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August 4, 2006
Wake up, Gwinnett! We should be thankful that
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the
Gwinnett Daily Post have kept readers apprised of the latest swirling in the
Bill McKinney
highly embarrassing cesspool. We should be glad to know that Commissioner Kevin Kenerly’s
opponent in the approaching Run-off Election on August 8th, Jodie Rosser
, now smells to high heaven herself. I suppose some uneducated and unaware folks will still vote for her next Tuesday because they think Kevin Kenerly is an idiot, but if her non-cooperation in this stinking stealth campaign case against Kenerly is any indication of how she’ll operate as District 4 Commissioner, Gwinnett County will be dragged down if she is elected.
I am reminded of those poor dumb voters in Augusta who returned
Charles Walker
to the state senate when he was already under indictment! Walker is in the slammer now and the Augusta voters had to have another election in order to be represented.
Puh-leeze don’t let anything like that happen in Gwinnett! Plenty of folks from other places already think we’re nuts because the loony members of our outrageous Gwinnett County Library Board fired the most successful library director we’ve ever had for no reason. If they
had a reason, they are still refusing to tell us what it was, except for
Jo Ann Pinder
was not warm and fuzzy, or words to that effect.
It sounds like the planning commissioner who serves my district,
Rico Figliolini,
needs to resign from that appointed volunteer post. According to the
AJC’s report on August 4, 2006, Figliolini designed two of the mailers for beatkevin.com used in the stealth campaign. I do not want Rico Figliolini representing me in any way!
I already know that Figliolini can be bought. Back during the campaign for District 1 Commission seat, then-candidate
Lorraine Green
called and asked me if Rico Figliolini, who publishes the monthly mailer “Inside Gwinnett,” could refuse to sell her an ad for her campaign. Green said Figliolini told her that
George Thorndyke
, her opponent on the ballot, had made him a deal he couldn’t refuse: Thorndyke would buy big ads if Figliolini would refuse to sell an ad to Green. I told her that Figliolini, as owner of that monthly, could do whatever he wanted. I also told her that no bonafide journalist would even consider such a deal, but that Figliolini, in my view, was no journalist and probably ignorant of the conventions that most newspapermen abide by. So, I guess Figliolini’s apparent involvement with this latest Bill McKinney mess shouldn’t come as a surprise. Whether Figliolini is innocent or guilty, this is close enough to the edge that I want him off the Planning Commission where he represents me.
I think it is hysterical that McKinney is quoted as saying the First Amendment is dead in Gwinnett County. Mind you, my friends, this remark is coming from a man who sent me a noxious e-mail demanding that I take down a photo that I published in my “Over Coffee” column that showed Commissioner
Bert Nasuti’s family with then Congressman
Bob Barr at Commissioner Nasuti’s swearing-in ceremony. McKinney was humping for
John Linder at the time, Barr’s opponent. I sent his nasty e-mail to Nasuti and asked him what he wanted me to do about it. Nasuti answered, “Leave the picture up.”
Three cheers for our Gwinnett District Attorney
Danny Porter
! I hope he throws the book at Bill McKinney and everybody else involved in that underhanded stealth campaign against Commissioner Kevin
Kenerly.
***
People store memories in various ways. Just think about the last time you went into a room to get something, then couldn’t remember what you went in there for!
Larry Dean,
owner of Dean Gardens, that 32,000 sq. ft. pink palace set in 60-acres on Old Alabama Road in Alpharetta, told a group gathered there in July to raise money for Georgia Attorney General candidate
Perry McGuire
that he donated the land used for the Dean Field playground at Simpson Elementary School. Well, um, not exactly, Larry.
David Crews
, who was then Associate Superintendent of Gwinnett County Public Schools, told me at that time years ago that GCPS paid full market value to Dean for that playground land. So, when Dean “mis-remembered” this little detail in his remarks, I noticed it. I checked it out once again with Third District School Board member Dr. Mary Kay Murphy, who confirmed that Larry Dean was indeed paid for that tract of land. It was not a donation.
Um, um, um. Might want to quit saying that, Larry.
***
Well, we have a point source air pollution problem over here in Peachtree Corners and it is called Dreamland BBQ, which is located on Peachtree Parkway. On our frequent bad air quality days here recently, the wood smoke from the chimneys in this restaurant cannot disperse into the atmosphere and instead fills the surrounding Interlochen Village Shopping Center with smoke. When I visited the dry cleaners there a couple of weeks ago, it looked like the shopping center was on fire, so smoke-filled was it. I have seen the smoke hang like a pall along Peachtree Corners Circle.
Old (and now ineffective) zoning prohibits Gwinnett County from enforcing any regulations in this matter. When the Georgia Environmental Protection Division was consulted, the environmental specialist for our area, Gwinnett and DeKalb, paid a visit to Dreamland and concluded that the EPD couldn’t do anything either. In Georgia, restaurants do not have to carry an air quality certificate. The cooking of food is also exempted from the burning bans.
Looks like a neighborhood deputation needs to visit the owners of Dreamland, which is an entity called Hog Wild, LLC and see if they would like to cooperate with the neighbors and voluntarily work to curtail the cooking smoke. That sounds like the optimum solution. The fallback solution is to ask our state legislators to create some aid for us in this smoky situation. We all have a right to breathe smoke-free air.
***
Hope all is well and thanks for reading!
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