Legal update: We are still awaiting the opinion of the Georgia Supreme Court in the local appeal case. It could come as early as January or as late as April. As most of you know, Lake Oconee Academy Inc., the Greene County Board of Commissioners, and the Greene County Development Authority attempted to subject local citizens to a $14 million revenue bond debt under the guise of economic development. On behalf of the citizens, I and several others intervened to halt what would have amounted to a 1mill tax increase on all property owners for the next 30 years. We objected because General Obligation Bonds are the only legal means of funding such public indebtedness for school expansion. Unlike these traditional General Obligation Bonds, their chosen path of Industrial Revenue Bonds required no approval of the citizenry. By design, the private industrial enterprise repays such revenue bonds from its own revenue. Such is not the case with a public school expansion. Tax dollars repay that debt and that is the reason taxpayer approval is required. This is a Constitutional issue and the facts cannot be denied. It is no secret. The attempt here was to avoid and circumvent such citizen approval. Worse still, was the attempt to quietly solicit the support of a couple of individual BOE members while leaving the Board of Education at large, completely out of the process. This is the same unconstitutional method the political founders used to establish LOAs current campus in 2009. The only difference is that they were then able to convince the former BOE members to buy into it and there was no need to enlist the support of BOC members in order to achieve their political objective. This time was different. The current BOE majority wised up and didnt fall for the past political ploy. History aside, the latest bond attempt was denied by the Superior Court and specific court orders were issued. LOA Inc. then attempted to ignore those orders by proposing yet another intergovernmental agreement whereby the County would lease their recently purchased $400k+ land to LOA Inc. for $1 per year for the next 30 years. Again, this was in direct violation of the previous court orders. In spite of my pleadings, the majority of the BOC and the GCDA were set to approve the agreement. That is when I was forced to file for an Injunction and Cease and Desist Order. The chief judge approved that request and ordered certain individuals to be deposed and a jury trial to convene in June 2014. Upon notice of appeal, my counsel agreed to postpone these proceedings for several months. Later, we received another request to postpone until January 9, 2015. We agreed. Just this week, we received yet another delay request backing the date to April 15, 2015. Once again, Ive complied. At some point between now and April, the Georgia Supreme Court will render an opinion on the appeal. Once that is done, our investigation of facts will pick back up with the secondary suit and we shall proceed as required. My motives are not self-serving and I seek no vengeance against anyone. I really dont have a personal dog in this fight. I am interested in sustainable economic development and preservation of our local communities as we seek to provide job opportunities and a conducive environment for new industries and future local generations. A solid public school system is vital to these goals. All of our energies should be focused on fixing what might be broken rather than funding a political machine with ulterior motives. Failure to recognize these pitfalls will doom us into a downward economic spiral from which we might never recover. I cant fault parents for choosing the best path path made available to them. However, I can fault political manipulation by those seeking to capitalize on existing weaknesses rather than working to improve the system at large. I say we deserve better. The choice is ours. One Greene County
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 00:15:05 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015