An elderly man wanting to fight another guy, decades his junior. Four people arrested for getting belligerent. An upset mayor.
That’s the end result of East Point’s town hall meeting over a proposed property tax increase to offset a rollback in utility rates.
East Point Mayor Earnestine Pittman told the crowd of a few hundred people Thursday night crowd in the Jefferson Park Recreation Center that the tax increase would be less than $25 a year for those with a home that is worth less than $149,000.
Pittman says few people would be hit hard because the average property appraisal had fallen from $86,300 to $38,800 in three years.
But few people in the crowd were buying the mayor’s numbers – because the mayor didn’t produce much evidence.
Pittman didn’t have any figures on whether her proposed tax increase would be able to close the multi-million-dollar deficit that would result from the rollback in utility rates.
"Turn down your thermostat," shouted Dustin Drabot, who said he fears the mayor will remove the current 15-mill cap on property taxes.
Pittman admits she doesn’t know how much how much the 15- mill rate would raise for the general fund, but she refused to engage with Drabot.
The man who took his seat but got in a shouting match with a Pittman supporter. The supporter and her husband left, while police made Drabot leave.
Pittman, who had promised to take opponents questions, then halted the meeting.
"I don't answer to you. I don't answer to hooligans. I don't answer to disrespect," Pittman said. "Madam Mayor is gone."
Stephen Zink was left standing at the lectern.
Zink wanted to tell the mayor that the monthly base rate for water would drop from $48 to only $32 to $40 under the mayor's proposal; it was less than $20 a year ago. To Zink, the rollback didn't justify a tax increase, which he feared would run into the hundreds of dollars for homeowners annually.
"We're really getting a doubling of our utility rates and an increase in taxes," he said, "and we don't know if we're reducing the deficit."
Two newly elected City Council members -- backed by Pittman -- campaigned on the promise of reduced utility rates.
The mayor now holds the swing vote on a council that often deadlocks on issues 4-4. Her opponents had control of the issue last year.
The council is expected to act on them Monday.