Fight over arts center funding
goes to court
by Andy Phelan
andy@dekalbchamp.com
State Rep. Mike Jacobs, left, discusses the bond issue with Nadine Ali after a hearing July 15.  |
A funding mechanism to finish construction of the $18 million south DeKalb arts center on Rainbow Drive is in doubt after a state lawmaker challenged the validation of Development Authority bonds in Superior Court on July 15.
State Rep. Mike Jacobs [R-Atlanta], said it’s against state law to float the bonds unless they send it to voters for approval in a referendum.
Jacobs, an attorney, said he ought to know because he authored the legislation.
In June 2007, Gov. Sonny Perdue signed into a law a measure that prohibits any county that has a Public Safety and Judicial Facilities Authority from floating service bonds to build projects and then lease the facility back to the county in the form of rent payments without first asking the voters for their blessing in a referendum.
In this case, the county and its authority are trying to do just that -- issue $4.3 million in development bonds, use the proceeds to complete the project, turn around and lease the facility back to the county, which would then pay principal and interest to the authority as rent.
“If you are going to do this, you need a referendum to ask the people of DeKalb if it’s OK,” Jacobs told Superior Court Judge Dan M. Coursey Jr., who must validate the bonds before they can be issued.
Attorney Gregory Worthy of Powell, Goldstein LLC, who represents the Development Authority and the county, told the judge the supposed statewide law is applicable only to DeKalb.
“In this instance, only DeKalb County would need a referendum,” said Worthy. “While all other counties could continue to conduct business in this way, DeKalb could not. Jacobs’ amendment takes DeKalb County and Development Authority’s power away, while all others are left alone.”
A resolution is not expected until sometime after Aug. 6.
Finance Director Michael Bell said through a spokeswoman that county taxpayers are paying $706,225 a year now on other bonds floated by the Development Authority to build the arts center.
The additional $4.3 million would add another $575,000 a year, which if issued would mean that taxpayers would be paying $1.3 million a year for about 10 years on the center.
All money used to pay the arts center bonds come from the county’s general fund, the same place the county pays for services, salaries and supplies.
More than two dozen south DeKalb residents who attended the hearing wore stickers with a line through Jacobs’ name.
“I’m very disappointed in Mr. Jacobs,” said Bobbie Sanford, wife of former commissioner Porter Sanford III. There is a petition to name the center, which is about half complete, for Sanford – the first African-American named as presiding officer, who died in 2006.
“We are so very underserved in south DeKalb,” said Sanford. “It’s long overdue. This is a frivolous waste of the court’s time.”
The issue has laid bare the racial split between the north-south, White-Black, DeKalb.
Gloria Rainey of Decatur was none too pleased with Jacobs either.
“It’s discrimination,” said Rainey. “We’ve been waiting 25 years, and it’s almost complete. Why hold it up now? This is why we come to conclusions [of racism] because of actions like this.”
Longtime observer of county politics and freelance writer Joe Arrington, who attended the hearing, said he thinks the issue is being manipulated.
“This is being turned into a racial issue, but it’s not,” he said. “It’s a legal issue. It’s the same old ‘your either for it or your against it.’”
Jacobs said no matter where in the county this project was taking place, he would be fighting the way it is being funded.
“If this project were occurring in my district, I’d be sitting in that courtroom,” said Jacobs.
Rainey said that’s great, but it’s not in his district.
“We know that he’s doing this because it’s in south DeKalb,” said Rainey. “We need this center.”
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