Along with another computer virus, we received a response to our
Open Records Request. As a reminder, we requested the following:
1.) Attendance records for the May 2011 T-mobile meetings.
2.) Attendance records and meeting minutes for the Aug. 2010 Budget, Audit, Finance Committee Meeting in which the cell tower issue was discussed.
3.) "The plans" for a construction timeline as mentioned in the T-mobile contract.
4.) The signed contracts for the two schools not included in the deliverables from our prior Open Records Request, Narvie J. Harris Elementary (Theme) School and Lakeside High School.
5.) The memo initialed by Interim Superintendent on or about July 12, 2011, to approve the proposal presented by T-mobile.
We received most of what we requested, with some intereting exceptions.
1.)
Attendence records for the T-mobile meeting were provided for all except Margaret Harris Comprehensive School and Martin Luther King, Jr. High School. Mr. Walter Woods, spokesman for DeKalb County School System, stated that these two schools had zero in attendance and that is the reason they are not included. However, we have listened to the recorded meeting held between board member Jay Cunningham and several members of the community near MLK High School and it is pretty clear that several people, including Mr. Cunningham, were aware of that meeting taking place and either attended it personally or know someone who did. So, why is the school system denying that the meeting took place? Or, why are the attendance records "missing" in action? Perhaps these are just the only two meetings that Paul Womack himself did not handle the details, leaving the work up to McChestney and Cunningham respectively and they didn't follow through? We may never know, but obviously someone is mistaken here or lying.
2.) The Aug. 2010 meeting is where we have been told that the subject of cell towers as "alternate revenue streams" was first brought up. Mr. Donahue said he was asked to look into the possibility (by whom, he does not state) and that T-mobile had presented an 18 - 24 month plan and already scoped out some locations. We have not followed-up to ask for copies of the proposals, but find it very curious that T-mobile is the only vendor mentioned by name. Seeing that there are only a total of 5 cell providers in Atlanta and maybe a handful of tower companies, it would be interesting to see who could have possibly come in with a lower bid on this "RFP" for leasing our land right out from under the taxpayers in order to devalue our real property even further bringing even lower taxes into the district. Was this a well thought out plan? Really?
Womack claims it was all for the ATT/T-mobile coverage at Lakeside High School. Then whey are they the only school without a contract? And how does a cell tower at MLK High help Lakeside? Unless it is really the MONEY from the towers that Lakeside needed not the coverage after all. Now THAT makes a little more sense, doesn't it?
Interetsing to note that Interim Superintendent Tyson is not on the attendee list, but is supposedly going to come back to the board in Oct. with a decision about the cell tower proposals on the table. That apparantly didn't happen either as it was, once again, Steve Donahue who addressed the board in October as well. We'll have to make another Open Records Request to ever find out if he actually did that. He's on the agenda, but that's all we can get from what's available online to date.
3.) "The Plans" were not provided. Of course not. That would be too easy, wouldn't it?
4.) The Narvie contract appeared, but it is now referred to as "Pantersville" and is a lot closer to the stadium than the school. Nothing for Lakeside. We didn't expect there to be anything for Lakeside, but it's still disappointing when the reality sinks in that one school's extra perks are worth trying to bring 30 years of harm to (almost) 11 other schools in our county. Pretty sad that anyone would go along with this plan or even think of it in the first place, isn't it? We've been told that Lakeside tried to get a cell tower in the late 90s and the community sued the school board to stop it, and won. The school sits on donated property, we were told, that cannot be used for commercial / proprietary purposes. So, no matter how badly they might claim they need or want a cell tower, the folks advocating for cell towers at Lakeside likely knew there was no chance they would actually receive one themselves. Hence, the "need" for the nearby Briarlake site (for the issue with the dropped ATT calls) and the rest were likely so that the Valhalla Group could get the little perks that they were promised with SPLOST III but were not delivered. Womack had to make it up to them somehow.
5.) Memo received. Contracts likely started on July 12, 2011 and will expire July 12, 2012. If you are considering legal action, your attorney will likely just need to stall T-mobile until this cut-off date. After that they will have to either pay out a lot of money on the off chance that they will still win the lawsuit, or they will have to drop their bid for your school as a potential site. Otherwise, the contract obligates them to some hefty payments up front and the first 5 years of monthly rent installments.
