Comments on: DA: DeKalb school construction probe ‘complex & enormous’

By: janet russell

janet russell — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:45:06 +0000

They need to look behind the scenes at what is going on with Mr. and Mrs. Pope. For example the renovation at the Sam Moss center was architected by Mr. Pope and the county had to pay another architect over $10,000 to sign off on the plans under the table so that the job could get permitted. Not only that they used county paid workers to do the work until it was permitted and charged for contractors. When are people going to wake up and see what has been going on.

Talk to some of the newly “retired” workers who were there during her reign. Both of the Pope’s need to be removed from the county positions they hold, return the vehicles they drive that the county pays for and get all of their relatives out of the positions they created then Dekalb Schools might regain its standing in Georgia. As of now they are worse than Clayton County even though they maintain their accreditation.

By: dekalb citizen

dekalb citizen — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:53:43 +0000

Mr. Pope,

I trust you are telling the truth. We must be above board and hones with hard working dekalb county taxpayers

By: Anthony Pope, AIA

Anthony Pope, AIA — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:12:32 +0000

Let me add some clarity to part of this issue. First, Vincent Pope only holds ONE contract with DCSS for Columbia High School. This contract was obtained in 2004 prior to Ms. Pope working for the school system. The contract was extended to complete the renovations @ Columbia in 2008 for SPLOST 3 deferred work. This was not bidded due to the fact that we where already working on the campus and it was a continuation of the work being done. A similar contract extension was given to Milton Pate Architects and R. L. Brown Architects. No illegal maneuvering here.

We are currently closing out the Columbia High School project and this will conclude our contracted work with DCSS.
Thanks

By: Jim Walls

Jim Walls — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:45:28 +0000

I agree. I decided in the last couple weeks that was equally as worthy a goal as my other goal (kickin’ butt).

By: SpaceyG on Twitter

SpaceyG on Twitter — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:39:32 +0000

I just want online journalists to be able to get funding, somehow, someway. One small step can lead to others, and other funding sources. And it’s just good for all indie media types working online. We sure could use any inspiration we can get, put it that way.

By: Jim Walls

Jim Walls — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:16:58 +0000

Thanks, Grayson. I’ve met with Len Witt a few times but really need to follow up with his business development manager at Kennesaw. Money only became an issue recently when my AJC buyout checks stopped coming, so I was just working on building the content and readership. Now it’s time to figure out a business plan. In the meantime, I find this sort of work to be fun even if not rewarding financially.

By: SpaceyG on Twitter

SpaceyG on Twitter — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:30:15 +0000

Jim: you’re killing me out here just watching you try to do all this PI kinda stuff alone. So Lordy knows what it’s doing to you! Please ask for help if you need it. And as with any good i-reporter, you start by following the money trail.

The local folk who’ve gotten funding for “sustaining” journalism (whatever the f that means, and sometimes I think it means just going around blabbing about Twitter at conferences rather than actually committing anything remotely related to journalism, but I diverge…) is Leonard Witt at KSU’s new Center for Sustainable Journalism.

You likely know about this already, but for chrissake, maybe they could at least provide you an intern and a few bucks for a real web person. At the very least.

http://sustainablejournalism.org/