Oakland police radio culprit: cell towers

Oakland officials say they and federal investigators have discovered a major source of disruption to the city's police radio communications system: interference from cell phone towers.

Specifically, officials said, cell phone towers operated by ATT Wireless have been interfering with the city's public safety communications frequency and causing radio failures among police and firefighters on city streets.

ATT, notified by the city of the problem last week, is cooperating and has partially disabled 16 towers. A company spokesman said the impact on customers will be minimal, affecting only those on the company's oldest phones.

The towers constantly interfered with the radios, but the problems became particularly pronounced when a police car was within a quarter to a half mile of a tower, said David Cruise, Oakland's public safety systems adviser.

"If the officer is in an area close to one of their cell sites, essentially the cell site overpowers their radios," he said.

The number of officers reporting no radio connection, however, dropped immediately after the frequency was curbed at the first cell site, Cruise said.



The city's public safety radio communications system has suffered repeated failures. Officers routinely have been unable to connect to dispatchers or to communicate with other officers.

In addition, the radios do not work in hundreds of buildings, including the basement of Oakland police headquarters. The night President Obama visited Oakland in July, police radios went down, although after the president had left town.

More issues to inspect
Cruise emphasized that cell tower interference was only one part of the city's examination.

"Our investigation is continuing," Cruise said. "This is not the end of it, for sure. There are plenty more issues we're looking at. We're working on plans to remove all of them."

Cruise said the city will be looking at cell phone towers of other companies, particularly T-Mobile, which uses a frequency that might also interfere with police radios.

Oakland and the Federal Communications Commission had been investigating the police radio communications problems. The city mapped locations of radio blackouts, said Cruise, who was hired on Aug. 2, partly to help resolve the issues.

Public safety priority
An analysis of the maps led investigators to believe cell phone interference was playing a role. The FCC confirmed the interference on Thursday. The next night, AT&T shut down the problem frequency. FCC rules give public safety agencies priority in communications, according to city officials.

ATT cell towers emit three different frequencies - 850 MHz, 1900 MHz and 700 MHz - said John Britton, a company spokesman. In addition, it operates three different cellular networks - 2G, 3G and 4G.

The company temporarily shut down the 850 MHz frequency for 2G customers. The 2G network is the company's oldest, meaning relatively few customers would be affected, Britton said. Those on 2G are using some of the company's oldest phones and would still be supported in the affected areas on the 1900 MHz frequency.

"ATT would never do anything to jeopardize law enforcement," Britton said. "This spectrum has been out there since the 1990s. Thursday or Friday was the first time we were notified by Oakland. We reacted quickly."

Britton said the company does not disclose how many towers it has in Oakland, but did say it has more than a thousand towers in the Bay Area.

Limiting interference
Interference from cell phone towers is not unique to Oakland. Sprint Nextel is spending well over a billion dollars nationally to relocate public safety radio frequencies, a project known as re-banding.

Sprint Nextel paid $10.5 million in direct costs to move Oakland's $7.5 million radio system to a frequency further from its network, Cruise said. Oakland moved to the new frequency in July 2011, Cruise said.

The company that installed the Oakland radio system did check for interference, but it's unclear how close it got to each of the cell towers, he said.

"Unless they drove close to a cell site, they wouldn't have seen this," Cruise said.

Matthai Kuruvila is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: mkuruvila@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @matthai

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iPhone sale leads to shootout at convenience store in Georgia

 by Associated Press

JONESBORO, Ga. — Police south of Atlanta are investigating a shootout that began after a family set up a meeting to sell an iPhone 5 with someone they met through Facebook.

Apple's former founder and CEO Steve Jobs
(who passed away in 2011)  and the Iphone.

WSB-TV reports that a mother, her son and his girlfriend arranged to meet a prospective buyer at a QuikTrip in Jonesboro.

Police said that while the son and his girlfriend were in the store early this morning, three men got into the mother’s car and demanded the phone, money and her car keys at gunpoint.

When the woman’s son approached, one of the suspects flashed a gun and tried to drive off. Police said the son fired 15 rounds at the men’s black Dodge Charger. No one was injured.

Officers apprehended three suspects. Few details about them were immediately available.

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The Fight for Truth and Voting Rights continues

Dr. Eugene Walker, former DeKalb County
School Board Chairman.

OPINION PIECE BY DR. EUGENE WALKER, 

FORMER CHAIRMAN OF THE 

DEKALB COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD:

All things considered, I am encouraged by Friday’s administrative hearing in Judge Maxwell Wood’s courtroom.  It was in his venue that any scrutiny whatsoever was given to the blatantly false AdvancED/SACS report which has caused irreparable damage to the DeKalb School System, my colleagues on the Board of Education and the community as a whole.  No matter what the outcome is from this point forward, at least there is that.

I have been dismayed since the beginning of this odyssey that the report, lengthy as it is, has been sold and bought as the gospel truth.  In Judge Wood’s courtroom, we were finally allowed to scrutinize the document and the hands that prepared it.  We were validated:  SACS brought forward no supporting documentation for their baseless allegations.

The whole process has been suspect from the start.  SACS had advised us of concerns, and we were addressing them.  In their review in March 2012, SACS commended the DeKalb School System in five areas.  There were seven areas, called “Standards,” that we had been addressing.  At that time, we had met 4 of them and making progress on the other three.  Things were looking up.

In an effort to streamline our processes as a policy setting organization, and to rectify our remaining issues with SACS, we did vote on a policy change that I believe was the root of our sudden and unexplained falling out with SACS.  We increased the unilateral purchasing authority of the superintendant from $50,000 to $100,000.  With this flexibility came the condition that a report of these purchases would be provided to the Board.  After all, the Board was no longer seeing and approving these purchases on the front end, so to ensure transparency and fiscal integrity, we asked for the report on the back end.  It was our responsibility as stewards of public funds.

But the report, as stipulated by policy, was not produced.  When I asked for it, our former superintendant said it could not be produced without additional money and staff.  I wasn’t buying it.  And then came the sudden execution from SACS:  immediate probation.

Remember, a few scant months earlier DeKalb was making substantial progress toward all the SACS goals.  We were on “advisement” and moving in the right direction.  As a result of the December 2012 report, the School System was taken off of “advisement,” moved past “warning,” and placed on “probation”.

The record shows that there was not a drop in student performance, there was no credible evidence of fiscal mismanagement, nepotism, and the personnel department had consistently received good ratings for their operations.  No one knows what evidence or documents were used to pass “warning” to placing the System on probation in light of the March report.  Thanks to Judge Wood’s hearing, we know that SACS did not review the state audits.  I would think a sound and fair review of alleged fiscal mismanagement might have included taking a look at them.  But not in DeKalb’s case.

I could go on and on, and I have done so before.  But there are two more things I’d like to make clear before I close.

First, enough with the missing book money already.  All of the money earmarked for textbooks went for textbooks.  We have the records and the textbooks.  Just because SACS cites it in a flawed report does not make it true.

Second, there are many who believe that my legal filings are the selfish act of an old man trying to save his political career.  Completely false, except for my age.  While I am indeed 77 years old, my political career was over years ago.  The job pays $18,000 a year, if anyone is interested.  I continue to serve the school system only because I believe I have something to offer.

The reason why I continue to fight in my retirement is because what has happened here is wrong.  I have not been arrested, indicted or even accused of any crime or wrongdoing.  There is no recall effort underway for myself or any other board member.  Yet the Governor, armed with a largely anonymous and completely flawed report, usurped the will of 42,000 DeKalb County voters without due process for me, or for them.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Georgia has made sufficient progress that the Voting Rights Act is no longer needed.  It is true that the old Jim Crow has been eradicated for the most part, but you can’t tell me that the new Jim Crow isn’t just the same.  It’s just gotten smarter.

Dr. Eugene P. Walker

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School Board Public Meetings Today, July 1

The DeKalb Board of Education will hold the following hearings and meetings on Monday, July 1 in the Robert R. Freeman Administrative & Instructional Complex, 1701 Mountain Industrial Boulevard in Stone Mountain.

2 p.m. Second Public Millage Rate Hearing & Work Session. Committee of the Whole and Executive Session for a personnel matter; Cabinet Room. 

5:45 p.m. Community Meeting for Public Comments; J. David Williamson Board Room.

7 p.m. Third & Final Millage Rate Hearing & Business Meeting; J. David Williamson Board Room. 

Meeting information can be accessed online. Click on Leadership, go to eBoard Home Page and click on the date for the meeting.

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Company Agrees to Relocate 300 Cell Towers Due to Health Complaints

GTCO-ATL Notes:  As our county commissioners determine how to please the public without feeling the wrath of the telecommunications industry, this article from India seemed to be very appropriate.  A large telecom there is being forced to take down 300 towers and relocate them outside of any residentially-zoned communities.

Just like we told you when Canada started paying to have the wireless in their schools ripped out while we were just beginning the discussion about whether or not to put wireless technology into our schools, it's high time our elected officials start paying attention to the fact that there is a whole big world out there.  They don't have to decide everything while living in a vacuum.  Most of the things happening to us here have already happened to others elsewhere.  

It only takes a short moment to find stories, like the one below, where the "bad ideas" we all know should not be made, but government makes them anyway, turn out and bite us in the end.
We either need better elected officials, or we need a full time research staff that can advise them of how their brilliant ideas have worked (or not) elsewhere before they just plow straight ahead.  

MONDAY, JUNE 24, 2013

Author:  Nina Kuhmar

NOIDA TO RELOCATE 300 MOBILE TOWERS

In the wake of health risk posed by mobile phone towers, the Noida Authority has decided to relocate all such antennas from residential areas of the city. The authority will identify locations in isolated places — far from residential colonies — where they will be relocated.
There are over 300 such towers that need to be relocated. The recent move of the authority has been initiated after court's direction to allocate mobile towers at isolated locations rather than sealing them.

The officials of the Noida Authority said that earlier they had planned to seal illegal towers, but they are working now on the guidelines of Allahabad High Court, which has ordered to shift all such towers from residential sectors to other places.

A building in India will soon have to take its towers down as
residents of nearby apartments prepare to file lawsuits stating
their health issues were caused by their living conditions.

"We have ordered the officials to conduct a detailed survey and figure out alternate locations so we could ask mobile tower operators to shift their existing towers to those places. We have also ordered to get rid of the towers from institutional and hospital structures with immediate effect and shift them to other places," said PK Agarwal, Additional CEO of Noida Authority.

In a meeting of senior officials of the Noida Authority recently, the officials planned to shift these towers either to community centers at various sectors or at sparse places so radiation from these towers could not affect the local people.

The officials also decided to stop mobile tower operators from installing more towers in residential areas as city already has around 600 mobile towers for the population of seven lakh. During the meeting, it was also planned to eliminate towers installed atop hospital and institutional buildings.

According to the survey conducted by the Noida authority and city police last year, it was found that out of 600 mobile towers, 300 towers were illegally installed on the roofs of residential units. Twenty per cent of the towers have been illegally installed over institutional and hospital buildings.

In a 2010 sealing drive initiated by the authority, 200 towers were sealed from residential areas.  Meanwhile, the Federation of Noida Residents Welfare Association (FoNRWA) has also written to Noida authority seeking removal of mobile towers from the roofs of residential units.

“As residents are suffering from various health disorders due to high radiation from these towers, we have urged the competent authority to take penal action against the companies responsible for their wrongdoing,” said NP Singh, president of FoNRWA.

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Help Expose Corruption

(We are not necessarily recommending that you participate in this interview, but simply passing it along in case you have anything you want to contribute to an article about corruption for the AJC.)  This was an original post from the DeKalb School Watch Two blog.

From our emails:

Help Expose Corruption in the Dekalb County Government
A reporter for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution is doing a piece on the corruption in the Dekalb County government. She would appreciate hearing from anyone with knowledge of corruption or direct experience with corruption. If you have such information, please contact me and I’ll give you her contact information.

Thanks,
Boyd Leyburn
BoydLeyburn@Comcast.net

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Whistleblower or Double-Agent?

Snowden's decision to go public has mystified many. Why come out?

People across the globe are talking about Snowden.  Who is the
government listening to as they talk on their cell phones?  Will this
knowledge make us finally end our gadget obsession in the U.S.?

The US government had forced the telecoms giant Verizon to hand over the phone records of millions of Americans who were not suspected of a thing.  

Here's an interesting article in "The Guardian" that questions whether it is the person who leaked the information or the information itself that should be our concern.  The article includes a link to Snowden's whistle-blower interview, "I don't want to live in a society like that."

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A Look Back: DeKalb's Struggles Just Six Short Months Ago

A look back at where we were as 2013 started.  We still have a long way to go and our accreditation is still on the line even as the county is breaking up into city factions and politicians continue pitting neighbor against neighbor, we here at Get the Cell Out - ATL have not forgotten the children.  They deserve the adults in this county to behave like adults and put the future of our school system first.




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NEW ZONING PLAN ON AGENDA -- BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MEETING THIS TUESDAY, JUNE 25 10 AM

Protect the Interests of Communities v. Developer

(Original content by Good Growth DeKalb, edited in part by Get the Cell Out - ATL for accuracy.)

Last Tuesday, 30+ Good Growth DeKalb supporters -- and about 200 other concerned DeKalb residents -- attended the public forum on the new zoning plan. They were joined at our press conference by No Briarlake Tower, which has been fighting a cell phone tower at Briarlake Elementary for the last 2 years.

While the meeting did not allow for public comment, they had a chance to speak with staff, who wrote down some of their concerns.  But at the Board of Commissioners meeting this Tuesday, public comment will be allowed -- please come if you can! 

The Zoning Plan is the first item on the agenda. If you can't attend, please email your concerns to Zoning Administrator Marian Eisenberg or Director of Planning Andrew Baker.

Board of Commissioners Meeting
Tuesday, June 25, 10 a.m.
Maloof Auditorium
1300 Commerce Dr., Decatur 30030
($6 parking at DeKalb County Parking deck on W. Trinity Place near Commerce) 

When you come in, fill out a card at the table at the back if you want to speak

In his opening remarks last week, Planning and Sustainability Director Andrew Baker seemed to be feeling the heat of residents' concerns about the new plan. He stated that the section on cell phone towers would be re-written -- not barring them in residential areas, but simply allowing appeal rights to the BOC. 

Two cell phone towers near Clarkston, GA

In one of the small group meetings last Tuesday, Zoning Administrator Marian Eisenberg said she "didn't know" if cell towers are currently allowed in residential areas or not.  (They are allowed, but only if there is a proven need and only if the tower company can prove that all other options have been considered first.)  

Whether you can attend Tuesday's meeting or not, please email Marian Eisenberg your concerns. You may mention:

-- Communities need more rights than they do now, not fewer
-- Communities and individuals must have appeal rights
-- No cell towers in neighborhoods -- at all or only as a last resort, as it is currently written
-- Do not limit decision-making to a single administrator (this sets up the opportunity for a payoff / corruption)
-- We need a red-lined version to compare the new plan with the old
-- Before a vote, the plan must be re-written to be clearly understood

Good Growth DeKalb is calling for a 90-day moratorium on voting on the new plan. The plan will affect all commercial and residential matters in the county for years to come, and is far too important to be rushed through. 

You can see the plan at http://planningdekalb.net/?page_id=756. Note, the cell tower issue is addressed in Article 4; decision-making in Article 7.

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Decatur Residents Oppose Cell Tower Zoning Changes

Atlanta News, Weather, Traffic, and Sports | FOX 5

DECATUR, Ga. -

Some Decatur residents say that cell phone towers aren't welcome in their neighborhoods.

DeKalb County residents say they are concerned about a new zoning code.  They say the new code allows for the installation of cell towers on residential areas.

Jac Clifton, a resident in the Briarlake neighborhood, said that he isn't just worried about the towers would look in their backyards.

"Now I don't have a problem with cell towers. What I have a problem with is how they're doing it," Clifton said. "What they've done is they've rewritten these laws to where they can site cell towers on residential areas with absolutely no public oversight."

On the other side, the director of planning and Sustainability, Andrew Baker, insists that no one can build a tower without first being approved by the community council, and that is noeasy feat.

Briarlake residents say they won't make the task any easier. They plan to fight any plan that would allow cell phones companies to make money off their neighborhood properties.

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DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis Charged with 14 Felonies

AJC Photo credit.  CEO Burrell Ellis bonded out of
jail late Tuesday after being indicted on charges of
extortion, theft and conspiracy.

DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis has been indicted by a DeKalb grand jury today on charges he illegally pressured contractors into giving him campaign contributions.

The 15-count indictment includes 14 felonies. Among them, four counts of extortion, two counts of theft by taking and several conspiracy charges.

DeKalb District Attorney Robert James, in an afternoon news conference, said Ellis is charged with extortion and other felonies for soliciting campaign contributions under threat. Ellis has turned himself into the DeKalb County Jail and has been released, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has confirmed.

Read full article from the AJC here.

Here are other blogs or letters we have written regarding the cell tower controversy at our schools as we appealed to Mr. Ellis for his help:

Memo to CEO Burrell Ellis - New Message for "One DeKalb"  (April 16, 2012)

Dear Mr. Burrell Ellis, CEO, We are contacting you again ...  (May 3, 2012)

Response from The Burrell Ellis Team  (August 26, 2012)

Call Upon CEO Burrell Ellis to Deny T-Mobile Cell Phone Towers at Schools (April 6, 2012)

REPRINT of OCT. 2011 Response from CEO Burrell Ellis' Office (May 2, 2012)

Quality Life For DeKalb - No Cell Tower On School Grounds (Aug. 11, 2012)

Kill the Cell Towers: Updates and How You Can Help!  (April 2, 2012)

Breaking News:  Thank You Board of Commissioners!  (March 30, 2012)

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Cell Phone Tower Zoning Changes to be Discussed at Tonight's Zoning Code Update Meeting, 6:30 p.m.

Don't let this happen to our neighborhoods in DeKalb!

What:  DeKalb County Zoning Code Update Meeting

Date:  June 18, 2013 

Time:  6:30 pm

Where:  Maloof Auditorium, 1300 Commerce Drive, Decatur

From Commissioner Gannonn:  The members of the Planning & Economic Development Committee (PEDS), including Commissioners Gannon, Johnson and Watson will hold a community meeting on the new Zoning Code.  Please attend.    

From the Briarlake cell tower opposition group and discussed at the Restore DeKalb meeting held this past Saturday:

Our county commissioners are reviewing the proposed changes to the document they use to determine land use in our county. There are reported changes to the rules for zoning of cell phone towers.  

No Briarlake Tower, LLC, is reporting that these changes were written by the industry and, therefore, cater to the industry. Here’s the previous update for reference:   

http://www.nobriarlaketower.org/updates/proposalintheworksforcelltowerzoningcode-badnews 

Stephanie Byrne, President of the nonprofit says, "I invite you to join me in standing up for our community and not allow local code institutions to be circumvented by the telecommunications industry. Yes, we all have cell phones and do business with the telecom industry. That’s fine but let’s keep business where business is supposed to be, not in our school yards situated within our neighborhoods."

For more information, the new cell tower ordinance is at pp. 41-50 at the following link:

http://planningdekalb.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Article4_Master.pdf

The first concerns we have are:

* Process for public notification is not explained or described in detail.

*  Definition about who should be legally notified is not clear.

*  Opportunity for  public to provide input and feedback is not included as part of the process.

*  Zoning allows for cell towers in ANY zoning district.  This  includes residential and is a big change from the current zoning laws which state that residential areas will only be considered when all other possible locations have been considered and deemed to be not viable.  Residential was reserved as a last resort.

*  Setback requirements possibly put homes and other structures into the fall zone of a tower.

*  No exclusions were made for schools, even after the public clearly made the recommendation that towers not be allowed on school grounds in DeKalb by voting on an advisory referendum.

If you have additional concerns, please mention them in the comments section below ad we will compile all comments to forward to the county commissioners before tonight's meeting.  Thank you!

Data mining: What's the big deal?

Who is watching, listening and
even following us based on
our cell phone calling patterns?
And why?

Revelations of massive data collection on Verizon customers shed light on metadata mining.

• Revelation about ongoing government program highlights data gathering
• Mining programs search large collections of data for patterns
• Practice is used to trace terrorists
• Metadata mining isn't the ultimate in Big Brother watching you.  But it's close.

Revelations that the National Security Agency is secretly collecting communications records of millions of Verizon customers showcases metadata mining — the practice of using computer algorithms to search vast collections of data for patterns.

"Sure, they might find a criminal, but the Fourth Amendment stands for the idea that some invasions of privacy are not OK, even if it was a way to find criminals," she said.

Read more here.  By Donna Leinwand Leger and Gary Strauss, USA TODAY 10:10 p.m. EDT June 6, 2013

Theft of Smartphones Dubbed a "National Epidemic"

Parents, please read and carefully consider if this information affects how you feel about a proposed transition to e-books in our school system (currently "on hold" as it was a decision made by the former Superintendent in 2012).  

Children are smaller, weaker and more vulnerable than the adults who are being robbed of their cell phones every day!  And many children have predictable schedules where they must walk home from school or the bus stop daily.  Why set them up to be the next targets for a crime that is currently out of control? 

U.S. officials to meet over cellphone thefts

1 in 3 thefts last year involved a cell phone costing consumers $30 billion.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Top law enforcement officials from San Francisco and New York plan to meet with some of the largest U.S. smartphone makers next week to help thwart the rise in cellphone thefts and robberies.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced Wednesday that their meeting scheduled to take place in New York City on June 13 will be dubbed a "Smartphone Summit."

Gascon and Schneiderman said they plan to meet with representatives from Apple Inc., Google Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Microsoft Corp. and urge them to create new technology to permanently and quickly disable stolen smartphones, making them worthless to thieves.

In San Francisco, where more than half all robberies involve a cellphone, Gascon has called on the companies to create new technology such as a "kill switch" to render phones useless. His office cites a 27-year old tourist who suffered severe knife wounds to his face and throat two weeks ago after being robbed by two men over his iPhone.

In New York, Schneiderman said there was a 40% spike in cellphone thefts last year. Authorities there have coined the thefts of the popular iPhone and other Apple-related products as "Apple-picking."

"With 1.6 million Americans falling victim to smartphone theft in 2012, this has become a national epidemic," Gascón said in a statement. "Unlike other types of crimes, smartphone theft can be eradicated with a simple technological solution."

Nearly 175 million cellphones — mostly smartphones — have been sold in the U.S. in the past year and account for $69 billion in sales, according to IDC, a Massachusetts-based research firm.

And now almost one 1 of 3 robberies nationwide involves the theft of a mobile phone, reports the Federal Communications Commission, which is coordinating formation this fall of a highly anticipated national database system to track cellphones reported stolen.

Schneiderman said a recent study found that lost and stolen cellphones cost consumers over $30 billion, last year.

"The theft of handheld devices is the fastest-growing street crime, and increasingly, incidents are turning violent," Schneiderman said in a statement. "It's time for manufacturers to be as innovative in solving this problem as they have been in designing devices that have reshaped how we live."

Late last month, Gascon — in a letter to the Major Cities Chiefs Association, a coalition of police chiefs from across the country — urged them to press for kill switches.

"Despite the growing threat to public safety, cell-phone manufacturers and carriers continue to look the other way," Gascón wrote. "It's time that corporations take social responsibility and do their part to end the victimization of hundreds of thousands of Americans."

In response, the police chiefs association followed suit and sent a letter on Monday to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. While commending the FCC and the CTIA wireless provider trade association on the national stolen phone database, they suggested that kill switch technology is "the only effective way" to go.

"By rendering phones completely useless, an FCC mandate for kill-switch technology will drastically reduce this major crime problem," Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, president of the chiefs' association wrote.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

ATT to Expand Its Wireless Services - Oh Joy!

ATT to hire 600 new workers in Georgia (what a coincidence that DeKalb was just declared an Opportunity Zone which gives them millions in tax breaks over five years.)

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

AT&T said Thursday it is immediately hiring for 600 new full-time and part-time jobs across Georgia.

The positions are in network construction and maintenance, customer support and retail.

Many of the jobs come from ATT’s Project Velocity, a three-year, multibillion dollar investment to expand its national wireless and wired IP broadband networks.

The company said wages and benefits would be competitive.

AT&T has 21,000 employees in Georgia.

ATT expands 4G LTE service in metro Atlanta (sounds like a way to charge more money for another service we don't need!)

By Christopher Seward

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

ATT said it has expanded its 4G LTE network in metro Atlanta to include areas south and west of the city.

The high-speed wireless service is now available in Walton, Newton and Butts counties, with additional coverage in Douglas and Paulding.

ATT says network offers faster speeds for mobile gaming, two-way video calling and other services. To access 4G LTE, customers must have a compatible device and data plan.

(And THIS is worth getting cancer for???)

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Stan, Stan, He's Our Man!

(Jester and Watson Join Our Quest for Cell Tower Truth)

There is a new website / blog about events in DeKalb County Schools.  It's called "Stan Jester, Fact Checker," and is run by none-other than former School Board Member, District 1, Nancy Jester's husband Stan.  We are big fans of husband and wife teams since that is how Get the Cell Out - ATL originated and we greatly appreciate the hard work that Stan Jester is doing to help us and every other taxpayer out there who has been following the ongoing fraud and waste in our school system.  Nancy Jester was one of two board members to vote no on the cell tower proposal in 2011 and she called out the financial questions about the proposal from the beginning.  Thank you to both Stan and Nancy Jester!

Stan's website recently reported some of the details from the meeting held last month by the Northlake Community Alliance.  He transcribed some of the statement that was made during that meeting by County Commissioner Stan Watson, who is also on our "favorites" list for his contribution and input into the cell tower issue and for his stand against unsupported cities that are a ruse for taking over the power and budgets of our county officials who have been willing, so far, to protect the rights of the citizens in DeKalb from the unlawful siting of cell towers  too close to homes, schools or other structures.  

Here's the quote from Stan Watson as posted by Stan Jester:  

Cell TowersDeKalb County Commissioner, Stan Watson, was there to provide a cell tower update.  “It is being reviewed right now by our legal department.  And we want to make sure that we address the item of the cell towers in such a way that we could be responsible to the legalities of the cell tower.  We’re trying to treat it just like a special land use plan right now, SLUP, to make sure that we’re in complete compliance legally to make sure that it works.  So, right now, it has been tabled, Tom.  And we’re actually looking at it in our legal department.  It should come out this summer and we’ll be happy to come back and report what we’re going to do with it.  But, right now, we have it in our legal department to make sure that we can do it as a legal department and as a county.”

Stan Watson also has a web page.  It's not dedicated to deciphering school news, however.  He is actually running for re-election in Super District 7 which includes the Eastern half of DeKalb County.  His website says that he is in favor of an open and honest government.  Let's hope he means that because we are counting on him to let the public know the status of the cell tower permit application for Lakeside High School, which will trigger all remaining contracts if it is deemed to be permissible by the Legal Department for the county. 

So, we have two Stans looking out for the rights of DeKalb citizens, Stan Jester (Fact Checker) and Stan Watson (County Commissioner).  Thank you to them both for putting the truth in front of the taxpayers and trusting them to be able to handle it.  

We have added links to both the websites on our Links Page, in the right-hand column of our home page.

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High Court in Georgia Hears Case Against the Removal of School Board

ATLANTA — A law allowing the governor to remove local school board members violates the state constitution because it undermines local control of schools, a lawyer told Georgia's top court Monday, while state officials said the legislature was within its right to pass the law.

State school board members hear from Dr. Eugene Walker before
recommending his removal from office in early 2013.

Georgia's Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether a 2010 provision that Gov. Nathan Deal used earlier this year to remove six members of the DeKalb County school board undercuts requirements in the state constitution that local education boards control school districts. The state judges must also rule on whether the General Assembly went beyond its powers to generally regulate school boards when it created the removal process.

Former board chairman Eugene Walker filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block his suspension from office. He has separately petitioned for reinstatement. The federal judge hearing the lawsuit asked Georgia's Supreme Court to rule on the state constitutional questions before deciding the federal case.

Walker's attorney, Thomas Cox, said during arguments Monday that the law should be struck down because it allows for the removal of elected officials "without even having ever been charged with wrongdoing, or much less been proven of committing any legal wrongdoing."

The state constitution provides that elected officials can be removed from office only through a recall by the voters, not at the discretion of the governor, he said. Cox said that while the state constitution gives lawmakers room to set qualifications for those serving on school boards, lawmakers do not have the power to create a removal process, much less delegate it to other agencies.

Cox also said the current law places too much power in the hands of a private accreditation agency and sets arbitrary standards for removed school board members seeking reinstatement.

Stefan Ritter, who argued for the state, told the judges that the law passes muster because the state constitution permits lawmakers to set the qualifications for holding office on a school board.

"The General Assembly by having the power to determine who's qualified, has the power to decide who can be removed from office," said Ritter, a senior assistant attorney general.

He said school board members do not need to have committed any individual wrongdoing to face removal. Simply sitting on a school board that is negligent in performing its duties is enough.

"This statute is about protecting schools and the children in those schools," he said.

DeKalb County is the state's third-largest school district, serving about 99,000 students. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed the district on probation in December after a six-month investigation. The accreditation agency cited in a report long-term leadership issues including nepotism, fiscal mismanagement, inappropriate micromanagement and intimidation within the district.

Following the 2010 law, the state Board of Education recommended the removal of six of the nine members of the county school board. It took no action against board members who were elected after the conduct cited in the report. Deal, a Republican, subsequently removed the six board members from office and replaced them with appointees.

Read more here: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2013/06/03/2528820/high-court-to-weigh-in-on-dekalb.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: 
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2013/06/03/2528820/high-court-to-weigh-in-on-dekalb.html#storylink=cpy


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County Gets Attorney, Planning Director

5/31/2013, 6:02 a.m.

GTCO-ATL Followers, be aware of the new director of Planning.  If you have not written to Andrew Baker in the past about the cell tower planned for your school or neighborhood and your opposition to it, make time this week to do so.  Mr. Baker has been involved in this issue in the past as the Interim Planning Director, but we can never be too careful.  It's important that everyone involved in this process is aware that you don't want the cell tower near your home, your child, or anyone else's.  

DeKALB COUNTY — Overtis “O.V.” Hicks Brantley is DeKalb’s new county attorney and chief legal officer, and Andrew Baker is the new director of Planning and Sustainability.

Both appointments were approved by the DeKalb Board of Commissioners on May 28.

Brantley has served as interim county attorney since March 18. Prior to her appointment, she served as chief legal counsel for Fulton County for eight years, managing a 39-member staff and outside counsel, and as acting city attorney for the city of Atlanta.

An avid quilter, Brantley earned her law degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law. Her professional affiliations include the State Bar of Georgia and the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers.

Baker, a resident of unincorporated DeKalb, had served as DeKalb’s associate director of Planning and Sustainability since August 2010. He is a Leadership DeKalb graduate and is certified by the American Institute of Certified Planners. He has a Management Essentials Certification from Emory University.

DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis said he was excited to have them on board.

“Andrew and O.V. have extraordinary backgrounds and experiences that round out an outstanding senior management team that we have built here in DeKalb,” Ellis said.

From Crossroads News: http://crossroadsnews.com/news/2013/may/31/new-county-attorney-planner/

"SLUP" Process is a Victory for Get the Cell Out - ATL

SLUP Process Discussed for Cell Towers During Northlake Meeting... Our comments on the DeKalb School Watch blog, under the subject of the Northlake Alliance Meeting:

FYI, what Commissioner Stan Watson (who is up for re-election in 2014) is saying at this meeting may not sound like a big deal if you are not personally affected by the cell towers at schools decision from 2011, however it is actually a very HUGE victory for us at Get the Cell Out - ATL if what he is stating is true.  He mentions the fact that they (the commissioners) are treating the cell tower issues as a "SLUP" (Special Land Use Permit) and that right now the decision is being held up in "Legal."  

Jim McMahan, District 4 School Board Member, discusses
graduation rates at the Northlake Alliance meeting.

Not sure how many on this board know what has happened recently, but just before Atkinson left last Dec. and Walker was removed in early 2013, they both signed the last cell tower contract which was the only one that had been left without a signature on it - for Lakeside High School.  But, upon reading it, we learned that it was slightly different than the others in that it basically says that it is the master contract (as Lakeside was the school to initiate the request) and that it acts as a trigger to all the other contracts.  So. all 9 school contracts that we previously thought had expired are actually now active for the first time.  So, all 9 schools are looking at possible cell towers once again.  But, we still do not know the actual start date for any of these contracts as the T-mobile signature is not included on the final Lakeside copy that they sent to us from an Open Records Request.   So, we do not know who the final signature will be.  T-mobile has reportedly sold off its tower assets, so we do not know who holds the contract for all the schools or if there is even a valid contract for any of them.  It's being held in "Legal" with the county but may get approved sometime over the Summer.

County Commissioner Stan Watson updated the audience
at the Northlake Alliance meeting about cell towers on
school grounds.  He is up for re-election in 2014.

If you are at all concerned about Walker / Atkinson and this strange deal that took place just as they both exited the system and just as Womack was out of office as well (Womack being the board member who brought the subject to the school board for consideration in the first place), please email or call your county commissioner to make sure they know that the school communities do not support this illegal use of our school grounds.  We pay taxes to maintain active school grounds for the education of children, not to allow a big corporation to get away without paying their fair share of property taxes and latching on to our electricity for their eyesores that will cause private property owners to lose land value.  The towers will also put neighborhood schools in jeopardy of closing if parents are concerned about possible health effects and choose to use the school choice program which could cause further pressure on Dunwoody and the other schools in the far north as they were the only ones to not be affected by cell towers at all.  

Here is a link to find the contact details for the county commissioners.  http://web.co.dekalb.ga.us/boc/contact.html

They have previously all penned a letter to the CEO to state that they would not approve the cell towers as they were in violation of county ordinances for safe tower siting, so you will have a supportive ear.  The feedback from the community will be important to show that there is still no educational need to have these towers at the schools physically and that the taxpayers do not want the land intended for children to be subleased out for commercial profit.  

The SLUP process is a victory because it is the standard process by which all towers would have to go through AND it includes the posting of signs at the location by which the public will be duly notified of a hearing date if they wish to protest the construction.  It gives a voice back to the people to decide what they want in their own neighborhood!   Yeah!!  Very happy to hear that this process is finally taking a legitimate path.  

The outcome is yet to be determined, obviously, but this is still a victory under the circumstances.  If Atkinson were still in charge, they would have started to build in May and the towers would be up right now without any notification to the land owners, parents or others who would be adversely affected. 

Public Participation

From the DeKalb County website regarding public participation:

The public has the opportunity to attend Board of Commissioners regular meetings. Regular meetings are held on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month. Public hearings, where members of the public are invited to speak directly to the Board, are held during the regular Board of Commissioners meetings. Members of the public can also attend meetings of the five standing committees within the commission.

Press releases and current events are posted on DeKalb County's website DeKalb News. Also, all regular Board meetings, held on every second and fourth Tuesday of the month, are broadcast live on Channel 23. The meetings are re-broadcast on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 7:00 pm, Wednesday at 9:00 am, and Saturday and Sunday at 10:00 am.

For June, these meetings would be June 11 and 25th, FYI.  (Tuesdays)

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DeKalb School Board to Hold Budget Hearing Monday

From the AJC:  The DeKalb County school board will hold a final public hearing on the fiscal year 2014 budget at 6 p.m. on June 10. The board may also vote on a tentative budget at that meeting, with a final vote scheduled for 6 p.m. on June 26.

The June 10 meeting will follow a public budget hearing scheduled for June 3 at noon.  The June 3 meeting will be the 3rd Public Input Hearing & Committee of the Whole (input hearing to receive final comments from stakeholders & committee of the whole for Board to make final decisions on the budget).

All meetings are at the Robert R. Freeman Administrative & Instructional Complex, 1701 Mountain Industrial Blvd., Stone Mountain, and will be televised on PDS-TV24 and streamed live on www.dekalb.k12.ga.us.

The proposed $759 million budget can be viewed online at the same website, and the public can email comments to budget-feedback@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us. 

The following dates have been added to our EVENTS page:
Monday, June 3, 2013 (12:00p.m.) budget input
June 10, 6 p.m. final hearing
June 26, 6 p.m. vote on the budget.

For an executive summary of the school budget, click here.

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