InTucker Magazine

From the Mayor

For most of the 20th century, Tucker prospered as a growing suburban community in unincorporated DeKalb. In the first decade of the 21st century, new cities had formed in Dunwoody and Brookhaven, who joined Chamblee, Doraville and Decatur, among other older cities. For a variety of reasons, a group formed to consider cityhood for Tucker in 2013. I was part of that group, as were some of you. It began with a small core of about eight people and quickly grew into a larger group of volunteers. It’s long story for another time, but after a lot of work over the course of two years, in April of 2015, the legislature passed a bill which contained a proposed charter and called for a cityhood referendum for Tucker. In November 2015, the bill passed with 74% of the vote, establishing that charter as the foundational definition of the City of Tucker. In early 2016, we held our first elections, in which I became the city’s first Mayor. Several members of the original volunteer group were elected to the city council, and many others went on serving in volunteer roles and elsewhere in the new city.

Being part of a Constitutional Federal Republic has two very important implications relevant for the daily decision-making of the city: One, according to our charter, we have well-defined responsibilities, which you may be familiar with, and two, we are NOT just a smaller version of other subdivisions of government such as counties, states or the federal government. We have our responsibilities, and they have theirs, even though the lines are not always as clear as we’d like. Understanding the differences and not presuming to have the authority to act on responsibilities of other governments is a critical part of supporting and protecting those constitutions. The charter lists things that we are uniquely positioned and uniquely authorized to do, and there are more of them than we can ever get to. It’s when we stray from those and veer into others’ territory that we do damage to our city. It tells us all the parameters of how to conduct our business and ourselves. In informal terms, it creates and defines our “lane”, as in one of my favorite admonitions for all forms of government, which is to “Stay in your lane”.

When we veer out of our lane, and into the territory of other government subdivisions’ authorities, the best thing that can happen is we waste time and money and energy. We also fail to spend time and money and energy on the things that are in our purview. That’s the best case. The worst case is that we unnecessarily divide our community and our elected officials, degrade or destroy relationships that are hard enough to maintain, mistreat our own citizens by improperly subjecting them to unauthorized acts, and potentially bring lawsuits on ourselves.

The council’s responsibility is to consider the public’s expressed views and desires, add their own (hopefully greater) knowledge and judgment, and then act on behalf of the city. We don’t exist to divine the popular will and then do that – in that case, we should just have a pure democracy, which we have rejected for good reason.

We are neither a democracy nor a dictatorship. We are a Constitutional Federal Republic. We elect representatives to serve within the bounds of our carefully considered foundational documents, and when we adhere to them, including amendments as wise and necessary, we will prosper and endure. We can and have survived civil war, alleged attempted coups, efforts to otherwise undermine our governments, and ill intended, ignorant and incompetent leadership at all levels, for 237 years. The president, governor and mayor cannot act as dictators, and chaotic, even violent protesters will not make the rules for the rest of us if we honor and uphold our Constitutions and Charter. It requires discipline and diligence, and it requires an informed and engaged citizenry, just like you, so thank you again for what you do.

Reach out to us, stop us at the grocery store, look at our upcoming meeting agendas and attend our public meetings. You are why we serve.