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Health & Fitness

What Are They Hiding?

Why are taxpayers not allowed to know what was done with taxpayer money?

What Are They Hiding?

Why are taxpayers not allowed to know what was done with taxpayer money?

Why would Gwinnett County, the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce and Gwinnett County Public Schools go to court, spending scarce taxpayer money, to ensure the secrecy of records that show how taxpayer money was used by the Gwinnett Chamber? We will never know unless some of our elected officials decide to live up to their pledge to restore public trust in local government, or unless a judge forces them to follow the law.

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Could part of the problem be the Gwinnett Chamber’s support of TSPLOST? This is the Partnership Gwinnett public statement: “Public dollars are not utilized to advocate for passage of a tax measure.” This is what is written in the Partnership Gwinnett Report Card: “We have hired the campaign managers, polling firm, and professional fundraisers and will raise $6 million to fund grassroots to media campaign goals in the 10 counties. The Gwinnett Chamber/PG will lead local efforts to educate and advocate for the one cent sales tax for transportation.” Which statement do you believe?

You can view the Partnership Gwinnett Report card here:

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http://www.partnershipgwinnett.com/report-card-2/

Could part of the problem be the Gwinnett Chamber’s lobbying effort to relieve Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) from being required to follow state mandates? This is from the Partnership Gwinnett Report Card: “Partner with the Gwinnett County school system to lobby state elected officials to increase the district’s flexibility to self-govern rather than be held accountable for certain state mandates.” This resulted in GCPS adopting the IE2 contract, which is the subject of a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights.

The GCPS IE2 contract established different achievement goals by race, ethnicity and disability status. For example, in one school "Caucasian" students have a goal of 42.2% meeting the goals, "Black" students require 17%, "Hispanic" students 16.3%, "Asian" students 59.8%, "Multi-Racial" students 33.6%, "Students with Disabilities" 10.3%, "English Language Learners" 22.1%, and "Economically Disadvantaged" students 18.3%. Are most GCPS parents aware of the different benchmarks for students at each school based upon race? Find your child’s school’s performance goals on the GCPS website:

http://www.gwinnett.k12.ga.us/catalog.nsf/?searchdomain&query=ie2&Submit.x=0&Submit.y=0&SearchOrder=3&Scope=1

The Partnership Gwinnett Report Card also addresses their opposition to the charter school amendment: “Supported GCPS in their legal action involving constitutional local control of charter schools. May of 2011 Georgia Supreme Court rules in favor of the seven school districts bringing suit. GCOC 2012 Legislative Agenda continues to oppose any legislation that usurps the authority of the GCPS Board to govern Gwinnett’s public schools.”

Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens wrote the following: “Local school boards do not have the legal authority to expend funds or other resources to advocate or oppose the ratification of a constitutional amendment by the voters. They may not do this directly or indirectly through associations to which they may belong….”

Do our county commissioners and school board members know more about Georgia law than Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens?

I wonder what Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens would write about this statement in a Partnership Gwinnett Marketing Strategy Report:

“Lobby the Enotah Judicial Circuit to quickly resolve the lingering Service Delivery Strategy lawsuit and dispute.”

(The quote above is taken directly from the Partnership Gwinnett Marketing Strategy report. It is the last line on page 20.)

http://www.partnershipgwinnett.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/PG-20-Strategy__FINAL.pdf

Judge David Barrett was brought in from the Enotah Judicial Circuit to preside in Gwinnett Superior Court over the city-county Service Delivery Dispute over the apportionment of tax revenue. He was subsequently removed from the bench and forced to retire when he pulled a gun in his courtroom and tried to hand it to a rape victim who was testifying, telling her she might as well shoot her own lawyer.

I’m not an attorney, but I believe lobbying a judge to influence the outcome of a lawsuit is against the law. I hope they just put in writing their willingness to lobby, but did not actually do it. No wonder the chamber’s attorney wants the open records lawsuit to be kept confidential. If the public knew about all of this, they would probably demand that it be stopped. Maybe this is all just a misunderstanding, but you would think the county commissioners, the chamber board and school board members would be eager to explain this to taxpayers instead of using taxpayer money to prevent us from knowing what was done with our money. 

Since Sabrina filed her lawsuit, I have been filing some open records requests of my own and what I am finding is very disturbing. Our elected officials want all of this to be kept confidential, away from the eyes of taxpayers, and they seem to want the flow of millions of unaccountable taxpayer dollars to the Gwinnett Chamber to continue. Color me skeptical that they really want to restore public trust in local government.

Shelly Nix

Buford, GA

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