Friday, March 5, 2010

A Legal Update – 2007 Reevaluation Lawsuit

Just a note to update you on the status of our litigation for the alleged illegal 2007 reevaluation against the Tax Assessors.

As you know, our major lawsuit was sustained by Judge Crosby of Tifton and his decision was reversed by a three Judge panel in the court of Appeals. Our counsel appealed this decision to the Georgia Supreme Court via a petition for certiorari, which was denied by the Court. We then filed a motion for rehearing and two of the seven Justices agreed with our petition, but five denied.

After further review, since The Court of Appeals’ decision never ruled on the merits, but simply ruled that all of our complaints should be raised with the Board of Equalization and thereafter the Dougherty Superior Court, our counsel elected to file a three count amendment to our original lawsuit. Since Judge Crosby had retired, the case was transferred to Judge Ellerbee of Valdosta. Judge Ellerbee ruled that we could not legally file the three-count amendment. We disagreed with this ruling and filed an appeal to the Court of Appeals, who on February 20, 2010 signed an Order transferring this case to the Supreme Court.

We are required to file briefs shortly to the Supreme Court. Additionally, we have concluded that the City of Albany is not only unethically, but illegally using ADICA as a conduit in funding various agencies such as the Civil Rights Institute. To stop this will necessitate a lawsuit. As a preliminary to this lawsuit, we recently served an open records request on the City, ADICA, and the Civil Rights Institute. We have not been completely satisfied with their response and a number of our requests necessitate our going downtown and examining voluminous records.

Over $3.9 million has been poured into the Albany Civil Rights Museum to date, and they have yet to answer our request (under the open records act) for an accounting of where the money went. After visiting it, some of our members see less than $500,000 (at best) of improvements, and visitation/revenue numbers are dismal.

The Georgia Constitution prohibits a government, which includes a City, from paying “gratuities” to any agency. The City is aware of this prohibition, but state that by paying these funds to ADICA they avoid this prohibition. It is estimated that the City is paying one-half a million a year in violation of our constitution.

Upon learning of the School Board’s statutory violation in its selection of a new superintendent, the DCTPA, Inc. immediately forwarded a letter to the State Attorney General’s office requesting their intervention into this most embarrassing fiasco. Simultaneously, WALB, WFXL, and the Albany Herald filed (and were successful) an injunction to stop the Board’s irresponsible action. With this legal action pending, the State Attorney General’s office declined to intervene.

In the wake of an apparent settlement with the School Board (after local judges recused themselves for conflicts of interest), the DCTPA, Inc. ceased any continued recall (impeachment) actions against five board members which had been set into motion. The recall would have been very costly, not only in man-hours, but legal expenses as well.

Every action we have taken since our inception in 2006 is directed toward honesty and accountability in government, and reducing your taxes, whether by nullifying the illegal 2007 revaluation, or to stop the sheer waste of money in wasteful projects and government corruption.

Although the conviction of Don Buie was a partial victory for all of us, the $6 million ADICA bond remains intact, although the new “pigs at the trough” know we stand with a watchful eye as to what they do with the funds.

Our “coffers are dry” at this writing and we need every taxpaying citizen’s involvement and financial support to continue our fight. Otherwise, Albany is doomed.

We are sponsoring a Tax Return (appeal) Seminar on Thursday evening, March 11 at 7:00 p.m. at the Merry Acres Event Center (generously donated to us by the Dozier Family) that will give every disgruntled taxpaying citizen an opportunity to express their disdain with local government by learning how to file their appeals before April 1, 2010. If you are not present, you are forfeiting your right as a citizen to complain about our failed system and Albany’s future.

We have four new county commission seats available this November, so bring us your proposed candidates and your checkbooks, as we need your help. New T-shirts and bumper stickers, and county maps will be available to all!

Our deepest thanks,

THE STEERING COMMITTEE
D.C.T.P.A., Inc.