Nancy Jester: Votes No On DeKalb Soccer Complex

Taxpayers Not Allowed To Speak – Vote Forever Tarnished

I voted against the proposal before the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners to fund a soccer complex in DeKalb County.

I did so because this particular proposal was not in the best interest of DeKalb County taxpayers. There is no justification for giving away millions of taxpayer dollars while DeKalb County is failing at delivering basic services such as, road maintenance, water management, and fully funding public safety and our first responders.

At DeKalb County Fire Station Seven, mold is putting the lives of DeKalb County firefighters at risk inside a crumbling building. We ask these heroes to put their lives on the line every day. We have a responsibility to give them a safe, working environment. Let me be clear, DeKalb County is failing our fire and police men and women when we vote to give millions to build a soccer complex while we fail to fund safe, working environments.

DeKalb County has private sector job creators, who actually pay taxes to DeKalb County, selling off hundreds of acres and moving out of DeKalb. Instead of giving away millions of dollars to an entity to come to DeKalb, we should focus our attention on how we retain those longtime proven job creators who pay taxes.

This vote was a disaster for DeKalb County taxpayers.  A majority of the Board of Commissioners refused to allow members of the public (the people actually paying for all of this) to have a few minutes of comment time prior to the vote. It is disgraceful the public was denied the right to speak on a project they are paying for through their tax dollars.