Atlanta city government like ‘befuddled beehive’
A July 29 letter to the AJC (“State’s other swamp needs reform”) alerted me to your very well-researched investigative story, “He earned more than mayor for unseen work.” The letter pejoratively implied that both the Okefenokee and the City of Atlanta government are “swamps.”
I would suggest that the Okefenokee is a treasured, precious natural swamp, worthy of having just been designated a World Heritage Site (hooray!). In contrast, when I read that the former municipal clerk of Atlanta was being paid about $35,000 a month ($910,000 in over two years), with very little evidence of work done — paid more than the mayor, and more than twice the average annual salary of a family physician in this country — I would more accurately describe the city of Atlanta as a “befuddled beehive” wherein the right hand does not have a clue as to what the left hand is doing.
Where is the transparency and accountability in the Atlanta city government?
SALPI ADROUNY, JOHNS CREEK
Election errors shouldn’t be shrugged off
If your bank statement was off by $3,000, would you shrug and say, “Since I’m not broke, I don’t care?” That is how too many Democrats treat errors in our elections.
In New Jersey recently, a state software error registered about 6,600 people who had told the government they were not citizens. The governor’s reassurance: fewer than 400 actually voted.
Georgians know the pattern. The AJC reported that Fulton County double-counted roughly 3,000 votes in the 2020 election. In both states, the response from Democrats: It didn’t change the outcome; move on.
That answer insults our intelligence. You can reject the claim that an election was stolen and still insist that a process registering 6,600 noncitizens, or scanning thousands of ballots twice, is broken and worth fixing. The last question should never be “did it change the result?” It should be: “How did this happen, and how do we prevent it?”
Transparency and competence are not partisan demands. It is time all of us, Democrats included, treated them that way.
PAUL MILLER, ALPHARETTA
Collins declined to condemn racist rhetoric
When asked by the team at Politically Georgia about his son-in-law’s history of promoting white nationalist, antisemitic and pro-Nazi material online, U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Mike Collins’ response was: “Nobody speaks for me, and I don’t speak for anybody else.”
No, Mike, your job representing us in Washington is literally being our voice in Georgia.
The fact that you have a history of your own bigoted social media posts propping up extreme right-wing fantasies about throwing political opponents out of helicopters, boosting posts that applaud someone for making apelike gestures at a Black woman who was peacefully protesting, and the ethics inquiry on you on Capitol Hill with disgraced, racist former chiefs of staff, I suppose that tells us everything we need to know about you.
Mike, this is a job interview, and so far, I’m not sure why anyone in Georgia thinks you might be the man for the job — except your far-right MAGA fringe that seems content to feed only on the cringe.
Man up, Mike — speak out against white nationalist, antisemitic and pro-Nazi rhetoric, or please go back to just being the voice of your trucking company.
ANDY PHELAN, CLARKSTON
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