From Julian Bene—retired management consultant & former board of Invest Atlanta member.

You may have seen that Fulton Development Authority (DAFC) handed Musk a $10M property tax abatement last week, for zero public benefit. By now, that's what you'd expect from DAFC.* 

Neither the current Fulton County Commissioners nor our current state legislators will do anything about this.

But all is not lost!  These tax breaks only work if our Board of Assessors (BOA) agrees to a fraudulent valuation of the projects in question.  Since we challenged that valuation method in early December, the BOA has held the Tilford Data Center and other breaks that have come their way, while they figure out if our challenge is right.  It's right! Both a look at the phony bond and lease structures underlying the abatements and the market evidence prove it. 19 recent sales of major abated properties went for an average of 3x their abated value. Not one sold for less than full appraised value before abatement. 

The BOA may not approve arbitrary and unreasonable valuation of a favored few properties. The players who benefit handsomely from the abatement scam have allies at the BOA and are likely exerting maximum pressure.  Some board members and county staff are trying to hide behind a misreading of a court decision on valuation methods; our attorney allies are setting that record straight. 

The BOA plans to hold a work session on this next week on Feb 8.  (Whether before or after their regular 12.30. p.m. meeting is unclear as of now.) Zoom link here: https://fultonassessor.org/current-meetings/

If the majority of BOA's 5 members decide to resume mis-valuing development authority projects, we'll have to take legal action. No public action needed for now. But stay tuned!

Best, Julian


* We managed to reform DAFC, by revealing petty corruption of the leaders, for only a couple of years, from mid-2021 to mid-2023. Our County Commissioners - except for Lee Morris - never wanted DAFC reformed. Dana Barrett beat Lee in the 2021 Commission election and, as soon as she could, replaced reformer Tom Tidwell on DAFC with a telecoms developer's attorney, decisively tipping the balance. In the six months since then, DAFC has squandered $100M of our tax revenue on projects that would have happened without abatements. Those projects also bring almost no jobs or affordable housing units. 

--
Julian Bene
[email protected]
404.317.9320

​I hope you all had a great holiday season and happy new year.  Apologies for the late submission on this one.  The most recent period will follow in a separate email.

In the first period of 2024 (Dec 30 - Jan 12), 45 incidents were reported in Beat 204.  Of those, none occurred in the area we patrol.  A breakdown of other activity reported in the area:

The Georgia Loud Vehicles Task Force is asking for your help! They are working with several legislators to have a bill passed to allow noise detection cameras. Currently, these are not allowed in Georgia but they are used across the United States and throughout Europe.

"Noise detection cameras measure the decibel level of vehicles and if the level is above the legal limit, a picture of the license plate with the date, time, location and decibel reading. Then a violation is mailed to the owner of the vehicle. This is much like the school zone cameras. We believe everyone has the right to drive the vehicle of their choice but the impact on the public is important.

Not only are these loud vehicles impacting your quality of life but they are also a health and public safety issue. Noise pollution has been proven to cause stroke, high blood pressure, hearing issues, productivity and many other health related issues. Noise pollution impacts wildlife such as birds not hearing danger, disturbing their sense of when to gather seeds to spread. It impacts your ability to hear emergency vehicles creating a public safety issue.

We ask you to sign our Stop Loud Vehicles in Georgia petition. The results of this will be presented to legislators as they consider the bill. We need your help as we need to gather enough signatures to impress legislators how important this is to you and your neighbors. 

We will be visiting the state capital on Tuesday Feb 20 from 8:00am to 10:00am. This will be a chance to interact with the legislators in person. There is strength in numbers so we need a very large turnout. Please consider joining us at the state capital. 

Here is the Change.org Petition link Stop Loud Vehicles in Georgia and a QR code.
Please sign and share with your network.

As we are looking into carpooling on Tuesday Feb 20, please sign up here State Capitol Visit Feb 20 

Thank you for your help. We cannot get our quality of life back without this bill."

Anne McKillips
Chair
Georgia Loud Vehicles Task Force
678-640-0745

Forest Restoration, c/o Trees Atlanta
Saturday, February 10 ⋅ 9:00am – 12:00pm
Underwood Hills Park
This event begins with a Workshop: learn how to safely identify & remove invasive plants such as English ivy, Chinese privet and bamboo to promote a healthy plant community.
Refreshments provided by UHNA. 
Teens can register for Community Service Hours via Myvoluntier.com

Others, Sign up at Trees Atlanta (Search for Underwood Hills) 

Neighbor Grayson Daughters suggested this item;

Please remind UH residents that the recent redistricting and redrawing of congressional and legislative maps in Georgia has impacted the location of many county voting precincts, seemingly ours in Underwood Hills, too. 

Registered voters can check on their latest precinct’s location here:

More information about redistricting from WSB-TV is here: 
​
Thanks Grayson!

​If you have a suggestion for local news... 

City Code Section 10-48(e) requires Applicants for liquor licenses to appear before the NPU in which the proposed licensed establishment is located.
The LRB case is on this month's NPU-D agenda, January 23. Details on UHNA website.
​Copy of application below.

CALLING ALL CITY OF ATLANTA LEADERS!This June marks the 50th anniversary of the NPU System created under the late MAYOR MAYNARD H. JACKSON!

TO MARK THIS 50th year, WE WANT TO ENROLL 50 ATLANTA LEADERS IN OUR FREE TRAINING WHICH IS OFFERED FOUR TIMES A YEAR:  WINTER, SPRING, SUMMER & FALL
​
Winter 2024 Everydaynomics™ Bootcamp                         Registration Now Open!
Link to Scholarship details Below
On-Demand Lessons Weekly Live Discussions: Wednesdays Jan. 10 - Feb. 7, 12-1pm Eastern