Giving Off An Odor
Dec 16, 2010 Updates
In 2003, Governor Sonny Perdue established a corporation, Maryson, LLC, which purchased a tract of property adjacent to the Oaky Woods Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in Houston County, totaling 101 acres. The State of Georgia Department of Natural Resources had been leasing Oaky Woods from timber companies for over thirty years. In February of 2004, Weyerhauser announced plans to sell around 19,000 acres of the Oaky Woods tract, as part of a larger sale of its timber holdings in the Southeast.
The Nature Conservancy discussed a purchase of the 19,000 acres of Oaky Woods for a price of $26 million, providing the State of Georgia would repurchase the tract from them in the future. In May of 2004, DNR Commissioner Lonice Barrett declined the purchase of the Oaky Woods tract, on the grounds that the state did not have the funds for the purchase in the budget. Ten days later, Maryson, LLC conveys the property purchased near the Oaky Woods tract to Sonny Perdue.
In June of 2004, friends of Governor Sonny Perdue, Scott Free and Charles Ayers, and two other partners announce that they have purchased the Oaky Woods property at a cost of $1,600 per acre, or for around $32,000,000. They announce major development plans for the land. Their plan was to build 30,000 homes on the property with a gigantic development in what would have been a private city. In 2005, during the next session of the General Assembly, legislators close to the governor introduced bills which would have allowed the creation of private cities with their own private zoning laws, and where developers could levy their own private taxes. Most of these bills were defeated, and never saw the light of day.
The developers of Oaky Woods then filed a request with the Houston County Zoning Commission to obtain special variances that would allow them to develop the property. They also sought approval of the construction of a water treatment facility as well. These requests were eventually denied by the Houston County Board of Commissioners, who have the final word in all zoning matters in Houston County.
In January of 2009, the Oaky Woods developers hired a lobbyist to market the property for development or sale. The asking price of the property was $14,000 per acre. The value of Sonny Perdue’s 100 plus acres purchased near Oaky Woods also doubled in a three year period as well, to around $750,100.
Oaky Woods is a prime hardwood bottomland habitat for black bears, rare plants, and for waterfowl and other game animals. Several areas of Black Forest Prairie have also been identified on the tract. After the Oaky Woods tract was purchased by the developers in 2004, they continued to lease the property to the DNR for annual lease payments, although the rent payments did increase after the purchase of the tract by the developers.
It was recently announced that the DNR Board met in Atlanta, and the DNR has approved a purchase of a portion of the Oaky Woods tract, totaling around 9,595 acres, for a purchase price of $28.5 million. The developers would retain around half of the original tract bordering near Georgia Highway 247 for future development. This means that the State of Georgia now has the funds in the DNR budget to purchase 9,595 acres of Oaky Woods at about $2970.29 per acre in 2011, when it did not have the funds to purchase the entire Oaky Woods tract for $26 million, or around $1368 per acre. By selling 9,595 acres of Oaky Woods at around $2970.29 per acre, the developers have with one sale doubled their investment made in 2004, counting the lease income paid them by the DNR. Why was it done this way?
Well, these transactions were handled that way because of nothing less than public corruption. If these transactions were being handled by a public official that really had the best interest of the people at heart, then the DNR should have asked the Nature Conservancy to purchase Oaky Woods in its entirety in 2004 for $26 million. If the sale to the Nature Conservancy had gone through as originally planned, neither Sonny Perdue nor any of his buddies would have got in on a piece of the action. This proposed deal stinks to high heaven. Before the players in this proposed land sale start heading to the bank with Georgia taxpayer funds from the sale, maybe the U.S. Attorney’s office should look into these transactions. Some FBI agents need to pull some deed records, and speak to some of the players in this land scheme.
It is a violation of the Federal Hobbs Act to use a public office for private personal gain. The Oaky Woods transactions appear to make a mockery of the law here. Once the developers were stymied in their efforts to rezone and develop the property, they have sought a bailout from the DNR. Once again, Sonny Perdue has proven that he sought the office of Governor of Georgia for one reason only: to enrich himself and his friends.
Misplaced Priorities
Dec 16, 2010 Updates
The Bibb County Board of Commissioners and the City of Macon are in the process of spending around $500,000 per year each to keep the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame open another year. The State of Georgia has recently ended its funding of these entities, and these funds are needed to keep these facilities open, and to pay their utility bills.
I say that local leaders have their priorities misplaced, and some of these resources need to be redirected and spent elsewhere. The reason that the Halls of Fame are in trouble on a long term basis is because tourism and trade in the downtown area is declining. These areas are declining because of the crime problem in the Macon area. Street thugs own the streets of Macon, Georgia.
For over the past five years, minority store owners or operators have been murdered by gun toting street thugs in Macon. Robberies, muggings, carjackings, and other crimes have skyrocketed in recent years. Vishnu Patel owned and operated a convenience store on Napier Avenue. He was gunned down and shot to death by youthful street punks carrying handguns two weeks ago. Three young men have been arrested and charged with his murder, and they each have extensive criminal histories. This is a familiar tune all over the City of Macon, and it is high time that local officials and the tax paying public get the message.
Bibb County and Macon City officials need to get on the same page in order to deal with a problem of this magnitude. Street crimes by youthful offenders should be identified as a specific problem in the community, and solutions to deal with the specific problem need to be formulated. The State of Georgia has failed to build prisons over the years, and this has lead to jail backlogs and overcrowding from the time prisoners are sentenced in the courts. Bibb County is in need of immediate jail space. The D.A.’s Office should form a unit of prosecutors designed to deal with youthful offenders who commit violent crimes. The County should apply for a U.S. Department of Justice grant to pay Senior Superior Court judges to come in at least once per week, and to try criminal cases, or to conduct rule hearings and take pleas.
Law enforcement agencies in Bibb County should put a Youthful Offender Task Force together to specifically target and arrest young street criminals, ages 17 to 32 years of age. These agencies should also get on board with the U.S. Attorney to bring Operation Triggerlock back to Macon. If a youthful offender commits a crime with a firearm after being convicted of a felony offense, that person should be prosecuted in Federal District Court, where there is no parole system.
Any youthful offenders arrested need to be incarcerated after they are arrested. Bibb County and the City of Macon should immediately do something to give them more jail space. Local officials should pick up the telephone, and call Athens or Dunwoody or Savannah, and see if one of the Halls of Fame could be moved there. The vacated building should then be renovated, and turned into a county jail for youthful offenders. Once the new jail is built, the bonds and bail amounts for youthful offenders should be doubled.
Macon and Bibb County can bury their heads in the sand, or they can grab the bull by the horns and deal with the street crime problem. If they need to raise taxes to deal with these serious problems, then they need to plan for the tax increases that will allow them to start solving these problems. If the street crime problem is not addressed in Macon and Bibb County, these Halls of Fame will fail anyway, and the downtown entertainment district and downtown trade will continue its rapid decline.
