Fight over Dunwoody turns ugly
by Andy Phelan
andy@dekalbchamp.com
Two members of the state legislature who authored the Dunwoody cityhood legislation tried to file a police report July 9 after they received what they called “threatening” phones messages from the husband of another state representative.
State Rep. Fran Millar [R-Dunwoody] and state Sen. Dan Weber [R-Dunwoody] played tape recordings of messages to the media left by state Rep. Jill Chambers’ [R-Atlanta] husband Albert Chambers after 11 p.m. on July 7.
The messages were left on Millar’s Capitol office phone and at Weber’s law practice.
In the call to Weber, recorded in the above link, Albert Chambers tells the senator, “You will not be a happy man when I’m done,” and “You’ve messed with the wrong guy.”
Later he tells Weber, “You all have made me very, very, very angry. I’m not responsible for what’s going to happen. You made my Christmas miserable and you made my life miserable.”
Millar said in the parking lot of DeKalb County’s North precinct while trying to file a report that he doesn’t want anyone to go to jail over the threats.
“This whole thing is bizarre,” said Millar. “I just want a public apology. Normal citizens, let alone public officials, shouldn’t be treated this way.”
Bad blood between Millar and Chambers, who represents parts of what would be in a new city of Dunwoody, surfaced this spring and summer after Chambers became the de facto leader of the opposition to Dunwoody cityhood.
She went to the well of the House in April and urged her fellow legislators to vote “no” because “there are still too many unanswered questions.”
Residents vote on a referendum to determine whether Dunwoody becomes DeKalb’s 10th city on July 15.
Chambers acknowledged her husband called the state lawmakers, but said he was simply trying to defend her honor.
Vicious rumors that she is sleeping with Vernon Jones for favors have been spread by “activists who support cityhood,” said Chambers.
“This is all about them trying to smear me before the election,” said Chambers. “This is about the Citizens for Dunwoody Inc. putting out a $10 million RFP [request for proposal] with CH2M Hill to run city services and so The [Dunwoody] Crier can be the legal organ.”
Millar, who could not file a report because the North precinct refused to take a statement, said it’s all nonsense.
“Do I think this guy [Albert Chambers] was stupid? Yes,” said Millar. “We want this guy on notice to stop this. He crossed the line.”
Chambers said it’s the other way around.
“They’re just trying to embarrass me,” she said. “This is a desperate act by desperate men who are scared that their city won’t pass next week.”
Millar said he would seek advice from legislative counsel, and might apply for a restraining order in county Magistrate Court as early as July 10. Maj. D.B. Calhoun told Millar and Weber he could not take the complaint per orders from senior police leadership.
Police told Millar to call the district attorney’s office to file the report, and then was told by Assistant District Attorney Don Geary that he could not take a report.
According to Keisha Williams, spokeswoman for police Chief Terrell Bolton, the officers were ordered not to take the report in Dunwoody because “this is a political battle that we did not want to get in the middle.”
“We felt it was our interest to send them to the DA so there wouldn’t be a conflict of interest,” said Williams.
When asked why the Dunwoody officers couldn’t simply do their job and take a report, Williams said the decision to send the lawmakers elsewhere was made by “the DeKalb County Police Department.”
“We don’t have a dog in this fight,” she said. “Let the politics play out.”
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