Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods chair proposes County of Buckhead concept; urges it be vetted

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Thecontroversial administrative shakeup at North Atlanta High School a weekearlier so angered Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods Chairman Jim King that heunleashed from his mental closet a proposal he has been thinking of for four tofive years—creating a County of Buckhead.

BCN Chairman Jim King

Kingdoesn’t want to think about becoming a part of a renewed Milton County as somehave proposed. Nor does he want to create a new City of Buckhead. He wants aBuckhead County. 
"Acounty can raise its own police force. ... its' own school district. We cancontrol the schools and they can to be closer to the people," King said."We could end up having the best not only private but public school systemin the state over night…have the safest community in the state over night… andstill support the city of Atlanta." 
King explained, “Buckhead could still be within the citylimits of Atlanta, just like part of Atlanta now is in DeKalb County.”
King told the neighborhood representatives attending themonthly BCN meeting at Peachtree Presbyterian Church, “I think things have gonetoo far. Drastic steps are necessary….Maybe it is time we (Buckhead) demand afull loaf,” King said.
King added that it seemed to him, regarding the way thesituation was handled at North Atlanta High, “Race, politics and class weredriving the school thing that happened. Does that sound like Atlanta? I thoughtwe had gotten beyond that,” he added.
King pointed out that attorney Glenn Delk, who represents theHistoric Brookhaven neighborhood at BCN, suggested a city of Buckhead a coupleof years ago and King admitted he didn’t think that would work at the time. Delk, a supporter of charter schools, presently is representing the North Atlanta High interim principal Mark MyGrant who was abruptly removed from the post last week.
Explaining that he has sat on this idea of a County ofBuckhead for four to five years, King said, “The time has come that I think itneeds to be vetted.”      

BCN representative attorney Glenn  Delk

Takinghis option as chairman of the organization of 28 Buckhead neighborhoods, Kingstated his viewpoint: "The kids are the ones who are being cheated in thiscity. This community is being ignored. ... We have a school board that is notreceptive…After this week, the superintendent probably can't be trusted. ...That’s a lot of stuff to try to grapple with. People supporting Atlanta PublicSchools from Buckhead have had enough and are willing to look at any and allactions that will remedy the situation." 

However, State Rep. Edward Lindsey, whorepresents most of Buckhead, is an attorney and is the Republican majority whip, said there are several constitutional legal issues withKing's idea, on both a federal and state level.
Firstof all, Lindsey said that under the state constitution, in order to “bust acounty apart,” all citizens of the existing county must approve the measure."That's going to be awfully difficult to do," he said. The south part of Fulton County, whichincludes most of the city of Atlanta, is not going to vote for that, heexplained.  

State Rep. Edward Lindsey of Buckhead

Furthermore,Lindsey said, the most recent proposals have been to change law so that only the residents in what would be the new county would vote on the issue instead of all the residents of the existing county. He said that violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Federal law does not allow taking away the voting rights of some people in deciding their future and fate, he added.

And, he added that the state constitution would have to be amended to allow 160 counties instead of theexisting 159 counties.
Lindsey said people outside of Fulton County would notlook favorably on splitting the county. Those in rural counties would fear thesame might happen to them as a result, he explained.

The state representative agreed the idea of a Buckhead County should be vetted. "I think all ideas should be on the table and be fully vetted," he added. 
 On the issue of education, Lindsey he favors “parenttriggers” to take existing traditional schools to a “conversion charterschool.” He said he held off this past session on proposing such legislationand “felt good about that decision until this past week.” He said he will bepresenting that legislation this coming session of the General Assembly.
Lindsey said “conversion charter” has been upheld in otherstates and does have some bipartisan support in Georgia. He said it also caninclude cluster charters, which might include North Atlanta High with SuttonMiddle School and the elementary schools that are part of the feeder cluster.

"Folks in north Atlanta by and large have achoice and most are well off enough to send kids to private schools, Lindseytold the group. “Fortunately, people choose to put them in public schools, andradically they have helped improve them. I don’t want to see us back up, I wantto see us go all in….I think it will require us to have more control of ourschools in the north side of town."

Editor's note: Check back on this story on Friday. We will attempt to advance it with additional information.