The December Messenger features an article on voting irregularities that occurred at the Epworth Methodist Church polling station during the Nov. 5 municipal election. The article recounts how many Candler Parkers were issued incorrect electronic ballots. According state and Atlanta elections officials, the Candler Park precinct was the only location with ballot problems in the election.

Voters who tried to cast ballots for the candidates they supported discovered the problems less than an hour after the polls opened at 7 AM. Several approached campaign workers who were set up across McLendon Avenue where they had posted signs for their candidates and where school board candidate Leslie Grant’s volunteers were giving out doughnuts and coffee. Marcy Leamy, who lives on McLendon, was one of the first to report the problems to campaign workers and CPNO. I was there, along with CPNO president Ken Edelstein, when Leamy approached Grant’s volunteers and told them about the incorrect ballots. “I have her yard signs,” Leamy said. "We can't vote for the people we want to."

As word of the ballot problems began spreading, campaign workers had to deal with another issue: they had posted signs and set up their table too close to the polling station. Shortly after Leamy told Grant’s volunteers about the incorrect ballots, Epworth’s assistant poll manager removed campaign signs from the McLendon Ave. roadside that he determined were too close to the church. He also told Grant’s volunteers to move their table to a point beyond the legally mandated distance from the church building. Georgia law, like that in other states, restricts campaign activities near polling places. According to Georgia Code, campaign literature (including signs) must be more than 150 feet from “the outer edge of any building within which a polling place is established.”

Campaign workers Carolyn Morton and Candace Dixon move their table
away from Epworth on Nov. 5. Photo by David Rotenstein.

Campaign signs along McLendon Ave. on election day.
Photo by David Rotenstein.

For more about the November election, read the December Messenger. 

Proposed Amendment to Artivle IV Section 5:

Add on to the end of the paragraph:

In the event that there is only one candidate for given office and there are no nominations from the floor, then and only then, the requirement for election by ballot for that officer may be suspended. This could be may be done by a motion to elect by acclamation, properly seconded, and voted by a show of hands.

The December Messenger [pdf] is available now! Physical copies will be distributed soon.

Today, Tuesday December 3, a runoff election will be held for two important school board races. All Candler Park residents will vote at Epworth Church (1561 McLendon) and polls are open from 7 am - 8 pm. 

On the ballot for Candler Park voters:

School board at large seat 8: candidates are Reuben McDaniel and Cynthia Briscoe Brown

School board at large seat 9: candidates are Jason Esteves and Lori James

Run-off elections tend to have a low turn-out, so your vote counts more than ever. Any registered voter can vote today, whether or not you voted in the general election. Go get that peach sticker!

Don't expect Mary Lin adminstrators to back off their decision to end student dropoffs next Monday from the northbound lane of Candler Park Drive or to reverse the elimination of voluntary crossing guards in front of the school.

That was the message of Principal Brian Mitchell during a special meeting of the Mary Lin Building Committee in the Lin auditorium Monday. Approximately 25 parents attended the midday meeting, as did Mitchell, Assistant Principal Ashley Adamo, the architect of the school's ongoing renovation and addition project, and our neighborhood's recently elected, soon-to-be School Board District Member Leslie Grant.

Of perhaps a dozen commenters, all but one or two were critical of Mitchell's decision, how it was decided or how it was communicated. As CPNO president, I read a statement requesting that the school delay the changes and strive to be more inclusive in future decisions that might affect the neighborhood. Read it here.

But Mitchell was firm. He told parent activists that they should advise other parents to change their behavior by using buses or by dropping their kids off around 7:30 am, before the traffic's backed up for southbound dropoff ... and to be patient. One father, a crossing guard, supported Mitchell by saying parents need to adjust their behavior even if it's inconvenient, because dropping off children across the street from their school is inherently unsafe.

While Mitchell initially announced last week that northbound dropoff needed to be eliminated to make room for teacher's parking spaces, he argued today that it's a non-negotiable move to enhance safety. The crosswalk in front of the school is striped and marked by city school xing signs. It's been operated for around a decade. But it apparently isn't an official city crosswalk. Asked why it was necessary to make the change so quickly, he said the administration is "leveraging" construction to close the crossing.

Mitchell did thank me for the statement and came up to me afterward to apologize for not engaging the neighborhood.

What will this mean for neighborhood traffic? My guess is that it'll clog up Oakdale Road and North Avenue as more parents funnel through those two streets to drop off their kids by heading south on Candler Park Drive. We'll see if that creates a bit of gridlock on the North Avenue stop signs. The northbound lane on Candler Park Drive may become less congested, but freer flowing traffic isn't likely to enhance the experience of parents and kids who are walking across the street to get to the school. 

To me, the whole controversy also underscores how crucial it is that we work to implement priority projects on our Candler Park Master Plan. Among other improvements, the plan calls for two new crosswalks across Candler Park Drive and a sidewalk running the entire length of the eastern edge of Candler Park Drive. Prescient? Certainly. But it's too bad we can't get all those changes installed by next week.

Updated:  The 374 Clifton Road Application was withdrawn; therefore, no pending applications remain to be reviewed at the December meeting.  The December Zoning Committee Meeting is cancelled.  The next scheduled meeting is January 1, 2014.

Follow the link below to take park in an important survey.

Share your needs and priorities for Parks and Recreation facilities in the City of Atlanta.

Your opinions and ideas will have an impact on the Parks Master Planning process.

To show our appreciation for completing this important survey, you will receive a coupon for 20% off an upcoming City of Atlanta Parks and Recreation program or membership.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/iPARCS

Mary Lin Elementary’s construction project has run into another delay — this time because the City of Atlanta allegedly lost drawings that were part of the project's building permit application.

A memo to Mary Lin Principal Brian Mitchell from an Atanta Public Schools construction management official put it this way:

The City is requiring a total resubmission for the building permit.  According to Hogan Construction, the drawings submitted previously are lost in the permitting office.  The City will not accept the second application without these documents.

It’s unclear how far back the permit problem will move completion of the addition portion of the project, which already had slid to July 2014. And it’s unclear how further schedule changes might affect classroom space for the 2014-15 school year. A separate stage of the overall project — renovation and reconfiguration of the existing building — is slated to get underway after the addition is complete.

According to that APS construction management memo:

Hogan is still meeting with their subcontractors to revise the phasing plan and more importantly, we still do not have a building permit in hand. The team is contacting the City Building Department daily.

The original phasing plan indicated phase 1 to start October 21st and phase 2 to start on November 4th.  These date slipped because the permit took longer than anticipated. Hogan is revising the schedule based on receiving the [Land Disturbance Permit] on November 13th.  The Land Disturbance Permit only allow[s] site work which is the phase 1 work. Based on the date the construction team received the LDP, the July 2014 date probably slipped also. The construction team is working on a worse case phasing plan scenario.