DeKalb District 6 Commissioner Kathie Gannon’s 2017 First Quarter Newsletter

Board of Commissioners Planning Retreat

How do we work together to move DeKalb forward?
Excerpt from DeKalb District 6 Commissioner Kathie Gannon’s 2017 First Quarter Newsletter

Board of Commissioners Planning Retreat

The Board of Commissioners recently held a half-day retreat at a County facility to discuss the policy priorities for the Board of Commissioners for 2017 and we reached a consensus on the priorities shown below. Each of these issues was assigned to a specific committee, which were reorganized to reflect our needs and skills. During the course of 2017, these committees will hear from subject matter experts and department managers. Then the committees will form policy recommendations to address the issue and guide the Administration.

1. Police retention
2. Blight
3. Financial reporting
4. City-County relationships
5. Human Services

The Board also revised and reaffirmed its mission and values.
Legislative Priorities

The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners and the CEO have requested the DeKalb Delegation to the General Assembly to change several state laws and adopt several resolutions:

• Establish a Charter Review Commission to study the DeKalb form of government and recommend changes to improve service delivery.
• Repeal language that would stop the tax freeze if E-HOST (a revised HOST) is adopted by the voters.
• Allow for a ½ penny to be added to the MARTA sales tax in DeKalb County to pay for extending the Marta rail system. A voter referendum would be required.
• Establish stricter standards for the creation of new cities and annexations and consider the impact upon unincorporated areas.
• Allow urban counties in Georgia to collect franchise fees from utilities just as city governments can collect.
• Require that newly incorporated areas share in the unfunded pension legacy costs for employees who served those areas before they become cities.
• Support the Association of County Commissions of Georgia legislative requests which include: increasing juvenile justice funding; improve the E-911 funding formula per the Governor’s Commission; rejecting legislation that mandates new county expenditures without the consent of local governments that must levy the taxes to pay for the mandates; improving transit funding and governance and amending the TSPLOST legislation to make transit funding more viable.

The 2017 proposed budget has been sent to the Board of Commissioners. Due to the delay allowed in the year we have a new CEO, the Board has only one month  to review, change, and negotiate before their final adoption, as required, at the last meeting in February on the 28th.