From You
Aug 14, 2002
Letters
HEIDI, NOT DOC
Mayor Doc Eldridge wants us to think that he has led Athens "ably" in his first term. In campaign ads he claims responsibility for police and fire department "upgrades."
But the upgrades for new fire stations were submitted by the SPLOST committee, not the Mayor, whose political mismanagement has resulted in a reduction in fire personnel at a time when population growth requires more protection, not less. Last year, Eldridge so thoroughly mishandled his spending recommendations that the Commission rejected his proposed tax increase. Now our need is greater than ever.
New revenue might have come from a mixed-use fire station proposed for Five Points by UGA Dean of Environmental Design Jack Crowley. At a community forum, the public enthusiastically supported the use of that prime real estate for a combined fire station, retail and residential site financed by a private developer. But what does the public know, and what should we care for the opinion of an expert? Eldridge didn't support the idea, so it was defeated. Not only was it defeated, but the Mayor, who decides which items go on Commission agendas, put a different $10 million fire station proposal on his list of "consent" items, meaning he considered it already approved and requiring no discussion.
What other non-tax revenues has Doc refused? How about the Department of Transportation funding that would have covered 80 percent of the Barnett Shoals improvement project? The ACC cost for the original project to widen Barnett Shoals was estimated at $1.2 million. But the DOT required that a 4-foot median be installed to limit left turns and reduce accidents. In deference to local business owners who believed that such a median would hinder access to their shops, Doc supported the proposal to widen the road without adding sidewalks, bicycle lanes or a median. The decision will cost taxpayers dearly: to date, the price has risen to $7.3 million. And that's just what we'll pay in dollars. The state DOT refuses to fund the project because it considers the proposed road unsafe. David Clark, ACC Director of Transportation and Public Works, agrees. But why should his opinion matter? He's just a transportation expert on the county payroll.
Heidi Davison, one of Doc's competitors for the office of mayor, is a former schoolteacher and a volunteer with many local organizations. A graduate of the Leadership Athens program, she is now an adjunct faculty member with UGA's Fanning Institute for Leadership. She understands the high personal cost of volunteer work and she appreciates the effort it takes citizens to attend meetings and voice their opinions to their elected leaders. She also values the opinions of government employees. Unlike Doc Eldridge, she will value and respond to the opinions of her constituents and county staff. That's why I plan to vote for her.
Kris Boudreau
Athens
I was surprised to read among the list of accomplishments in Mayor Doc Eldridge's campaign ad (page 2 of your July 31 issue) that he has "worked... with Athens Regional Medical Center and the surrounding neighborhoods."
The lack of leadership from the Mayor was the most disappointing aspect of the difficult negotiations in 1999 between ARMC and Citizens for Healthy Neighborhoods.
CHN urged the Mayor and Commission to delay approval of a bond issue for ARMC in May 1999, so that we would have time to discuss the hospital expansion which was to be funded by the bonds. Doc opposed the delay, and the bond issue passed, over the objections of some Commissioners.
The hospital then agreed to form a Community Advisory Committee to discuss its long range expansion plan. I was a CHN representative on this committee, which met over the summer of 1999. We actually asked Doc to chair these meetings, but he declined.
ACC provided the government building on Dougherty street for our meetings. Questions about traffic planning were answered by David Clark. But that was the extent of government participation in these discussions.
After a long summer, we reached an agreement which resulted in a compact hospital expansion plan with a more modest 20-year growth boundary. The final plan preserved all of the proposed medical facilities, and it adapted them to an urban setting. This achievement was the result of the hard work of many people. Doc was not one of them.
Clint McCrory
Athens
We are writing in regards to Doc Eldridge's claim that he "worked with stakeholders to reach an agreement at Garden Springs."
When Doc uses the word stakeholders, he must mean "people who are carrying a big steak," because as far as the residents of Garden Springs are concerned, he has failed to take a stand on anything that would really make a difference.
Yes, Doc helped grease the exit of people from the place they lived: some of them for 30 years. He had the opportunity to do a lot more. He could have spoken out in favor of the moratorium that would have temporarily halted construction. This would have allowed a closer look at the effects of new developments on affordable housing before it was too late. Today, where hardworking families used to live and mature hardwood trees used to grow, there is nothing but bulldozers and bare dirt.
The Mayor has since used the support for low-income housing generated by this issue to go back on his promise to appoint a committee to investigate Transferable Development Rights, a way to protect greenspace and support smart development. Making affordable housing and the environment seem like either/or issues may be a good political strategy, but that's not the reality and it's not the way to lead a community. Athens can do better,
Latitia Franklin & Paul Hirsch
Athens
MAYOR & ENRON
Regarding the statement in Mayor Eldridge's Flagpole campaign ad that "he removed the Enron rezoning request a month before Enron filed for bankruptcy," his "record" is presented as if it was done for the benefit of the public.
Mayor Eldridge did not remove the Enron rezoning request because he had some prescient knowledge of Enron's collapse. Even as public concerns about environmental impact and the financial affairs of Enron mounted, the mayor remained a staunch advocate for the power plant. When he removed the item from the agenda in November 2001, it was in direct response to a request by Enron representatives to do so. When he removed it again the very next month, no explanation was forthcoming, but by then it was a political hot potato. Even with Enron in bankruptcy, plans for the "Athens Energy Center" continued to go forward, and the issue is still an open book.
The Mayor has broad power to set the agenda for the city government. Unfortunately, he has become adept at abusing that power to derail groups of citizens whose voices should be welcome. The pattern was established during the creation of the Land Use Plan ordinance, when the vote on the ordinance was postponed repeatedly to manipulate the outcome. The Enron plant is just one more in a series of such examples.
Norma Wood
Athens
The Banner-Herald's Aug. 4 endorsement of Doc Eldridge for Mayor is misleading in light of his testimony on behalf of Sembler Corp., developer for the new Super Target, against Georgia Environmental Protection Division's decision to deny a variance request to fill and pipe Malcolm Branch.
In a letter and meetings with EPD, he claimed Malcolm Branch is little more than a "drainage ditch" whose water quality would actually be improved by the project. That's simply not true. But, Sembler (and Eldridge) prevailed; EPD's decision was overturned, and we are now getting another big-box development on the Atlanta Highway at the expense of the benefits of a free-flowing stream.
All this happened without the knowledge or consent of the Commission. But most unsettling is the campaign spin and environmental badge Eldridge now touts for advocating adoption of the very same buffer ordinances for which he covertly advocated variances.
Also, if you thought Malcom Branch might be protected by ACC's 75-foot buffer ordinance, think again. It has been left off "the map," along with many other perennial streams with development potential - an oversight Eldridge has chosen to ignore.
Eldridge's actions, not words, clearly show his true colors when it comes to responsible protection of our natural resources.
Melanie Ruhlman
Athens
Mayor Doc Eldridge wants us to think that he has led Athens "ably" in his first term. In campaign ads he claims responsibility for police and fire department "upgrades."
But the upgrades for new fire stations were submitted by the SPLOST committee, not the Mayor, whose political mismanagement has resulted in a reduction in fire personnel at a time when population growth requires more protection, not less. Last year, Eldridge so thoroughly mishandled his spending recommendations that the Commission rejected his proposed tax increase. Now our need is greater than ever.
New revenue might have come from a mixed-use fire station proposed for Five Points by UGA Dean of Environmental Design Jack Crowley. At a community forum, the public enthusiastically supported the use of that prime real estate for a combined fire station, retail and residential site financed by a private developer. But what does the public know, and what should we care for the opinion of an expert? Eldridge didn't support the idea, so it was defeated. Not only was it defeated, but the Mayor, who decides which items go on Commission agendas, put a different $10 million fire station proposal on his list of "consent" items, meaning he considered it already approved and requiring no discussion.
What other non-tax revenues has Doc refused? How about the Department of Transportation funding that would have covered 80 percent of the Barnett Shoals improvement project? The ACC cost for the original project to widen Barnett Shoals was estimated at $1.2 million. But the DOT required that a 4-foot median be installed to limit left turns and reduce accidents. In deference to local business owners who believed that such a median would hinder access to their shops, Doc supported the proposal to widen the road without adding sidewalks, bicycle lanes or a median. The decision will cost taxpayers dearly: to date, the price has risen to $7.3 million. And that's just what we'll pay in dollars. The state DOT refuses to fund the project because it considers the proposed road unsafe. David Clark, ACC Director of Transportation and Public Works, agrees. But why should his opinion matter? He's just a transportation expert on the county payroll.
Heidi Davison, one of Doc's competitors for the office of mayor, is a former schoolteacher and a volunteer with many local organizations. A graduate of the Leadership Athens program, she is now an adjunct faculty member with UGA's Fanning Institute for Leadership. She understands the high personal cost of volunteer work and she appreciates the effort it takes citizens to attend meetings and voice their opinions to their elected leaders. She also values the opinions of government employees. Unlike Doc Eldridge, she will value and respond to the opinions of her constituents and county staff. That's why I plan to vote for her.
Kris Boudreau
Athens
I was surprised to read among the list of accomplishments in Mayor Doc Eldridge's campaign ad (page 2 of your July 31 issue) that he has "worked... with Athens Regional Medical Center and the surrounding neighborhoods."
The lack of leadership from the Mayor was the most disappointing aspect of the difficult negotiations in 1999 between ARMC and Citizens for Healthy Neighborhoods.
CHN urged the Mayor and Commission to delay approval of a bond issue for ARMC in May 1999, so that we would have time to discuss the hospital expansion which was to be funded by the bonds. Doc opposed the delay, and the bond issue passed, over the objections of some Commissioners.
The hospital then agreed to form a Community Advisory Committee to discuss its long range expansion plan. I was a CHN representative on this committee, which met over the summer of 1999. We actually asked Doc to chair these meetings, but he declined.
ACC provided the government building on Dougherty street for our meetings. Questions about traffic planning were answered by David Clark. But that was the extent of government participation in these discussions.
After a long summer, we reached an agreement which resulted in a compact hospital expansion plan with a more modest 20-year growth boundary. The final plan preserved all of the proposed medical facilities, and it adapted them to an urban setting. This achievement was the result of the hard work of many people. Doc was not one of them.
Clint McCrory
Athens
We are writing in regards to Doc Eldridge's claim that he "worked with stakeholders to reach an agreement at Garden Springs."
When Doc uses the word stakeholders, he must mean "people who are carrying a big steak," because as far as the residents of Garden Springs are concerned, he has failed to take a stand on anything that would really make a difference.
Yes, Doc helped grease the exit of people from the place they lived: some of them for 30 years. He had the opportunity to do a lot more. He could have spoken out in favor of the moratorium that would have temporarily halted construction. This would have allowed a closer look at the effects of new developments on affordable housing before it was too late. Today, where hardworking families used to live and mature hardwood trees used to grow, there is nothing but bulldozers and bare dirt.
The Mayor has since used the support for low-income housing generated by this issue to go back on his promise to appoint a committee to investigate Transferable Development Rights, a way to protect greenspace and support smart development. Making affordable housing and the environment seem like either/or issues may be a good political strategy, but that's not the reality and it's not the way to lead a community. Athens can do better,
Latitia Franklin & Paul Hirsch
Athens
MAYOR & ENRON
Regarding the statement in Mayor Eldridge's Flagpole campaign ad that "he removed the Enron rezoning request a month before Enron filed for bankruptcy," his "record" is presented as if it was done for the benefit of the public.
Mayor Eldridge did not remove the Enron rezoning request because he had some prescient knowledge of Enron's collapse. Even as public concerns about environmental impact and the financial affairs of Enron mounted, the mayor remained a staunch advocate for the power plant. When he removed the item from the agenda in November 2001, it was in direct response to a request by Enron representatives to do so. When he removed it again the very next month, no explanation was forthcoming, but by then it was a political hot potato. Even with Enron in bankruptcy, plans for the "Athens Energy Center" continued to go forward, and the issue is still an open book.
The Mayor has broad power to set the agenda for the city government. Unfortunately, he has become adept at abusing that power to derail groups of citizens whose voices should be welcome. The pattern was established during the creation of the Land Use Plan ordinance, when the vote on the ordinance was postponed repeatedly to manipulate the outcome. The Enron plant is just one more in a series of such examples.
Norma Wood
Athens
The Banner-Herald's Aug. 4 endorsement of Doc Eldridge for Mayor is misleading in light of his testimony on behalf of Sembler Corp., developer for the new Super Target, against Georgia Environmental Protection Division's decision to deny a variance request to fill and pipe Malcolm Branch.
In a letter and meetings with EPD, he claimed Malcolm Branch is little more than a "drainage ditch" whose water quality would actually be improved by the project. That's simply not true. But, Sembler (and Eldridge) prevailed; EPD's decision was overturned, and we are now getting another big-box development on the Atlanta Highway at the expense of the benefits of a free-flowing stream.
All this happened without the knowledge or consent of the Commission. But most unsettling is the campaign spin and environmental badge Eldridge now touts for advocating adoption of the very same buffer ordinances for which he covertly advocated variances.
Also, if you thought Malcom Branch might be protected by ACC's 75-foot buffer ordinance, think again. It has been left off "the map," along with many other perennial streams with development potential - an oversight Eldridge has chosen to ignore.
Eldridge's actions, not words, clearly show his true colors when it comes to responsible protection of our natural resources.
Melanie Ruhlman
Athens
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