ACC meeting

“It’s not a fun thing to do to allocate a shrinking pool of money,” said a commissioner during Tuesday’s meeting of the Athens-Clarke County government. The commission voted 6-4 in favor of a proposal to reallocate ever-shrinking funds made available to the county through a federal grant program.

Alice Kinman of the 4^th District proposed an amendment to the bill that would take a total of $285,000 of funding from humanitarian organizations in favor of programs that would provide what another commissioner called more “concrete results.”

Kathy Hoard of the 7^th District expressed her support for the amendment. Allocating the funds from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), she said, is “an exercise in using scant funds to the best of our ability.”

One of the programs from which some funding would be taken educates potential buyers about homeownership. The program, said Hoard, represents an investment of $111,364 for only 74 participants. Statistics presented later suggested that of those 74, the vast majority would fail to purchase and maintain ownership of a home.

Not all of the commissioners agreed with the amendment’s contents or the fashion in which it was presented. “This is an entirely inappropriate way to conduct business as a government,” said Elton Dodson of the 10^th District, obviously upset that the amendment had been presented so near voting on the bill.

Other commissioners outspokenly upset by the amendment were George Maxwell and Harry Sims. Despite the opposition, however, the bill passed as presented.

Clarity and succinctness should punctuate a journalist’s work, said a national reporter for the Associated Press to students as he spoke to journalism students today at the University of Georgia. “You have to say to yourself,” he suggested, “‘why not try this little, snappy, four-word lede?’”
Journalism is a rapidly-changing field, said Erin McClam, so clear, concise writing has become that much more important. Morning and night versions of a story, he said, have been consolidated into an on-the-spot piece of journalism, publishable immediately.
With this evolution, he said, must come an appreciation of the full value of multi-media news presentation. “If it’s not interesting, you’re just going to jump to another thing,” said McClam.
To cultivate interest in readers, he said, observation of the reporting environment is the most important skill to master. He emphasized that a small detail, or a quote
not widely-overheard can convey the mood. Observation can make your story.

An "exciting time" in local government

Now is an “exciting time” in the study of Georgia’s local governments, said Harry Hayes, an authority on those local governments, as he spoke to students last Monday at the University of Georgia.
The formation of four new cities in the last three years alone, said the project director at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, constitutes an interesting trend. As these cities begin their lives, said Hayes, it is interesting to track the formation of their governments and how those governments will mesh with those of the counties in which they reside.