Brookhaven Reporter www.ReporterNewspapers.net
Inside
Winging it
On the attack
Campaign turns partisan, mean COMMUNITY 3
Watch your step Officers learn from Israeli police
AUG. 7 — AUG. 20, 2015 • VOL. 7 — NO. 16
PUBLIC SAFETY 20
Check out my fleet feet
OUT & ABOUT 14
State tells charter school to trim City Council member from board BY JOE EARLE
joeearle@reporternewspapers.net
ISADORA PENNINGTON
Left, Kendi O’Mardo and his son Christopher play touch football during the Punt, Pass & Kick event sponsored by the NFL on Aug. 2 at Murphey Candler Park. The competition gave kids between the ages of 6 and 15 an opportunity to learn football fundamentals in a non-contact environment. See additional photos on page 2.
A neighborhood’s disparity: Home tax values rise, commercial appraisals stay the same BY JOHN RUCH
johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
When Brookhaven homeowner Thomas Spencer saw the property tax bill on his three Sunland Drive houses jump 48 to 80 percent this year, he thought that at least he shared the pain with many neighbors. But not all of them. Looking at tax records, Spencer was surprised to see that several adjacent commercial properties—including the Brookhaven Chamber of Commerce office and the former Mexican consulate complex—had no change in their bills. And those properties’ assessments were less than one of his houses alone. “It’s a mystery to me,” Spencer said. “It just seems to
me to be grossly unfair for residential property owners to be paying ever-higher property taxes…[while] at least these commercial properties are having such low assessments.” He wondered if the reason was “gross incompetence” or worse. Calvin Hicks Jr., DeKalb County’s chief appraiser, said there’s a simple reason that some commercial property tax assessments didn’t go up: The county chose not to reappraise them. SEE NEIGHBORHOOD, PAGE 4
State officials are requiring the proponents of a Brookhaven charter school to reduce the number of City Council members on the proposed school board, to provide a plan and budget for teaching students with disabilities or who need help with English, and to provide more budget information on health benefits. The backers of the proposed Brookhaven Innovation Academy were given until Aug. 17 to provide the additional information to the staff members of Georgia’s State Charter Schools Commission, who would then make a recommendation to the commission on whether to approve the school. The commission is scheduled to meet Aug. 26 to consider whether to approve or deny the charter for the new school, the letter said. “The SCSC review panel determined that the educational model of BIA indicates that the proposed school will operate as a highquality charter school consistent with the SCSC’s mission and the educational goals of Georgia; however, the SCSC review panel identified several aspects of the school’s operational plan that require additional action or explanation before SCSC staff will recommend approval of its charter petition,” Morgan Felts, associate general counsel and petitions manager for the commission, said in the letter dated July 30. SEE STATE, PAGE 19
Give the police a smile Amelie MartinezMorales, 10, reflects on the Brookhaven Police patrol car she’s admiring during National Night Out on Aug. 4 at Perimeter Mall. Read story and see more photos on page 24. PHIL MOSIER