The Devil is in The Detail (How the Cell Tower Votes Shine a Light on DeKalb's "Corridor of Corruption")

Wonder exactly how the cell tower vote shook out and whether or not your own community said they were for or against the idea of cell towers at schools? 

Read more by clicking the headline for the full story. 

On July 31, 2012 Georgia voters took to the polls in the election primaries. In Dekalb County, a question popped up on the ballot with little explanation:

"Should the local, charter or independent school system of Dekalb County place or operate a telecommunications tower on any elementary, middle or high school property?"

The phrase, "The Devil is in the Detail," refers to a catch or mysterious element hidden in the details.^[1]

While opponents  of cell towers on school grounds were happy when the outcome was a strong 62% of voters saying "NO," GTCO-ATL was wondering if there was more we could learn from the data.  So, we dug a little deeper. 

From the start, we were critical of the validity of any data that might come from this question. First, it was asking too many things at once which is a common error people make when they are not properly trained in survey data analysis or proper question techniques.  We tried to alert those who were responsible for the question, Rep. Karla Drenner and Rep. Chuck Sims, but they did not respond. We then asked Gov. Deal to not sign the referendum as it was vague, not necessary and did not come from the people. He signed it anyway.

So, we determined that even though it might not go our way, at least it would tell us a few things that could be beneficial.

1. First, any area that answered yes, or even close, could be an area that is uninformed of the dangers and problems a cell tower could bring. We could focus more effort with our PR there.
2. Second, if we felt there were areas well informed that still said yes, we might be able to see specifically where corruption was influencing the voters.  Why wouldn't we think a yes could be a sincere, honest vote? Because we have been at this for more than a year and have never met anyone who has thought it was a good idea. Even those who like to debate us on the blogs will not take a pro-cell tower stance.
3. The third thing we thought we would learn would be where these "rural" Dekalb areas actually are located where Mr. Cunningham said they "welcomed the towers." Going by the way things appeared in the media, the South regions wanted the towers and money, while the North was leading the protests against them.  What we expected was to see strong opposition regardless of the location.

But, oddly enough, here is how the vote shook out:

(click chart to enlarge)

Here are some questions we had:

• Are these areas (highlighted in yellow) actually ignorant of the dangers of cell towers?
• Is the difference of just a few percentage points even enough statistically to be concerned about or is it safe to say that overall the entire county was against the idea of placing cell towers on the public school grounds?
• Should the school board inform T-mobile about the few areas that skewed slightly in favor of cell towers so they can be the ones to receive them?
• Is there a chance that the very few areas that skewed in favor of the towers had some sort of "inside information" to reassure them that they would not actually be the ones to receive the towers? 
• Are the areas of the county that were not selected for tower placements not going to receive the cooresponding technology either? 
• What is the purpose of a "non-binding advisory referendum" anyway?  Why did state legislators create this alternative to the total ban on towers that the citizens wanted?
• What did they expect to do with the results of this referendum?
• But, who are we advising?  Who will listen? 
• Who will actually do something with these results?
• If no one is going to act upon this ballot question and it will not influence (or "advise") anyone in a decision-making capacity, then why did taxpayers have to pay for it? 
• Why did we even have to take our time and resources to educate people about the question, and its poor wording, if the outcome was for no viable purpose? 
• Or, as we suggested originally, was this question created for someone else?  Someone OTHER than the citizens?  Perhaps if the results would have gone in the favor of the towers, they would have used the results.  If that is the case, then shouldn't THOSE PEOPLE (or businesses) be the ones who should have paid for it?  Not the voters of DeKalb County. 
• Were we really successful in stopping the towers? 
• Is the school board aware that the contracts have expired?
• Why won't our School Board or our county CEO tell us anything?

We may never know for sure, but we plotted the districts marked in yellow, above, on a map of the voting precincts.  After studying the areas and their relationship to each other, here's what we saw. 

 

(We are working to get a scanned version of this map

uploaded here for you.  Check back soon.)

WHERE WERE THE YES VOTES?

1. A small number of Dunwoody communities, and a

2. A small portion of the Lakeside or Emory-Lavista "Corridor" of schools.  

Note:  Almost all areas in favor were ITP, or "Inside the Perimeter."

WHO COULD THEY BE?

Of course this is all speculation on our part, but there could actually be four types of "yes" votes in these areas:

1. Voters who are completely unaware of the issue (just like we once were before this started)
2. Voters who think tower radiation is harmless for children and therefore our public land should be leased to T-mobile without concern (we have not actually met anyone like this, have you?)
3. Voters who have been told to vote yes (by an employer or friend) and do so because they do not have a personal, vested interest in the outcome.
4. Voters who have spoken to their board member, believe they will not be receiving a cell tower and therefore they do not care if a tower goes up somewhere else.

Note:  It is important to note that none of the areas (in the chart in yellow) actually had a cell tower going up near them. 

Of course we have no way of knowing why people voted the way they did.  We cannot go back and review the votes to ask follow-up questions.  And, people who were unaware of the issue had no way of selecting "I don't know" or "unaware" as their response.  These are just a few of the reasons we asked the Governor to veto this bill, but he went ahead and signed it.

Dunwoody

Those who voted in the Dunwoody area may have done so because they were not faced with this issue at their local schools.  Dunwoody did not have any of their schools on the original or reduced list for cell towers.  Does this mean they do not get the technology, either? 

If cell towers are actually a means for distributing the material of a virtual charter school, did certain folks in Dunwoody already know about this concept?  They have been advocating on the School Watch Blog for separate school districts.  So, have they been promised a way that they can make this happen in return for supporting the cell tower idea? 

Do we have a case of ignorant, but financially well-off, neighborhoods where they do not follow school news?  Or is this a case of yet another area of DeKalb selling someone else's neighborhood out when offered something they want for themselves? 

Lakeside / Fernbank and the Emory-Lavista Corridor

That leaves only a few districts that were either divided in their responses or barely tipped the scales in favor of towers on school grounds. But, with the exception of Lakeside High School, these areas were not facing the possibility of a tower at their own neighborhood school, at least not according to our Open Records Requests to see their contracts. 

So, Lakeside High area again emerges as one sticking out like a sore thumb. The school that reportedly initiated the request to their district representative, Paul Womack, who in turn brought the item to the Budget, Finance and Audit Committee while he was the chairman. Lakeside High School wants a tower, and the money of 12 towers so the Vallhalla Group can "finish the dream."   And the rest of us must endure all the baggage that it means to get roped into this issue while they sit back and smile.

In the Oct. 1 meeting agenda, a donation was accepted to finish the Lakeside construction for an outdoor eating area.  Yes, you read that correctly....

Did people really just vote "yes" to radiating other people's children for 30 years in exchange for an outdoor pavilion so their kids can get a little sun while they eat their non-free, non-reduced priced lunches?  Tell us that is not what is happening here? 

Then again, Lakeside has so many towers in a four mile radius, one more could not have possible been what made the difference, could it?

It appears that everything is proceeding according to plan.   But, who's plan is this??

Protests Come From the "North" (But the Public Votes Yes?)

"South" Board Members Vote Yes, but the Public Votes NO? 

Don't you find it interesting that we saw bigger than life protests coming from the areas where many people voted to be in favor?  AND, at the other end of the county, in the areas where we were told they "welcomed the towers," we saw the largest portion of people who voted against it? 

Have you figured out that things are not always as they seem here in DeKalb? 

And, many board members publically stated that they would have voted differently if they knew then what they know now.  See our story on this subject, here.

The cell towerss are a great lesson in not judging a book by its cover.  Rather, we should be judging our school books by the fact that they will soon not have any covers, just screens.  Hell, we don't even have librarians any longer! 
 
Most important:  Most People in Most Places Across the County Said NO CELL TOWERS AT OUR SCHOOLS.  And, for those of us who agree, if it is not a good idea for my school, then it is not a good idea for any school!

But, these are just a few of the ideas we came up with.  We would love to hear what you think.  Email us at sayno2celltowers@yahoo.com and let us know!

We did it once, now let's do it again! 

Vote NO on the charter school ammendment this November!  This is NOT about charter schools!  It is about creating virtual schools under a sneaky initiative put forth by corporations seeking new ways to profit, NOT about our children or parental choice.

VOTE NO to changing the state's constitution! 

NO MORE CHARTER SCHOOL AUTHORITIES!

Don't GIVE AWAY our power!  Let's Take it BACK! 

What can we do instead?  Start looking for well-qualified people to run for the School Board in the next election!  WE can do this if we keep working together!  Stick up for your beliefs!  Inform your neighbors!  Talk about what is happening so that others will not have to suffer the same thing happening to them! 

See you at the upcoming meetings!  (see our meetings page) Ask Questions!  Remain Alert!  Do not Trust those in power who have something to gain from you.  Seek advice only from those uninterested third parties or people whom you trust before acting upon anything you see or hear in this school system.   

 

 

For more info, watch "The United States of ALEC" here:  http://billmoyers.com/



 VOTE NO TO CHARTER SCHOOLS! 

It is time to STOP FEEDING THE BEAST!

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Titelman, Gregory, Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings, Random House Reference, March 5, 1996p

Lesson Learned: In Politics, It is Not a Good Idea to “Be the Ball”

(click headline for full text of this article)

Prelude to today’s article:

Please note that this is a blog. Therefore the commentary you are about to read is considered an “opinion.” We are a real grass-roots group in many regards, including our limited understanding about how the political process works.  

 

We are fortunate to have solid educational backgrounds and a lot of friends.  As the individual neighborhoods affected are putting forth their best efforts to protect themselves, we are also helping them find common ground through our group which is intended to be a countywide movement. 

We hope to unite all residents in DeKalb County on this issue.  We find it unlikely that anyone who lives here would want to see their tax dollars wasted or our communities torn apart by poor decision-making that benefits only a few at the expense of our most valuable resource - our children.  Today was an odd day.  There was a lot of back and forth and politics influencing decisions and votes that we realized that if there were a pin-pong game going on right now, we would not be winning or losing - we would be the ball! 

Subtitle for Article 1, Subsection to the Previously Amended Paragraph 2A Dated 2012, 06 March… (That’s How They Really Talk at the Capitol Building!)

We attended the public hearing at the Coverdale Legislative Building yesterday to support the bill proposed by Rep. Karla Drenner that would ban cell towers on school grounds. We were optimistic that we would receive good news about the chances of the local-only bill being passed on to the House for a vote since it received a large majority of delegates who signed on to it last week.

Unfortunately, the hearing was full of bad news.  At least that is how it seemed from our perspective, but please feel free to write into our comments section if you felt differently!

#1) Local Bill  Drenner’s bill, the local one, is being held up by the committee chairman for undisclosed reasons. He doesn’t even live in DeKalb County, but apparently is “stalling.” The committee is called the House Intergovernmental Coordination Committee. We have no idea what they do.

We were told about the various ways we could contact the chairman Chuck Sims, a Republican from Ambrose, GA ( chuck.sims@house.ga.gov ).

And we were told how to reach the two DeKalb representatives who did not vote in favor of the “Prudent Avoidance” cell tower Bill 1197 in case we want to explain our position. These folks are pretty important - Stacey Abrams - the Minority Leader and Resident of DeKalb County ( StaceyAbrams@gmail.com ). Abrams is a Democrat from Atlanta. And Howard Mosby, the Chairman of the DeKalb County Delegation, who is also a Democrat from Atlanta, howard.mosby@house.ga.gov.

We have uploaded the document that was handed out at this hearing. It has all the contact information if you would like to read it over and help this legislation make it out of committee and onto the House floor. http://www.scribd.com/doc/84122214/One-Page-for-Cell-Tower-Lobbying-Rev-1

#2) Senate Bill  In addition to the news about the stalled committee and the little notes, we were informed that the bill introduced by Sen. Jason Carter was already killed and it might come up again as an amendment to a current bill already in progress. We are assuming that someone figured out the same thing we did which is the fact that we already have laws on the books that have been contested all the way to the Supreme Court of Georgia and that ruling states clearly that the exemption does not apply when the use of the property in question is for a “proprietary” or for-profit business, like T-mobile.

And, for that reason, we started to realize that maybe this legislation idea is not going to help us after all. We are not giving up on it. We still support it. But, we are losing confidence that it is going to help any of us in the short-term if we want to stay focused on stopping the cell towers that are approved and on their way.

That list includes just 7 schools at the moment:

Briarlake Elementary School, Decatur
Margaret Harris Comprehensive School, Atlanta
Smoke Rise Elementary School, Stone Mountain
Jolly Elementary School, Clarkston
MLK High School, Lithonia
Flat Rock Elementary School, Lithonia
Princeton Elementary School, Lithonia

#3) State Bill  And rounding out the news of the day, yesterday, we briefly heard about the state version of Drenner’s bill HB1198. She didn’t sound very hopeful that it would gain support from the rural counties in Georgia because they need the money and would be happy to get any financial support they can. Rep. Drenner announced that she will be running for another term in her office and, if elected, she will continue to make this issue a top priority.

We will be sending email inquiries, as suggested, to the people on the list provided by Rep. Drenner. We urge you to do the same. As we mentioned in a previous article, please send any responses you receive to sayno2celltowers@yahoo.com and we will share them on our website without publishing your identity.

We have received a couple of these emails already from our previous request for information from the county commissioners or CEO’s office. We will be posting them later today.


Here Comes the Entourage…


You didn’t think that would be the end of it, did you? Of course not! Politicians have a way of making time go really fast or really slow, depending on which suits them best. As we prepared to embark on our mission to save the Drenner local bill, we received an update via email.

Remember that committee we thought was stalling? Well, apparently, they changed their minds and decided to move ahead very quickly. And they wanted all of us to jump through hoops, too.

A committee meeting is apparently going on right now (11 a.m., March 6, in Room 515).  We have several representatives attending who will report back to us with any news or updates.  It was extremely short notice and requires people to take time away from work, yet again, which is not always easy to do.

In attendance will be a representative from the school board and several lobbyists from the cellular industry. We assume they will try to convince the committee to do what we were already told they are doing - stall.

We started to post an urgent message for everyone to attend this meeting, but that’s when it hit us… back to the title of this article… something just doesn‘t feel right. We started getting those feelings of being bounced around and used in some sort of game.

And no one likes being the ball when it means you just keep getting hit from both sides of the table. It is possible that we could get so dizzy from all this back and forth with the legislature that we forget the other urgent matters going on right now:



#1)  the primary election, and
#2)  the possible permit applications being submitted by T-mobile to the Office of Planning and Sustainability and under the Direction of CEO Burrell Ellis’s office.

The residents of DeKalb County have been speaking out, writing, emailing, calling, protesting and basically banging their heads against podiums everywhere trying to tell our elected officials in every level of government how we feel about this issue. If they have not received that message loud and clear by now, they clearly are not listening.

Rep. Drenner is an excellent advocate for the wishes of the people and she is an expert on the effects of radiation and the studies that have been conducted to date that show evidence of biological changes that can result with long-term exposure to even the lowest levels of non-ionizing radiation from cellphone towers.

We will post an update here as soon as we have any information to share.

In the meantime, with regard to the OTHER two urgent issues listed above:

You are urged to email the DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis
and ask that he DENY the permits being sought by T-mobile or that he require them to follow the correct process of Special Land Use Permit, not Administrative Permit, so that public notification and comment will be a part of this process.
Here is an easy form to get your message to him right now: http://www.burrellellis.com/index.php?option=com_facileforms&Itemid=129
If you are a registered voter and can vote in the primary election today, we hope you will do so.

Thanks for reading our blog. Remember to stay focused, work together and don’t let anyone use you as the ping-pong ball in their game. What we are doing is right and we already have the laws on our side! Keep up the great work!h

Save the Date: DCSS Board Meeting: Monday, Nov. 7th, 6 p.m.

The next school board meeting is scheduled for Mon., Nov. 7, 6 p.m.
And the SPLOST IV vote will take place on Tues., Nov. 8, anytime your polling place is open. Early voting takes place the week prior.

Do not be fooled by those who would like for you to think you have to vote yes if you want to see changes fully funded for our schools. The people who want a yes are likely expecting a positive outcome for their school, but that is not enough of a reason to justify allocating this much money into the hands of people who will use it for their own personal gain. We can wait until the new superintendent has cleaned house and presented her own plan. The current tax is still in effect through 2012 and SPLOST IV can be revisited down the road.

Remember, it's okay to THINK YES (to education) but VOTE NO (to this SPLOST list that was not prepared by our new superintendent).

SPLOST IV:
We need to push back and force the board to take back the Homestead Exemption so that property owners (the stakeholders in Education) will get a wake-up call. If we do not alert them that this board needs to be voted out, they will likely approved the incumbants and we will still have the corruption in our administrative office that has already cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.

SCHOOL BOARD MEETINIG:
We will be bringing a copy of our Get the Cell Out of DeKalb County Schools petition to deliver in hardcopy format to the entire board. A copy will also be sent via certified mail to the Interim Director of Planning and the CEO of our county.

If you have a cell tower coming to your school or community and were not informed about it until it was too late to voice your concerns, we encourage you to attend this meeting and stay around afterwards to speak with the news media that has been following this issue. We are hoping to have a large showing (100-200) at this meeting representing our concerns and requesting reconsideration of the Board's vote on behalf of all the schools that have been named in the T-mobile proposal given to the board in May and rushed to vote in early July.

Here is a link to the July meeting where they voted the cell towers in: http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/pds24/vod/

Scroll down until you locate the July 11, 2011, work session and business meeting link.
Once it loads, please skip to 2:41:30 in the video.
Then grab some popcorn, and a notepad and try to follow along.
Take notes on who votes for what and also on what schools are mentioned and which ones are not.
And make note about what is said about the feedback the board has received from each of them.

Show up at least by 5:00 to get on the list to speak. If you have more than one spot already reserved and will be presenting opposition for only one school, please consider checking in with us before the meeting to voluntarily offer any extra spots to any schools that have not been represented. We have to remain united if we wish to save our entire county from this fate. If we are not coordinated in our efforts, the board will seek to divide us and offer deals to only a few. When a tower goes up at one school, it affects all schools as a precedent will be set allowing cell towers, or any other form of commercial enterprise, to operate their for-profit structures on public property actively being used for educational purposes. If you do not have children currently in this system or your school was not selected, thank you for reading our website and keeping tabs with this subject as your school may be next and you need to be prepared. The best way to save your own school or neighborhood from this same fate is to stand up with us and help stop the FIRST TOWER from ever going up. T-mobile will find another location and have to pay taxes like any other commercial operation instead of hiding out on our school grounds and distracting motorists driving near our school or interrupting our children when they are trying to learn or disrupting their sleep patterns if they live nearby as often is reported as a symptom of living near a cell tower.

Address:
DeKalb County School System
Administrative & Instructional Complex
1701 Mountain Industrial Boulevard
Stone Mountain, GA 30083
Phone: 678.676.1200
Fax: 678.676.0785

School Board policy on public relations:
MISSION: To promote a positive environment in DeKalb County schools in which there is an awareness of, involvement in, and support for the system and its educational mission.

The DeKalb County Board of Education believes (1) that the public schools belong to the people who create them by consent and support them by taxation; (2) that the schools are only as strong as the informed DeKalb citizens and knowledgeable school system staff; and (3) that this support is based on knowledge of, understanding about, and participation in the aims and efforts of the public schools.

The Board affirms, through policies and goals, its commitment (1) to keep the citizens and staff of the system regularly and accurately informed, through appropriate means of communication, about policies, programs, problems, and planning of the school system; (2) to solicit the advice and counsel of parents, students, staff, and others on basic issues through appropriate channels (such as Parent Teacher Associations, advisory councils, and other community groups); (3) to charge the administrative, instructional, and operational staff with the duty to carry out this policy as an integral part of regular activities and responsibilities; and (4) to cooperate with the news media as the primary purveyors of public information, recognizing their right to all the facts and their obligation to publish them in a responsible manner.

Parents, students, staff, and others may, at any time, offer suggestions on policies by submitting in writing the suggested additions, changes, or deletions, to the policies to the office of the Superintendent for consideration and possible recommendation to the Board.