Read the column here (04 March 2012).
Monday, March 5, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Militia Aren't Argument For Gun Control
Read the column here (19 February 2012).
Constitution of the State of Georgia:
http://sos.georgia.gov/elections/GAConstitution.pdf
Official Code of Georgia Annotated (see Title 36 “Local Government” for state militia districts and Chapter 38 “Military Affairs”):
http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/gacode/default.asp
Georgia Department of Defense (includes links to all manner of things military and militia):
http://www.gadod.net/
Finally, there is a group called the Georgia Militia that is not a part of the state’s formal military structure. It appears to be more of a “preparedness” organization made up of private citizens (which, to my mind, is precisely the kind of group envisioned by the “unorganized militia” sections of the state Code):
https://gamilitia.com/index.html
Sphere: Related Content
Constitution of the State of Georgia:
http://sos.georgia.gov/elections/GAConstitution.pdf
Official Code of Georgia Annotated (see Title 36 “Local Government” for state militia districts and Chapter 38 “Military Affairs”):
http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/gacode/default.asp
Georgia Department of Defense (includes links to all manner of things military and militia):
http://www.gadod.net/
Finally, there is a group called the Georgia Militia that is not a part of the state’s formal military structure. It appears to be more of a “preparedness” organization made up of private citizens (which, to my mind, is precisely the kind of group envisioned by the “unorganized militia” sections of the state Code):
https://gamilitia.com/index.html
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
All Things In Moderation
My thanks to Clarke County Republican Party chairman Matt Brewster for asking me to moderate last Monday's evening's panel discussion among Athens-Clarke County Commissioners Kelly Girtz, Andy Herod, Kathy Hoard, and Doug Lowry.
The full meeting room at the County Inn & Suites included the “usual suspects” of GOP faithful, office holders, and candidates, but also included members of the general public, high school and collegiate student organizations, and members of the press corps (both the Banner-Herald and Flagpole were represented).
While I may frequently disagree with the policies adopted by City Hall, I have no personal animosity toward those who serve in government. In fact, I think it did the commissioners credit to participate in our little civic exercise.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
McKillip Mishandles Redistricting Issue
Read the column here (12 February 2012).
Though at first glance the topic of this column may appear to be dated in that it is an ongoing story, I do not think so. That is because HB 804 will doubtlessly be an issue in the upcoming elections.
I originally submitted a version of this column on the morning of Thursday, 02 February. That afternoon, news broke that the Athens-Clarke County legislative delegation had decided to pull the bill (meaning Bill Cowsert in the Senate). Jim Thompson offered me the opportunity to revise my column, which I immediately set about doing. In the meantime, Doc Eldridge contacted Jim to request space in last Sunday’s edition for a piece on the Chamber and the ongoing Selig Development spat. Jim gave it to him, and offered to move my column back a week (I should resume my regular biweekly schedule next Sunday). I revised the column a second time later in the week so as to reflect the ongoing nature of the story. Last I heard on Tim Bryant’s Newsmakers, McKillip is set to introduce his own ten district map, without super districts, later in the week.
Though at first glance the topic of this column may appear to be dated in that it is an ongoing story, I do not think so. That is because HB 804 will doubtlessly be an issue in the upcoming elections.
I originally submitted a version of this column on the morning of Thursday, 02 February. That afternoon, news broke that the Athens-Clarke County legislative delegation had decided to pull the bill (meaning Bill Cowsert in the Senate). Jim Thompson offered me the opportunity to revise my column, which I immediately set about doing. In the meantime, Doc Eldridge contacted Jim to request space in last Sunday’s edition for a piece on the Chamber and the ongoing Selig Development spat. Jim gave it to him, and offered to move my column back a week (I should resume my regular biweekly schedule next Sunday). I revised the column a second time later in the week so as to reflect the ongoing nature of the story. Last I heard on Tim Bryant’s Newsmakers, McKillip is set to introduce his own ten district map, without super districts, later in the week.
As I noted on the Banner-Herald comment board last Tuesday, “l am not married to the idea of super districts, but if we want and/or need to change them, the current situation would seem to be a case study in how not to go about doing so.”
In fact, I think that the idea of having Commission and Board of Education districts correspond has a lot going for it (though there would be practical difficulties to overcome) – but any such change needs to have popular support, not be imposed without widespread popular support by the local legislative delegation to the General Assembly.
HB 804:
http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20112012/119101.pdf
Unified Government’s Charter and Code of Ordinances:
Unified Government’s Charter and Code of Ordinances:
Unified Government’s Reapportionment Committee web page (see the separate pages concerning Reapportionment Committee Members, Reapportionment Maps, and Reapportionment Process):
As part of my 2006 campaign for the District 1 seat on the Athens-Clarke County Commission, I put forth the idea that commission districts should be redrawn so as to concentrate UGA’s dorms and Greek houses, which are currently split among districts 3, 4 and 7. College students have been on the receiving end of City Hall’s legislative initiatives and I think that carving out a “student” district would not be such a bad idea (for examples of this, see the definition of family ordinance and rental registration debacle). Though I suggested a change to where the districts lines should be drawn, I have never supported any proposal that would alter the structure of local government.
I penned the following in a column back in July 2011; even though the column ended up with the title of “Redistricting work should give voice to students,” the bit about a “student-centered” commission district was actually my secondary point:
Rather than just tweak existing commission and school board district lines, I think that the redistricting committee recently named by the mayor should consider creating a "student-centered" commission district.
I suggest that approach because the University of Georgia's dormitories and fraternity and sorority houses are split among three commission districts. Though grouping them into a single district would not affect many students who live off campus, it would serve to concentrate student voting power much more so than is currently the case. After all, students are routinely the focus of new ordinances and enforcement mechanisms adopted by the commission, so why should they not have representation?
At the state level, I have long maintained that turning the decennial redrawing of Georgia’s congressional, state House of Representatives, and state Senate districts over to a nonpartisan commission is an idea whose time has come. This is because, when in the majority underneath the Gold Dome, neither party has shown itself capable of resisting the temptation to play political games with the redistricting process. Though this proposal would change who draws district lines, it does nothing to alter the structure of state government.
I noted in that same column:
If I had my way, though, Athens would take even more of a lead in the redistricting process. And it could, too. Every year, the Athens-Clarke County government submits what amounts to a "wish list" of desired changes to state law to the county's legislative delegation for consideration by the General Assembly. Rather than follow its usual custom and hector those underneath the Gold Dome for more power and higher taxes, perhaps the mayor and commission could ask our local House and Senate members to introduce a bill in the upcoming session to take redistricting out of the hands of the General Assembly, placing it instead in the hands of an independent commission.
In taking such a step, Georgia would hardly be tilling new ground. According to the most recent information available from the National Council of State Legislatures, quite a few states have enacted such commissions to draw congressional and/or state legislative district lines, the composition and particulars of which vary widely from one state to another.
For example, six states have delegated the "first and final authority" to draw congressional districts to their commissions. Seven other states delegate the "primary responsibility" for drawing congressional districts to their commissions.
Two more states employ "advisory" commissions. Five states have "backup" commissions. Another state maintains a "fallback" commission enabled to draw congressional districts in instances where the state legislature cannot agree on a plan. Yet another state utilizes a non-partisan legislative staff process to redistrict for both its legislative and congressional representation, which then must be approved by the state legislature.
Though relying on an extra-legislative commission is not without its own drawbacks, it is an idea worthy of consideration; given the opportunity to do so, neither of Georgia's major political parties has shown itself able to resist the temptation to gerrymander the state's congressional and legislative districts.
In either case, these are actions that the Mayor and Commission could have undertaken on their own initiatives; others of necessity would have to be involved, but the locals could have gotten the ball rolling.
Sphere: Related Content
Clarke County GOP February Meeting To Feature Commissioners
Matt Brewster, chairman of the Clarke County Republican Party, kindly asked yours truly to moderate this event, a request to which I gladly assented (late word is also that Representative Paul Broun will address the meeting after the commissioners' portion concludes). Says the Athens GOP web site:
The Athens GOP will host commissioners Andy Herod, Kelly Girtz, Kathy Hoard & Doug Lowry at our next meeting. Please join us at the Country Inn & Suites on Monday, February 13th at 6:00pm. The program will begin with a opening statement by the commissioners followed by questions from the moderator. We will also have questions from the audience at the end of the meeting. We hope to see you next Monday!
Commissioners
District 1: Doug Lowry
District 7: Kathy Hoard
District 8: Andy Herod
District 9: Kelly Girtz
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Clarke Schools Come At High Cost
Read the column here (22 January 29012).
All of the above percentage and percentile calculation are my own.
The Georgia Department of Education usually posts its per pupil expenditure information in December for the previous fiscal year (meaning, for example, in December 2010 for FY 2010, which ran from July 2009 through June 2010). For whatever reason, FY 2011 figures were not posted until either very late this past Tuesday or very early on this past Wednesday.
Those school districts smaller than the CCSD that have a higher per pupil expenditure range from the Taliaferro County School District, with a mere 199 students, to the Decatur City School District, tallying 2902 students.
Those interested can take a look at the Georgia Department of Education Revenue and Expenditure reports for FY 2011 for themselves:
Here is the current CCSD “Facts & Figures” web page that omits any ands all mention of per pupil expenditures:
Here are my blog posts, letters to the editor, news articles, and opinion columns on this and related subjects. If one has nothing better to do, one can follow the various topics through time.
The Other Athens:
Banner-Herald letters to the editor:
Banner-Herald news articles:
Banner-Herald opinion columns:
Friday, January 20, 2012
Clowns To the Left Of Me, Jokers To The Right
Doug McKillip, former Democrat and current Republican representing self'consciously progressive Athens in the Georgia House of Representatives, appears to be an unpopular sort. See here and here.
The Democrats are promising to exact revenge for his sudden shift to the GOP, just weeks after being named to the number two post in the Democrat's House leadership structure following the 2010 election. Also, the locals are upset with what they see as his "interference" in local redistricting by virtue of McKillip's sudden interest in the composition of the Athens-Clarke County Commission. He is sure to face spirited Democratic opposition in this year's general election.
If he makes it that far. Many of the GOP faithful are not the least bit impressed with McKillip either, and local attorney Regina Quick is throwing her hat into the ring as a Republican primary opponent to McKillip (they faced one another across the partisan divide back in 2006). If she wins, and I hope that she does, my only regret would be that serving in the House may take away from her time drubbing City Hall in the courts.
No one seems to be on McKillip's side, with the possible exception of the state's Republican establishment. I am a Republican, but I am less and less enamored of the "establishment" at both the state and national levels (more about which at a later date).
I penned this at the end of 2010 concerning the local GOP Christmas party:
Finally, Doug McKillip of the 115th, the GOP’s newest member of the Georgia House of Representatives, was in attendance. I had wondered if he would make an appearance, and sure enough he did. For his part, it was a good political move if nothing else. For my part, I welcomed him over to the Dark Side. I wrote some pretty harsh things about McKillip’s sudden political conversion over on the Banner-Herald comment boards and still think that it is up to McKillip to prove me wrong, but we shall see.
We shall, indeed.
More GOP Presidential Bye-ku
Here is another installment of bye-ku for (former) Republican presidential hopefuls from WSJ online's James Taranto:
Jon Huntsman (16 January 2012)
Call me crazy, but
I think insulting voters
Will warm them to me
Rick Perry (20 January 2012)
Trounced in Iowa
New Hampshire and--the third one
I can't. Sorry. Oops
Sphere: Related Content
Trounced in Iowa
New Hampshire and--the third one
I can't. Sorry. Oops
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Impertinent Observations
1) I saw, with some relief, that Whatever It Takes was denied any part of the $30 million Promise Neighborhood “implementation grant” up for grabs. A couple of years ago, WIT received a $500,000 “planning grant” from PN to develop a series of proposals to hopefully address the appalling academic underachievement that has characterized the Clarke County School District for so long.
The result was a 77-point program released just a month or so back. I read the proposal; many of the points seemed to simply duplicate existing services and many others seemed related only tangentially to the ostensible purpose of the program (kind of like the “stimulus” crap up in D.C., the WIT proposal read like a wet dream of every taxpayer-funded idea its members could imagine). So, in the end, we blew half a million dollars of grant money trying to secure yet more grant funding. It seems this is how so many of such efforts end – not with a bang, but with a whimper. To paraphrase Limbaugh, I’m glad they failed.
2) According to the Gainesville Times, the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, the lobbying organization for the state’s counties, is pushing for a change in the SPLOST law: “Currently, the voter-approved 1 percent sales tax can only be used to fund the construction of big-ticket items, such as parks, libraries, roads or sewer lines. Once those projects are built, their operation is largely funded through property taxes and user fees . . . The ACCG wants Georgia's law changed in 2012 to allow as much as 15 percent of SPLOST revenue to be used for operating costs.”
This would be such a bad idea. It seems that government has discovered a strategy to move things that used to be financed through the general budget into their own “dedicated revenue stream” funds (LOST, SPLOST, ELOST, TSPLOST, stormwater utility fee, septic tank fee, trash-hauler fee, etc.). That would be okay if general fund expenditures decreased accordingly, but they never do – the dedicated funds simply allow government to spend more while claiming that taxes (and/or fees) are not going up to cover the new spending which, of course, is sophistry.
3) I realize that I criticize local government quite a bit. Unfortunately, though, the folks down at City Hall keep serving up those hanging curve balls that beg to be smacked. A case in point is the local “public art” ordinance. Passed in December 2010, I noted at the time that I thought it was a bad idea because it mandated unnecessary spending and created and funded yet another bureaucracy.
Be that as it may, our betters down at City Hall claimed to not have understood the ordinance they passed and we ended up with the prospect of spending some $520,000 on public art at the new county jail. Faced with a tide of public outrage at this, the Commission backtracked and revised the ordinance. My reading of the revised ordinance, however, leaves us right back to where we were before we had any public art ordinance at all (City Hall can require some unspecified percentage of the overall construction budget of SPLOST projects be spent on public art – or not). A full year later we right back where we started, having accomplished nothing other than the recognition that some of the folks inside the rail do not pay attention to what they are doing (not once, mind you, but twice now on this same issue).
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Just Call It 'Trestle to Nowhere'
Read the column here (08 January 2012).
Bridgehunter.com (bills itself as “a database of historic or notable bridges in the United States, past and present”):
http://bridgehunter.com/ga/clarke/bh47212/
Banner-Herald coverage of the Murmur trestle:
http://onlineathens.com/stories/072100/new_0721000004.shtml
http://onlineathens.com/stories/100400/new_1004000060.shtml
http://onlineathens.com/stories/102903/opi_20031029025.shtml
http://onlineathens.com/stories/071909/new_465600405.shtml
http://onlineathens.com/stories/053111/new_837379446.shtml
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2011-12-22/rail-trail-project-will-by...
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There are two reasons why I focused on the GOP side of the presidential preference primary: 1) I am a Republican and am far more familiar with the minutia of this stuff on my side of the aisle (though anyone can look this information up for either party) and 2) the fact that, since Obama is for all intents and purposes unopposed on the Democratic side, the elephants are where all the action is.
For what it is worth, I partook of that action and cast my early ballot last Wednesday.
The three states that have more delegates allotted that Georgia are California with 172 delegates, Texas with 155, and New York with 95.
According to national GOP Rule 13(a)(5), states casting a majority of their 2008 electoral votes for the Republican candidate receive 4.5 + 0.60 × the jurisdiction's total 2012 electoral votes. The resulting math for Georgia is:
4.5 + (0.60 X 16 [2 Senators and 14 Representatives] =
4.5 + 9.6 = 14.1 (by rule rounded up to next higher whole number = 15)
See Rule 13, “Membership in Convention,” of the Rules of the Republican Party:
http://www.gop.com//images/legal/2008_RULES_Adopted.pdf
See Rule 7.3, “Election of National Convention Delegates,” of the Rules of the Georgia Republican Party:
http://www.gagop.org/documents/GRP%20RULES%20ADOPTED%2020110924.pdf
See Republican Detailed Delegate Allocation (this is a great web site, so play around with it):
http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P12/R-Alloc.phtml
For the bit about “unpledged” delegates, see O.C.G.A. 21-2-197:
http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/gacode/default.asp