2009... year in review

UNDATED - Georgia grappled with the worst budget shortfall in its history in 2009 and local governments and school boards around the state didn't fair much better as the economic crisis rippled through the nation, forcing legislators and other public officials to make tough decisions that furloughed thousands of public employees and cut massive chunks out of the state's annual spending plan.

Georgia lawmakers spent most of the 40-day legislative session struggling to strike a deal on an $18.6 billion spending blueprint that made deep cuts to most state agencies. The cuts likely would have been worse if not for federal stimulus dollars that helped pay for Medicaid, the health program for the poor.

The cuts kept coming, as Gov. Sonny Perdue slashed another $900 million from the state budget in July, a move that required state employees to take at least three furlough days and almost led to a legal showdown when judicial leaders complained that the cuts could shut down the legal system.

The new year isn't expected to bring much relief: The challenging task of balancing the state's budget already seems like a daunting prospect.
And, in an election year, most political pundits agree it will be twice as hard for members of the legislature to even consider raising taxes to help ease the budget crisis.

The resignation of the state's first Republican House speaker came late in the year. Glenn Richardson at first won sympathy from even his political enemies when he revealed in November that he attempted suicide by swallowing sleeping pills.

But then his ex-wife went on TV and accused him of having "a full-out affair" with a lobbyist while they were still married. Linda Richardson made her revelations in an interview with Fox 5 Atlanta, WAGA-TV, in late fall.

A short time later, Richardson announced his resignation from not only the Speaker's job but the state House as well... and then delivered a tearful goodbye to the GOP caucus at a meeting where his successor was named, shouldering the blame for the chamber's struggles.

Elected to succeed Richardson was David Ralston, the man who tried unsuccessfully two years ago to unseat him, who immediately promised that a new day had dawned in Georgia politics. Ralston is a lawyer from Blue Ridge who once worked as a newspaper reporter in Gainesville.

Torrential rains pounded the state in September, flooding much of metro Atlanta and leaving their mark on northeast Georgia as well... with the Toccoa area especially hard hit. Neighborhoods, schools and even sections of roller coasters at Six Flags Over Georgia in Cobb County were left submerged in several feet of water. The flooding and rains were blamed for nine deaths in Georgia and Alabama. In the end, more than $250 million in property damage had been caused in Georgia alone by the floodwaters.

Speaking of water, it was a mix of good and bad news about Georgia's precarious water situation.

The prolonged drought that gripped the state and other parts of the Southeast was declared over amid heavy rainfall, but Georgia's long-running legal battle with its neighbors heated up. That's because a federal judge threatened to cut Atlanta's drinking water withdrawals from Lake Lanier within three years if a new deal isn't reached between Georgia, Alabama and Florida. But at a mid-December meeting, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, Alabama's Bob Riley and Florida's Charlie Crist agreed that they should do all they can to resolve the decades-old water war before they leave office next year.

As the drought drew to a rapid and unexpected close, the level of Lake Lanier reached full pool in October for the first time in four years and water use restrictions were eased across the state.

Atlanta's competitive mayoral election earned national attention. City Councilwoman Mary Norwood sought to become the city's first white mayor in a generation but she was defeated by former state Sen. Kasim Reed in a razor-thin runoff.

Elections in Gainesville were a bit more mundane with most of the attention focused on two non-binding referendums. Voters approved a plan to have the mayor elected instead of appointed from members of the city council on a rotating basis but turned back a proposal to elect the chairman of the city school board, who is also appointed from the board membership.

Also during the year, Gov. Perdue called for thousands of public school teachers across Georgia to take three unpaid furlough days. Teachers groups were disappointed by the governor's move, but Perdue said he called for furloughs rather than pay cuts because he wanted to show the move was temporary.

Local governments and school boards across the state wrestled with the same problem... with City of Gainesville finally joining others in the fall in calling for unpaid furlough days for its employees.

The city's longtime police chief, Frank Hooper, announced his retirement this year, effective at midnight New Year's Eve. Hooper had been chief for twelve years and been with the department 32. He spent his whole career there, following in the footsteps of his late father, who retired as a captain of the Gainesville Police Department. Becoming chief was the culmination of a life-long dream of Hooper's.

Two Georgia men were convicted on terrorism charges in 2009. Prosecutors said Syed Haris Ahmed of Dawsonville and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee of Roswell sent videotapes of U.S. landmarks overseas and plotted to support "violent jihad" and both men countered it was just "boastful chatter." The two were each sentenced to more than 10 years in prison.

Notable deaths in northeast Georgia during 2009 included retired Gainesville banker and economic development guru Ray McRae; longtime Braselton City Councilman Henry E. Braselton, who was also a former longtime Mayor of the town that his dad and two uncles founded; and, James Mathis Sr., another retired Gainesville banker, who, like McRae, was a key player in the economic development of the Gainesville area for many years.

Mathis is one of those credited with playing a major role in the founding of Gainesville State College. The college remembered him in a special ceremony in October. Mathis also had a passionate love of history and historic preservation and that played a pivotal role in his work in helping create the Northeast Georgia History Center.

A number of well-publicized stories from the police blotter also emerged during 2009.

One involved the disappearance of a Blairsville woman, Kristi Cornwell... last seen August 4 walking along a Union County road. Members of her family and police are convinced she is a kidnap victim. As Christmas rolled around, family members prepared to spend the holidays without her... but were still holding out hope and remaining confident she is alive.

Then there was the double-homicide in Dawson County just a week before Christmas. A couple from South Georgia - Jennifer and Paul Budrawich of Effingham County - were killed on the banks of the Amicalola River and their bodies dumped into the water... but not before a chilling 911 cell phone call from the woman, begging for help and asking the people who were about to kill her "why?" Investigators say that phone call was a key piece of evidence in launching the search for the couple which led to the quick arrests of two suspects.

In September there was the shooting death of a Lavonia minister at the hands of drug agents in Toccoa during a botched drug raid which left the young man's mother - Abigail Nelson and other family members - searching for answers.
In mid-December, a Stephens County Grand Jury ruled that the officers were justified in their shooting and declined to file charges against them.
District Attorney Brian Rickman called it a tragedy "all the way around," for the Jonathan Ayers' family and the family of the officers involved.

As the year drew to a close, there was still the possibility that federal charges could be filed but as far as the state is concerned, the case is closed. And, a civil lawsuit is almost a certainty.

While New York City had Bernie Madoff, Gainesville had its own Ponzi king, Wendell Spell, who pleaded guilty in March and was sentenced in August in a case prosecutors say was the biggest ever Ponzi scheme in Hall County history. Spell was ordered to federal prison for 12 years for stealing millions of dollars from several victims in a scheme involving the sale of heavy equipment.

Victims said they provided Spell with a total of $62 million, which he promised to return at a high rate of interest, but testimony during the sentencing revealed it turned out to be a Ponzi-style "rob Peter to pay Paul" scheme - much like Bernie Madoff's.

(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)