DoraBlog

I think no one is going to physically go to City Hall and check what the agenda is for the upcoming City Council meeting. Lets face it, Buford Highway is a physical barrier between Northwoods and City Hall. It’s very dangerous and I avoid even trying to cross it, which is another issue entirely. The City of Doraville has a website, why don’t they post the agenda on the website?? The neighborhood has bullitin boards?? Written communication is obviously not working, look at what happened with the new sanitation issue??

A new building starts construction or something else relevent happens and everyone scratches their heads and wonders, “how come we weren’t notified?”.

Just about everyone I know in the neighborhood has a full time 9-5 job. Some are single and many are married, have children where both work or one stays home with the children, which I could imagine would be a full time job in its self. Everyone minute of these peoples day count. So does anyone have the time to go to City Hall and physically check a schedule?? If anyone has to practice time management or multi-tasking, it’s not going to happen. Maybe Fred and Wilma Flintstone would have to, but most modern day citizens don’t have to because of the present day technology..

The work sessions are help in the middle of the day!! Can anyone else afford to take off work and attend a work session?? I work in Marietta, I can’t. All one reads in the papers is plant closures and layoffs, so most really can’t afford to skip out of work, it’s not a wise move. The only people who can attend the work sessions and many of the Council meetings are the retirees, and good for them. Others have to schedule every minute of the day and I don’t mean this to be disrepectful to the retirees. Maybe City Council likes it this way, they have the audience of their constituents and the people who aren’t their constituents can’t make the sessions because they are at work, think about it. The Doraville Citizen Newsletter just announced a function for Lamar and David Weese for their retirement, it’s on Monday in the middle of the day?? So, who can attend?? Why was it sceduled in the middle of the day, and what audience was this schedule aimed towards??

City Hall needs to open up, they need email, everyone on the planet earth has it and all the members of City Council need to have it as well.

Look at the communication spawned by the neighborhood. The NNA Site, The NNA Chat Site, Dora-Blog, Doraville Watchdog and the sites Oakcliffe has. I have been absolutely shocked how many are on the NNA Site. It seems to me, wouldn’t the NNA Site or one of the other sites be a good place to post the agenda??

And to be honest, I want to see progressive, open minded people in City Council who are for Doraville and it’s tax payers. The bickering, backstabbing, power struggles and self promotion may be entertaining at first, but like most negative things, it gets real old really fast and becomes just a waste of time. I don’t know about anyone else, but that’s what I see when I attend the meetings.

Once commication is resolved between City Hall and the Tax Payers, I think you will see more input from the citizens, which City Hall probably really could do without to be honest. But, everyone needs to know.

And I know, Marlene, you have done the best you can and, it may not seem like it, but it is appreciated. One person can’t do everything.

In the next few months, Jason Anavitarte is going to give up his city council seat to run for higher office. Doraville law states that Jason will be the one to choose his replacement on the council (with the rest of the council approving of his choice). This isn’t unprecedented–Thurmond Roach recently gave up his own council seat and chose Donna Pitman to replace him.

There’s a lot of griping on the local e-mail lists from people who don’t believe council members should be able to choose their replacements. Personally, though, I don’t have a problem with it. When we elected him, we entrusted Jason with the power to make these sorts of decisions for our city. I think that holding a special election every time a council member steps down would be a big waste of city resources.

My guess is that Jason already has some people in mind who he would like to tap for the council seat. If he were still looking for a replacement, though, he couldn’t do better than choosing long-time Oakcliff resident, Susan Crawford. Susan has been involved in local politics for several years, and recently was elected president of the Oakcliff Neighbors group. The fact that she is a current employee at the GM plant means she would add some interesting perspective to the debates that will be coming up soon about what we should do with the GM property. I worked with Susan for a couple of years on her “Cliffhanger” newsletter, and can personally attest that she is passionate about the future of Doraville.

Whoever Jason chooses, lets just hope that the person has personal integrity and the city’s best interests at heart. Doraville can’t afford any less.

Please note that this was an e-mail Jason sent to me that I decided to repost here. Councilman Anavitarte currently has no affiliation with doraville.org and did not ask for this letter to be placed here.

Dear Neighbors:

I want to let you know that myself and Mayor Jenkins has called a Council Meeting Friday January 27 at 2pm to discuss the proposed City of Dunwoody and proposed annexation for the northern part of Doraville along a proposed jurisdiction line by our State Senator Dan Weber which would bring the city limit line to the Gwinnett County line and just north of Carver Hills adjoining the proposed new City of Dunwoody. This proposal which we will bring to the City Council which I fully support, including the support I give to the incorporation of the City of Dunwoody, would bring in properties near Home Depot and Winters Chapel that have been neglected by the County near our city limit line and have affected growth in our city and have been detrimental over the years to our neighborhoods in the North. The proposal brings in a significant amount of business near the Gwinnett County line. Due to the lack of amount of patrols by Dekalb County in some of these areas, Doraville Police have worked hard and diligently to keep crime and gang activity out of the city. We have a lot of areas around our City that are in unicorporated Dekalb that indirectly and directly affect economic development, our schools, transportation, and the social fabric that makes up our city. This opportunity gives us the ability to help shape our future in a whole manner by being able to determine future land uses and quality of life issues that affect our neighbors and businesses in Doraville everyday. We will discuss the pros and cons of this proposal and give the public the opportunity to comment and provide input.

This meeting will come on the heels of the Doraville-Dekalb Blue Ribbon Commission which will meet January 25 at noon at City Hall to discuss current and future issues at the Doraville General Motors facility. This past Tuesday I introduced a resolution that passed calling on GM to reconsider their decision to close the plant and to support the workers at the plant. I thank the Mayor’s support and Council voting to support this resolution and those who have been outspoken supporting the workers from the beginning. The City will work to support the workers and ask for the plant to stay open, continue to identify the prominent issues the city will face during a transitional period if the plant closes, and begin to plan for a scenerio if the plant closes of what it will take for redevelopment or other economic development tools or policies to happen. It was good news to hear this week that a public request from myself, Mayor Jenkins, and Councilwoman Pittman on November 28, 2005 for the County and State to help the workers with training and job placement if the plant were to close was finally announced and will occur according to an announcement made at our Council meeting Tuesday.

Finally, I want to thank Councilman Tom Hart for his hard work, diligence, and leadership in bringing the experience and knowledge long time former Norcross Community Development Director Johnny Lawler to Doraville who will work as a part-time consultant (which a full time community development director was called for in the LCI plan final analysis, but we will go the part time route for now) who is regionally reknown for the highly respected work he has done in Norcross for the last couple of decades in terms of economic and community development, bridging the gap between the past, present, and future and a variety of cultures. The city council will hopefully finally ratify this position at our February 6 meeting by addressing budget issues that comes with this. The City Council ratified the concept of Councilman Hart’s idea and proposal unanimously Tuesday. Another positive step for Doraville.

The Council also voted to extend the age group for soccer to ages 11-12
due to the popular response we received last year due to the league. Also, the City Council provided consenus that the historic boxing club in downtown Doraville would remain open following questions by some as to whether to City should continue to have the boxing club in existence. In attendance was a young man that is currently training and will attempt to make the 2008 Summer Olympic Team. I want to thank Charlene Fang for the donation of $500 to the Doraville Boxing Club on behalf of Summitt National Bank who like many other businesses have supported our city and community. Thank you Charlene for your leadership.

One last item, just days into office I want to recognize Councilman Bob Spangler for his efforts in our Oakcliff neighborhood since taking office on code enforcement and other infrastructure issues. Bob is working hard for you and please do not hesitate to call him also if you need assistance with anything.

If you have any questions or comments please email them to j.anavitarte@worldnet.att.net

Sincerely,

Jason R. Anavitarte
Mayor Pro Tem
City of Doraville, Georgia
770-652-1287