The Banana Republic Of Dekalb

Decaturguy already hit on the upcoming legislative battle over the Dekalb CEO but I want to take a dip in those fetid waters myself.

But let's clear some things up first.

Please feel no need to send me emails explaining how the county government works or to expound on how previous CEOs also received harsh criticism. I've been a Dekalb resident for over 20 years and although I only recently researched the nitty gritty, I've always had a pretty good understanding of the system of government.

As far as criticism of the "unique" position of CEO, it has been there since the first day Manuel Maloof sat in the chair. Anytime you have a government run by a "benevolent dictator" there will be carping. Perhaps, instead of emailing me, you should consult your elders about the raucous early days of the Maloof administration.

Also, I live in Rep. Kevin Levitas district. I have admiration for the guys and gals on both sides of the aisle who represent the northern area of the county - even to the point of flying in the face of friends to defend Mike Jacobs.

I've always stated with pride that Dekalb is home of the moderates. From Republican Dan Weber to Democrat David Adelman, many times this bipartisan coalition is the only sanity saving us from the true bull fruit looniness under the Gold Dome.

But on this one they are wrong.

Not because the Dekalb system is a perfect form of government. It is not. Not because they do not think they are doing their constituents right. I'm sure they believe this to be true.

They are wrong because they have now joined a growing wave of State-led strong arm tacticians and because the alternative is worse.

It's always funny to hear someone from Georgia preach the beauty of small government. It is true we have far fewer regulations than most. There are practically no protections for employees. Developers have run wild and despite the lunacy which sometimes comes from those in power lax growth regulation has certainly contributed to the current water crisis.

But big government is not always so obvious. One needs only to look at the recent acrimonious creation of the city of Johns Creek. Once the dust settled, the business of creating a city was at hand. And what was required of the potentates of this new city? They had to go to the state legislature for permission.

Any form of local government must be approved by the state legislature - probably not a bad form of oversight in a general sense. But the Johns Creekers also had to ask the Gold Dome poobahs for permission to form a parks and recreation department. That's right. A local municipality cannot hire a few guys to pick up trash in the local picnic area without the stamp of approval by the full Georgia legislature.

This fact makes the current argument against the CEO position having too much power ring a little hollow. The pools of power never go away. Only the lifeguards change.

But it cannot be avoided the structure of Dekalb's government is the purview of the legislature. So let's instead look at the alternative. We don't have to go far.

Dekalb is the second largest county in the state. Fulton is the first.

Fulton has a much more traditional form of county government. One which certainly could be the model for the legislation now proposed by Levitas and Jacobs. Power is dispersed among the various commissioners with a board appointed county manager running day to day operations.

The result of such distributed power over a huge infrastucture is instead of a single strongman, Fulton has individual fiefdoms. lorded over by their elected representative. And you want discontent? The Fulton system has worked so well the voters have for all practical purposes voted the entire county out of existence. It's no shock the "let's form our own city" push began with north Fulton's Sandy Springs and then metastisized to Johns Creek, Milton and Chattahoochee Hills.

There has always been an uneasy truce between Dekalb and its various towns but compared to the neighbors to the west, the tension has been no worse than the typical family Thanksgiving dinner - lots of sniping with everyone warily glancing about, but no one leaves the table until the pecan pie is served.

And all of this hullabaloo is over the hours of operations of the local speakeasies.

Oh, they will deny it with flowery talk of reining in meglomaniacal leaders and responding to the outcry of residents but even a blind pig can see Jones recent veto of the rolling back of closing times is the flash which caused the fire.

But even that misses the more important questions.

Every time a local government acts in a way which chaps a few behinds, do we really want the state legislature to ride in and play fruit basket turn over? Isn't that really just trading one strong arm for another?