ELAINE IN THE NEWS

By Elaine Boyer for the Crier

Since June 1, the sound you hear when you flush t eh commode in many DeKalb County homes is not just the sound of water swooshing away.  Instead it’s the sound of your hard-earned money going down the toilet, thanks to the latest idea by CEO Vernon Jones that was enacted by the DeKalb Board of Commissioners. 

By Elaine Boyer   For the Smoke Signal  

There is a new team we can add to our colorful lexicon to describe the man who currently holds the office as DeKalb’s Chief Executive Officer.

Flip-Flopper.

That’s exactly what CEO Vernon Jones did to DeKalb’s 1,000 police officers when he vetoed a 4 percent pay raise for the men and women of uniform because he wanted a tax increase to pay for it.

By Elaine Boyer, Commissioner   DeKalb County, District One

As your elected Commissioner, there is one thing I’ve definitely learned: politicians can manipulate a budget to make it appear to be something it’s not.

That is certainly the case with CEO Vernon Jones who has proposed a $623 million budget for 2008, a 2 percent increase over 2007. 

Almost 100 years ago, the taxpayers of Georgia gave a gift to Emory University -- Atlanta Medical College, founded by the Georgia General Assembly in the 1850s at taxpayer expense.

Atlanta Medical College was renamed the Emory University School of Medicine.  No trace of it remains today.  On its former home across the street from Grady Memorial Hospital sits the Emory Faculty Building.

For The Dunwoody Crier  By: Elaine Boyer

While the business community and several elected officials may be predicting the sky is about to fall in because Grady Memorial Hospital is running an enormous deficit again, some of us are more than skeptical.  We have seen this alarm bell rung before. 

FOR THE SMOKE SIGNAL By:  Elaine Boyer 

The General Assembly met for a prolonged period this winter – extending into spring actually – and although noted legislation to create a city of Dunwoody died on the final day, other bills were adopted to bring more accountability to DeKalb County.

As we turn the page toward yet another year on the calendar, I will be entering my 15^th year as your representative on the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners.  Looking forward, I am optimistic on some very interesting situations which will greatly improve our local government.

FOR THE SMOKE SIGNAL By: Elaine Boyer   It's hard to believe, but it's been almost a year since two back-to-back major hurricanes hit the Southern United States, wreaking havoc on local economies and many lives.  And in September, we will mark the fifth anniversary since the tragic day when terroritst attacked the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and plowed an airliner into a field in Pennsylvania.

FOR THE SMOKE SIGNAL By: Elaine Boyer    Sometimes it is hard to get excited about blueprints and diagrams, sketches and concepts, ideas about the future of what metro Atlanta might look like 10 or 20 years from now.  But there are two concepts brewing on the horizon that Smoke Rise and Tucker residents really should pay attention to in the coming months.  Though it is hard to conceptualize how they will impact our neighborhoods, there is potential for a lot of change in this area in the future.