Political spat broadcast on Web’s YouTube
by Andy Phelan
andy@dekalbchamp.com
An emotional exchange among county commissioners and the CEO at last week’s business meeting over the late-night pouring law has been uploaded to the popular Web site YouTube.com.
Titled “DeKalb County Commissioners Go Crazy At Meeting,” the three-part clip captures the CEO sparring with Commissioners Jeff Rader and Burrell Ellis for about 12 minutes.
The exchange included claims of points of order, name-calling and a general lack of respect for one another.
The clips, posted by Joel Kirzner, are prefaced with “This segment deals with rolling back last call at bars from 4 a.m. to 2 a.m. Folks, this is why we have crime, crumbling streets and lack of services in Atlanta ... Enjoy the yelling, threats and so much more!”
The discussion was only stopped after Commissioner Lee May told the CEO and commissioners how embarrassing they looked.
“I was really disgusted, it was out of control,” said Stone Mountain resident Viola Davis, who attended the meeting. “It’s just like (Commissioner) May said, they need to be concentrating on the people’s business instead of playing politics. The CEO has to stop doing that.”
Funny thing was, Davis said, she had just given the politicians a compliment for how professional they were all behaving during public comment.
“Mama told me never to give them a compliment again,” she said.
The CEO and some commissioners have tangled over the past year after legislators challenged the administration over the way large contracts are awarded, the police are funded and which infrastructure projects take precedence over others.
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