As you’ve probably noticed, it’s been about seven weeks since I published anything. After the elections, I think there was some curiosity about whether I would keep writing and publishing at all, given the outcome of the elections. And, anytime I have any publishing lull people seem to start wondering if the government finally scared me into silence or just had me killed. 💀
The good news (or bad news, depending on your point of view) is that I am still alive and well, still fearless, and still attending meetings and keeping up with what’s going on around here.
For the record, it is and has always been my intention to keep writing and publishing about the government of the City of Sugar Hill. Behind the scenes, I do get tired sometimes, and sometimes, I get a little tired of it. I’m marching uphill against a contingent of aggressive tin-pot dictators and their lackeys, which is not easy. But, I am committed to cleaning up government and making it more responsive to the people. ALL of the people. I’ve been at it for nearly five years, and the work is still far from complete.
However, I’ve always been more concerned about the quality of articles than quantity. I want to provide a solid block of information regarding a topic before I present it. And as far as my analysis, I prefer an accurate take over a Twitter-style hot take.
For those reasons, I wanted to pause, not only to assess the new situation, but to put some thought into how I plan to cover things going forward. Admittedly, it is easier to expose unflattering, unvarnished truths about people who have established acrimonious or manipulative, two-faced relationships with you than it is to be blunt about people with whom you have friendlier relationships. And up until very recently, I hadn’t given that much thought because quite frankly, I wasn’t convinced this was a situation we’d ever see around here so soon.
But, I didn’t begin this project to put any specific people in office. I did it to push people to be better in office, and if they refuse, to push them out of office so better people could have a shot. That is only possible if I give the community all of the information about what I see. It’s not my responsibility to be a marketing manager for the City of Sugar Hill, or anyone who has been, is, or will be in public office.
So, I figure I need to challenge the new Council Members just as hard as I challenged those they replaced. Doing anything less will obliterate the years of work I’ve put in for this project, and would rightfully destroy the trust that a lot of people have put in me. I’m too proud of my work and honored by people’s trust to get sloppy and slack and let that happen.
It’s up to those public officials to prove themselves to the Community. They’ll either fail and get tossed out like the last three, or they’ll show us all that they were everything they claimed to be.
So on to the burning question. “How’s it going in there?!”
Or, if you didn’t vote for the new members, “How’s THAT working out for ya?!”
In short, it’s off to a very rocky start.
A Tale of Two Councils
Some saw the 2023 election as an ultimate reckoning in which one viewpoint or the other, either the pro-urbanization, big-spending density hustlers, or the managed growth and spending proponents, would emerge supreme.
But instead of having one Sugar Hill City Council with a different direction, we now have TWO distinct Sugar Hill City Councils operating fairly independently of one another. We have the pre-2024, pro-urban faction (Mayor Brandon Hembree and Council Members Taylor Anderson and Alvin Hicks) that survived the election, probably mostly because their terms were not up. We have the ‘24 forward suburban oasis faction (Council Members Gary Pirkle, Meg Avery, and Joshua Page) who presented very differently than the Old Guard and came in with the backing of residents who’d apparently had it with the same old same old in Sugar Hill.
The City employees are solidly behind the pre-24 crew, at least on the face of things, because that’s where City Manager Paul Radford’s loyalties lie, and I mean that in all senses of the word. Since all of the other employees’ employment situations, even the City Clerk’s to a certain extent, depend on him, no one will cross him or his large, albeit fragile, ego.
The appointees are also clearly behind the pre-24 crew, either ideologically or because whatever they get from being there, whether it’s just an ego boost or something else, are dependent on the continued existence of the pro-urbanization, big-spending Sugar Hill status quo.
We’ve had two City Council meetings so far, and in those meetings, individuals from both factions have mentioned a “learning curve” or pointed out that the new members didn’t know something. The January meeting took place nine (9) weeks after the election and five (5) weeks after the run-off. There has been adequate time for a smooth transition and information sharing, and it was the responsibility of the people with the information to share it.
My observation is that people on both sides seem to be secretively trying to outmaneuver the other side or turn people against others. The pre-2024 faction has ALWAYS been extremely secretive. However, I’m becoming concerned that maybe that’s just how ANYBODY who’s ever been in government tends to operate, and a publicly silent battle is really what’s beginning to emerge in the City of Sugar Hill.
Let’s Get Ready to Vetoooooo!!
Everyone was aware that the Mayor has the ability to veto ordinances and that it takes four City Council votes to override the veto. That much is stated explicitly in the City’s Charter. That’s why the existing Council members suddenly found it very important to pass the 2024 budget as an ordinance when they hadn’t done it that way in at least twenty-five (25) years (I checked). They wanted to lock in their spending on their way out the door.
After the election, they apparently got very concerned and commissioned some research into what else they could do to protect their boy, overpaid City Manager Paul Radford; their other boy, Planning Director Kaipo Awana; and everything else about the sneaky, concrete-laden status quo that voters JUST disapproved and elected to change.
I’ve been told that they were advised that an old Georgia Supreme Court case from 1948 gave the Mayor the ability to veto both ordinances, as explicitly stated in the Charter, AND resolutions. So, pretty much everything.
Since learning this, Mayor Brandon Hembree has been bouncing around Sugar Hill saying “Veto!” like a sugared-up toddler who just discovered a new word. He mentioned it kind of out of the blue at the January City Council Meeting, in response to a vague conversation about lowering the allowable building heights both in the Central Business District (CBD), and for R36 zonings throughout the City. On Facebook recently, he threatened to veto the removal of a Sugar Hill Planning Commission member who hadn’t shown up to a meeting since August 2022. And, at the February meeting (just the second meeting featuring the new Council Members), he “finally” utilized his veto power to reject Gary Pirkle’s appointment to fill the SHPC chair role vacated by Jeremy White.
Although the new members of the City Council have the majority, they do not have a veto-proof majority.
Anything that Pirkle, Avery, and Page vote to do can be vetoed (shot down) by Hembree and cannot pass unless either Anderson or Hicks vote along with Pirkle, Avery, and Page when it comes back to the City Council. Given the obvious hatred that Anderson routinely displays for Pirkle, and Hicks’ demonstrated role as a sidekick to Hembree and Anderson, there’s a snowball’s chance of that happening.
However, Pirkle, Avery, and Page CAN also vote against measures coming from Anderson and Hicks. And while the Mayor can veto an overall ‘NO’ vote from the City Council, the veto does not automatically change it into an approval.
So, the newly elected Council Members do not have quite enough people to go on much of an offense. But, they do have a solid defense.
And defense wins championships.
A Realistic Offense
Although the voters selected new candidates who expressed a different direction for the government and the City, Hembree, Anderson, and Hicks did not hear that message and are determined to keep the City on the same path.
While Pirkle, Avery, and Page are very limited in their ability to initiate changes and get them through, there are things they can do to increase the chance of success.
Right now, they are introducing agenda items, but they’ve picked some…interesting items with which to start. And, most of those items started off poorly.
Some of that is to be expected given the obvious animosity of the other elected officials. Taylor Anderson comes to every single meeting like he’s thoroughly convinced Gary Pirkle dented his car in the parking lot without leaving a note or spit in his coffee when he wasn’t looking. And that’s not just since the election - he’s been doing this for the past year and a half or so. He obviously feels like his behavior is clever and makes a good impression, so it’s not changing.
But, picking battles carefully, clearly and openly stating the desired outcome of the discussion, and laying out a solid case for agenda items would help. And that’s on the three new Council Members as the agents of change in the government.
In January, when Pirkle brought up the topics of reduced building height and density for R36 zonings throughout town and reduced building heights in the City’s Central Business District, it wasn’t quite clear in most cases exactly what he wanted to change. Anderson went off on lengthy tangents, partially because of his hateful attitude, but partially because the conversation wasn’t given a clear focus and objective.
In the end, Planning Director Kaipo Awana was asked to write something up and bring it to the next meeting, the February Council Work Session. That report didn’t propose any changes. Why? Well, Awana probably didn’t know what to suggest, since lowering the building heights and density was not his idea. But more importantly, it wasn’t anything he, Paul Radford, or the pre-2024 elected officials wanted to change. So of course, he/they took that opportunity to divert the discussion to “affordable housing,” which is just a pretty Trojan horse that politicians use to continue densifying communities that are otherwise opposed to high-density initiatives.
I saw some of what Pirkle later sent to Awana prior to the Sugar Hill Planning Commission meeting (SHPC). He had highlighted specific sections he wanted to change and seemed much more direct about what he wanted. As a result, the Planning Department presented something clear to the SHPC, and the Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of the amended zoning ordinances to the City Council at the March monthly meeting.
In February, Meg Avery added a discussion about the City’s contract with Waste Management to the agenda. At the Work Session, she went through a long list of what she’d learned about other cities’ approaches to solid waste removal. It was a long list, an information dump, and it wasn’t clear what she wanted everyone to do. When the same issue came up at the February City Council Meeting a week later, she was clear about what she wanted to do - direct staff to renegotiate the contract and achieve the specified changes if possible and to issue an RFP if the negotiations failed to produce a better contract by April. Anderson had some inane comments that Waste Management could just cancel the contract rather than renegotiate and wondered what leverage we have. It was almost as though he was scared of Waste Management. Or Former Mayor Steve Edwards, who works at Waste Management. But, his silliness didn’t last long, and ultimately, the Council voted unanimously in favor of Avery’s proposal.
The State of Things
It’s early, but this election hasn’t changed much about the City of Sugar Hill, and any major hopes or fears that anyone had regarding a new Council are yet to manifest.
How will it all play out? I can’t say for sure. And neither can anyone in this government. EVERYTHING here comes down to the PEOPLE.
All I can say with complete certainty is that it is very clear to me that I still need to be here, doing the exact same thing I’ve been doing for almost five years now.
As long as an involved public knows the Real Deal, they’ll make sure the right things happen, and maybe we can finally wake up to a new day.