The first speakers, all favoring privatization, addressed the Commission with cool aplomb. The crowd of around 800 politely honored Chairman Charlotte Nash’s admonition against outbursts. At least, I thought that they were being polite; they were actually just waiting for something to cheer about.

The crowd burst into raucous applause and shouts after the first opposition speaker concluded his comments. Chairman Nash warned the crowd to stay quiet and respectable. The crowd ignored her. After a later warning, several people yelled, “No!” or “We won’t shut up!”

Nash eventually gave up. The police inched in a little closer. Applause, catcalls, hoots and boos continued through the night.

The night continued with those in support and those in opposition taking turns at the podiums. Those favoring privatization spoke of the economic benefit and encouraged the Commission to reject Commissioner John Heard’s attempt to short-circuit the process. Only with information in hand could the Commission make a wise decision on this unique opportunity, they argued.

The opponents spoke of noise, declining property values and diminished quality of life. By the end of the evening, commercial jets would be the cause of heart attacks, lung cancer and botched surgeries.

It suddenly struck me, upon listening to the opponents’ presentations and seeing the graphs, charts and diagrams that I was listening to real estate agents, housewives, marketing consultants and truck drivers speak as if experts on noise levels, flight paths, pollution, traffic and the like. Their efforts only convinced me further that the Commission would be best served by enlisting the services of an actual expert or two.

Tensions boiled over an hour into the meeting when David Cross, a proponent, took to the microphone. The beautiful and spacious 12Stone Church sanctuary sported several large movie screens on which the video stream of the proceedings could be viewed. The opponents took turns holding their “No Airport Expansion” signs behind the speakers, in view of the cameras.

Cross snatched a sign out of an opponent’s hands and threw it on the floor to a chorus of boos. Two opponents got into a shoving match over the sign until they realized that they were on the same side. [Go to 59:00 in the county video stream; view the shoving match here.]

Do I Look Like Boo-Boo the Fool?

The “could you be that stupid” moment of the night came 35 minutes into the evening’s festivities. Duluth real estate attorney Russ Lappana had exceeded his allotted time, but Chairman Nash allowed him to extend his presentation. Lappana ended with a “demonstration” of decibel levels of a 737 jet airliner on takeoff. He played alleged recordings of four jets on takeoff, each progressively louder than the previous. After the fourth, the audience again erupted into equally loud applause and cheers.

Where do I begin to explain how idiotic and worthless this demonstration was? First and most obvious, jets do not fly inside church auditoriums… not even the smaller 737s. Jets fly out in the open air, where the sound doesn’t bounce off walls and ceilings just feet away from the hearers.

Second, from where did these recordings come? Did Lappana stand beside a runway and tape four 737s taking off? I’m guessing that most 737s sound about the same under similar circumstances, so to get the various levels did he move a little closer to the jet wash each time?

Or did he find a jet takeoff on some sound effects web site and tell the sound tech to just crank it up a little each time?

Privatization proponent B.J. VanGundy spoke later in the evening [1:30:00] and pointed out the obvious– unless Lappana had come to the auditorium earlier in the day, positioned 800 people in the seats and calibrated the sound system using a decibel meter, there was no way that anyone could be sure of the sound level.

“To have played those sounds earlier was dishonest… and it was not correct,” said VanGundy.

VanGundy said that he had used a dB meter on his phone to gauge noise levels in the auditorium. Those speaking were measured at about 75dB. The louder jet recordings measured not the 85dB and 92dB claimed but between 135dB and 140dB.

Could Lappana have exaggerated the sound levels for effect? Surely, not. More likely, he let his emotions overwhelm rational thought.

I confirmed VanGundy’s conclusions with my own sound meter. As you can see in this video, speakers were measured at between 65dB and 75dB while applause peaked above 100dB, the limit of the meter; I estimated it to be around 110dB. The louder jet recordings played by Lappana were easily much louder, as VanGundy had claimed, than the applause.

Again, check out Lappana’s road show at 35 minutes into the county video stream. Be sure to continue listening as Chairman Nash admonishes the crowd for its behavior, only to have some members shout back at her.

A local politician even joined in on the boorish behavior. Lawrenceville Council member Tony Powell told the Commission that the city had already retained an attorney to fight privatization, a former FAA official who knew how to manipulate the federal bureaucracy to ensure that the county’s plan would never see the light of day.

“There are a million things that can be done to stop this in formality with the FAA,” said Powell, quoting the former FAA bureaucrat.

In other words, facts don’t matter to the council member. The City of Lawrenceville is unwilling to debate privatization and scheduled service on its merits. City leaders will instead use public money to bring in a hired gun to bury any privatization plan in paperwork. [1:39:00 of the video stream]

Can you tell that I’m frustrated by how some of my friends and neighbors acted last night?

To be fair, not all of the opponents acted so rudely and crudely. Many of the speakers obviously held their positions honestly and refused to resort to hyperbole and outright deception to make their points.

A majority of the Commissioners have indicated that, on May 3, they will reject John Heard’s attempt to tie their hands and will authorize the issuance of a Request for Proposals. Going forward, I fully expect the Commission to provide full information as things proceed, similar to the Engage Gwinnett effort where all documentation and video recordings of the group’s meetings are published.

Perhaps, for the next public hearing we’ll actually have something useful to talk about.

Aside from the fact that government has a spotty track record for customer-friendly business practices, the City of Lawrenceville has a monopoly. I have no recourse whatsoever. I cannot vote with my feet and move to another gas provider. Not being a Lawrenceville resident, I do not have the ability to express my displeasure at the ballot box. While I am sending a copy of this article to Lawrenceville Mayor Rex Millsaps and the members of the Lawrenceville City Council, what incentive do they have to serve a non-voter who will continue to be a customer regardless of what they do?

Gwinnett Buzz » Blog Archive » The City of Lawrenceville’s poor customer service