Evermore Never More
Visited 893 times, 3 so far today Print This! | Twitter This!
The days of the Evermore Community Improvement District being the most successful and effective CID in the county are numbered, after a ruling by Gwinnett Superior Court Judge Billy Ray. The successful recall of two of the board’s younger members will all but guarantee that.
Angered by Executive Director Brett Harrell’s firing of the economic development manager and facing a 4-4 stalemate on overturning Harrell’s action, the old fogies on the board—Dwight Harrison, Forrest Adair, Kenny King and Emory Morsberger—set out to change the balance of power. While the recall was pending, the four caused the work of the CID to grind to a halt, even refusing to complete simple tasks such as approving the minutes of the previous month’s meeting.
And this is all about Harrell. With their new-found majority, you can expect the `Old Fogey Faction` to immediately call for Harrell’s head. His departure will deal a serious blow to the CID’s efforts; the former Snellville mayor brought to the job a unique energy and professionalism as well as influence at all levels of government. The CID will suffer by Harrell’s loss.
Even worse, the four may have sent the CID wandering in the political desert for years to come.
Harrell will now run for the open State House District 106 seat vacated by Melvin Everson, who is running for Labor Commissioner. Harrell will win that seat easily. A significant amount of the Evermore district falls in District 106 which means that, because of how local legislation is processed in the State House, the CID will have to rely on Harrell’s good graces from time to time.
As the CID E.D., Harrell also enjoyed a good working relationship with D-3 Commissioner Mike Beaudreau. In contrast, there is no love lost between Beaudreau and Harrison, who battled Beaudreau for the District 3 seat five years ago.
My problem with the recall is fundamental—rather than compete on the “field of ideas” and win majority support for their position, Dwight Harrison and the other old farts instead used “the system” to change the balance of power in their favor. As a result, the CID board’s position as a body representative of the wishes of the member property owners is diminished, not enhanced. The will of those who elected Ken Shiver and Dean Robinson has been ignored.
Remember, Shiver and Robinson did nothing wrong other than support Harrell’s actions as Executive Director. A recall could just have easily been initiated against Harrison, Adair or the others and been equally as justified. For today, though, the thugs rule the roost and the property owners within the Evermore CID are the losers.
With Robinson and Shiver recalled, the board now has six members. Two of those seats – held by Kenny King and Emory Morsberger – are up for re-election on May 28. At that election, as required by law every six years, voters of Evermore will also decide whether to keep the CID going.
Evermore CID: Judge says 2 recalls were legal
I disagree with your assessment of the Evermore CID.
In the first place, it is just another layer of government created to do the job our county government should be doing.
The mission of the district to improve quality of life has equated to making Hwy 78 better looking as you drive past the empty buildings on your way to and from work. Really, do you need sidewalks alongside a highway where vehicles are traveling at rates of speed that any parent would be scared to death to walk with their children? And what about the plans to build a pedestrian bridge over Yellow River to the tune of over $500,000.00 for who to use? The best thing that can be said about the CID is that the people running it know how to milk the government system to get additional funds and to use the press to show how marvelous they are doing. Seen anyone sitting on the park benches placed in the area besides our county officials shown in a photo opportunity? Businesses such as Best Buys are continuing to leave the area. Hiring someone to concentrate on the Economic aspect of the CID might be a better use of some of the funds provided by the property owners but I believe that even they do not get it.
I have lived in the metro Atlanta area most of my 59 years and over 30 off Five Forks Trickum and watched the transition of Memorial Drive to a lackluster environment to go to and Hwy 78 is following in those footsteps.
How about a little more common sense in utilizing funds to improve the quality of life in the area?
Congrats Bob! Given that you have insulted anyone 55 and over with your “”old fogey faction”. But you have always had a way with words. The problem with the Evermore CID was the lack of leadership on the part of the ED to insure the board or a majority was bought in on his actions. Clearly that is not the case. The next Evermore CID ED ought to take a good hard look at the way Chuck Warbington leads the Gwinnett Village CID and try to elmulate same.
Patrick Malone – Snellville
This from the GDP today:
On the heels of a Superior Court ruling that said two board members were legally recalled in March, the Evermore Community Improvement District will have a “specially called board meeting” Friday morning.
Board member Dwight Harrison said the nature of the meeting is to “discuss several things pertaining to employment and some other issues.”
In an article which appeared in the Daily Post on Jan. 27, Harrison said he’d like to see Brett Harrell removed from his position as the CID’s executive director and said if Dean Robinson and Ken Shiver were recalled, the CID would like to hire its former economic development manager David Stedman back.
Stedman was fired by Harrell last year after only being on the job a few months.
With Robinson and Shiver now recalled and the meeting Friday focusing on “employment,” changes may be brewing in the Highway 78 corridor’s CID.
The meeting will take place at 9 a.m. Friday at the Mountain Square Business Center’s board room, 2140 McGee Road in Snellville. For information, call Ray Mokhberi at 404-313-0276.
Also, David Stedman was rehired as the CID’s Economic Development manager. Originally hired in November 2008, Stedman was fired by Harrell for undisclosed reasons.
It was Stedman’s firing that sent some of the board’s founding members– Dwight Harrison, Forrest Adair, Kenny King and Emory Morsberger– gunning for Harrell. Because the four represented only half of the board’s eight voting members, their efforts to reverse Harrell’s decision were stymied.
That is, until the four decided to change the balance of power by initiating a recall petition against two Harrell supporters, Ken Shiver and Dean Robinson. The recall was successful, but Board Chairman Gary Gustar refused to honor the results, citing numerous irregularities.
On Tuesday, however, Superior Court Judge Billy Ray ruled that the recall was valid. Harrison, King, Adair and Morsberger immediately called for the special meeting.
The first announcement of the vote, incidentally, came via Brett Harrell’s Twitter account when he posted, Brett Harrell “Is TOAST.”
Read more: “Talk Gwinnett! – Harrell Fired as Evermore Director – Express Yourself! Forums” – http://bit.ly/v4XZ0