Mayor DeLoach’s success in 2015 was largely due to very high turnout in District 4, the area south of Victory Drive including Ardsley Park, which also elected Julian Miller as its representative in a blowout. DeLoach and Miller are arguably the Council members most supportive of the Fire Fee. And who are some of the voters now most upset by the Fire Fee? You guessed it.
Rob Hernandez
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Editor’s Note: A Tale of Two Windows
Just a few minutes after lecturing a local small business owner about his store windows, City Council took the complete opposite attitude in appearing to bend over backwards to benefit a large developer.
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Editor’s Note: The City’s malware malaise
But as the days go by and more City business is impacted, it has seemed long past time for the City to not only continue taking serious steps in fixing the malware infection, but to fully inform and reassure a largely clueless public.
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Editor’s Note: Gaslighting us about St. Patrick’s Day
The City Manager and Council are trying to gaslight you into believing there’s not enough revenue to be made at the second largest St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the country, an event somewhat akin to having a license to print money.
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Editor’s Note: Fire Fee = Tax cut for the wealthy?
Because the City bundled the Fire Fee with a one-mill rollback of property tax—equal to roughly eight percent — some affluent homeowners will actually get a tax cut out of the whole deal. While, you guessed it, those closer to the bottom will carry even more of the burden.
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Editor’s Note: Chickens come home to roost in final City budget
A Savannah that is already broke must go deeper into debt to complete the new arena. One of the barriers to sound fiscal management that City Manager Hernandez has already identified is the fact that Savannah has piled up bond indebtedness for various capital projects.
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Editor’s Note: Fire Fee is an equal opportunity offender
One is tempted to say that the most unity Savannah has shown in quite a while has been its massive opposition to the Fire Service Fee. And that’s why it’s probably going to pass.
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Editor’s Note: Inside Savannah’s sausage factory
One concerning new item came up suddenly: A proposal for the City to partner with Savannah/Chatham County Public Schools on a new program for 3-5 year olds, to the tune of about $2 million in previously unbudgeted City funding.
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Editor’s Note: After the utility bill fiasco, now what?
Overarching this entire discussion is one of Savannah’s recurring themes: We are overly reliant on outside consultants to find problems and make the recommendations to move forward that we are already paying a City Manager and City staff to determine and execute.
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Editor’s Note: Hurricane Irma Report Card
Many people this year second-guessed the decision to evacuate Savannah, given the storm’s eventual path. (These were often the same people who criticized CEMA for moving too slowly last year.) But given the massive flooding on Tybee, it turns out that CEMA’s decision to continue with the Zone A mandatory evacuation was exactly the correct and responsible call.
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Editor’s Note: Strategizing the Strategic Plan
One could easily argue that a hundred grand is chump change compared to the amount of wasted money and bad PR — water/utility billing software fiasco, cough-cough – that comes from an overall lack of a sane and cohesive strategy. But we already have an elected City Council, a very highly paid City Manager, and a second, lame-duck City Manager still on payroll through the year.
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Editor’s Note: Good news for 2017, with a warning
One of the things I learned covering this controversy is how ill-informed many Savannah citizens are about the process of funding local nonprofits.