is taxed at its fair-market value regardless of the owners' intentions.

No wonder neighbors feel outgunned. The signs notifying the public of proposed zoning changes only go up when a rezoning or variance is being requested - and in many cases, none is needed. Commissioner David Lynn says the only way citizens can really find out what's proposed for their area is to go down to the planning department and ask. He suggests a map be put on the county website that would show proposed projects area by area. This would be a lot of work for a webmaster, but it could also add a valuable (and free) resource to the county's planning and enforcement process: informed citizen involvement.

John Huie

John Huie is frequently a pest at meetings of BikeAthens, Federation of Neighborhoods and ACC Community Tree Council.

Downtown, Yes

Forums Address Preservation

Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation will hold public forums to discuss the proposed local historic district designation of downtown. The forums are designed to provide information about the designation process and also about the benefits of designation. Forums are Monday, Aug. 25 at 5:30 p.m. ; Tuesday, Aug. 26 at 8 a.m.; Wednesday, Aug. 27 at 8 a.m. and Thursday, Aug. 28 at 12 p.m. All sessions will last an hour and will be the same format, beginning with a 15-20 minute presentation of information followed by questions and discussion.

Designation as a local historic landmark or district is recognition of the significance of a property and its value to the community. Designation affects the exterior of buildings, only, not the interiors. Owners of locally designated historic properties may make changes to the interior of their buildings without going through the design review process. Only proposed material changes to the exterior of buildings must be reviewed by the Historic Preservation Commission. For more information call 353-1801, or visit www.achfonline.org or send an email to: achf@achfonline.org

Amy C. Kissane

Amy C. Kissane is executive director of the Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation.

Not Our Problem?

Patriot Act Watches Athens

Locally, both the Green Party and the UGA chapter of the ACLU have tackled the U.S. Patriot Act through two separate resolutions proposed midsummer to the Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission. Christine Gaston of the Athens Green Party says that her resolution would make it a local policy that local officials not cooperate with federal actions under the Patriot Act as a form of "passive resistance" to the extent that is "legally possible"; further, that no communication should occur between local officials and national officials when it violates the U.S. Constitution.

Kate Marsden, of the UGA chapter of the ACLU says that her organization's resolution adopted a very similar stance. She says that as controversial as this act is and with at least 143 communities across the country already enacting local legislation, she finds it hard to believe that our mayor and commission don't see these resolutions as relevant.

Gaston summed up the Green Party position in her brief speech to the ACC Commission: "By the vagueness of the language used to define 'terrorist,' and I quote, from section 802(a)(5)(b) of the Patriot Act, anyone who is 'to appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population.'" Gaston maintains that, "This highly subjective definition could include almost any activist who dissents against the current administration."

Both organizations received response letters directly from the mayor that stated that this issue was of "state and national interest" and that the mayor and commission wished to "maintain their focus on local issues."

Section 215 applies to libraries, and UGA reference librarian Monica Pereira says that top library officials have "talked to us, and all I know is that we are not supposed to talk about it." Library Director William Potter says, "We of course will comply with the law. We have no choice."

The local Athens-Clarke County library also would be involved, but Kathryn Ames, Director of the Athens Regional Library System, states that most statewide libraries expunge the records of books checked out once those books are returned. The UGA main, science, and law libraries have the same procedure.

The UGA law library could opt to switch its technology to keep all records even after books are returned, but it has chosen not to do so because of the Patriot Act. Law library director Ann Puckett, asked if the FBI had approached the law library for any current student records, replied, "If we had been approached, it would be illegal to tell you, and I think that is the most dangerous thing." She further stated that "... looking into research activities is dangerous. It is deadly if it is done in secrecy. I think the Patriot Act endangers American democracy at the most fundamental level."

Amy Johnson

Amy Johnson is a geography graduate student. The ACLU web site, www.aclu.org, contains further information about the Patriot Act.

Animal Control

This Week's Scorecard

Athens-Clarke County Animal Control responded to 70 calls.

4 complaints of animal cruelty

6 reported bite cases

3 complaints of barking dogs

3 citations were issued

ACCAC impounded 53 animals.

41 dogs

3 cats

2 black rat snakes

1 goat

1 raccoon

5 squirrels

ACCAC placed 25 dogs.

10 adopted

7 reclaimed

8 turned over to other agencies/rescue groups

Athens-Clarke County Animal Control Press Release for the week of Thursday, Aug. 7 to Wednesday, Aug. 13.

NeoLibCon

Howard Dean! Howard Dean?

Howard Dean, media-anointed Lord of the Left and Prince Protector of Progressivism, is surfing a tsunami of Democratic discontent that could carry him to the White House. But as Vermonters tell anyone who's willing to listen, the former governor they call "Ho-Ho" is at best a leftie-come-lately. "The Howard Dean you are seeing on the national scene is not the Dean that we saw around here for the last decade. He's moved sharply left," says John McClaughry of the Ethan Allen Institute, a rightie think tank, of Dean's campaign rhetoric.

Vermont created proto-gay marriage "civil unions" during Dean's term - but that was the state Supreme Court's doing, not his. Even though Vermont's constitution didn't require him to balance the budget, he was a fierce deficit hawk who vetoed proposed Democratic spending. He sided with ski resort owners over environmentalists. And when big business called, he always picked up the phone. "We would meet privately with him three to four times a year to discuss our issues, and his secretary of commerce would call me once a week just to see how things were going," gushes IBM's John O'Kane.

According to Vermonters, Dean is a shrewd operator who saw millions of anti-Iraq war demonstrators last spring for what they were: untapped Democratic primary voters. A few well-placed verbal broadsides spread his reputation as the only presidential contender willing to go after Bush while other Democrats remained silent or supported his war. His opportunistic Bush-bashing attracted liberal voters tired of being taken for granted and disgusted by do-nothing "Republican Lite" Dems.

Liberals are driving Dean's come-from-nowhere campaign, but they don't share his take on most issues. "If he gets the nomination, he'll run back to the center and be more mainstream," predicts Republican resort owner Bill Stenger. "He was not a left-wing wacko."

Even as Joe Lieberman berates Dean for pulling the Democratic Party too far left, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich attacks him from the left, as nothing more than another Clinton - a Democrat in name only. "If someone wants to be a fiscal conservative, a good place to start is the Pentagon budget and he's already taken it off the table," rages Kucinich. (Dean on the military: "I don't think you can cut the defense budget.") "How in the world can you be for peace when you won't touch a Pentagon budget that needs war to expand, that needs war in order to justify itself?"

Dean's supporters don't believe what they're told. They hear what they want to believe, and Dean provides the strident vagaries that fuel their self-delusion. "We need to know what the president knew and when he knew it," he spat when Bush got caught lying about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in his State of the Union address. That reference to the 1974 Nixon impeachment hearings affirmed many Democrats' belief that Bush deserves serious punishment for lying about Iraq, but will President Dean turn over Bush to the International War Crimes Tribunal? Not bloody likely. And how can antiwar types reconcile Dean's support for Bush's invasion of Afghanistan?

Clinton played libbies the same way in 1992. The pro-business Arkansas governor promised to stand up for workers - without naming specifics. But when he moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Clinton approved pro-corporate, GOP-authored "free trade" agreements that robbed Americans of millions of high-paying jobs, trashed the environment and did almost zilch to improve employee rights.

But there was nothing that lefties could do. Where could they turn - the Republicans? They'd projected their leftiest hopes and dreams onto their "Democratic" president; no matter how often Clinton betrayed them, they stuck with him.

There's plenty of ideological self-delusion to go around. On the Republican side, George W. Bush transformed a $4 trillion federal budget surplus (over 10 years) into a $6 trillion deficit. He created an extravagantly wasteful cabinet-level bureaucracy, the Department of Homeland Security, whose sole function is the issuance of color-coded press releases. How do fiscal conservatives justify a guy who argues that wasting $10,000,000,000,000 doesn't matter?

Nevermind that Bush is the biggest tax and spender of any nation that has ever existed in human history; in their wacko fantasy world, he's still a "conservative."

If elected, Dean says, he plans "to do what Clinton did in 1993. We need to make a genuine effort to start to balance the budget to restore investor confidence. The second thing I would do is to support the small-business community." Some leftie! Like Clinton, he'll clean up the Republican deficit, making it impossible to fund Democratic social programs. He's pro-defense and pro-business. He's committed to the environment but he'll likely disappoint liberals on health care, taxes and trade.

Dean doesn't lie about his intentions. "I'll govern the same way I did in Vermont," he promises. So he's not the Great Left Hope. But anybody-but-Bush Democrats desperately need a hero, and Dean's elected.

Ted Rall

Cartoonist and writer Ted Rall is the author of the graphic travelogue To Afghanistan and Back.