We Are Not Alone: What Others Have Said About the City of Brookhaven

We Are Not Alone: What Others Have Said About the City

2015: a released email had been rearranged. On June 15, 2015, Johnny Edwards of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that text in a City email released under the Open Records Act “was moved and covered with white space, so that the email appeared much shorter than it actually is.” Trey Benton of The Brookhaven Post said: “It goes against everything that they say that they want to be.” Then Mayor Rebecca Chase Williams said: “We will do better.” (AJC, June 15, 2015). Two days later the AJC reported that the City Attorney then serving, a decade before Jeremy T. Berry held the role, had resigned, “avoiding termination by the city council,” and Mayor Williams said: “On the issue of open records and the sunshine laws, there’s just no room for error.” (AJC, June 17, 2015).

My 2026 records dispute was not the first time the City of Brookhaven’s records fees were reported. On July 7, 2020, reporter Erin Schilling wrote that Brookhaven first demanded an unwaivable fee of more than $500 for use of force reports, and that the Brookhaven Police Department later agreed to provide the use of force and discrimination reports at no cost. Read the July 7, 2020 report in Rough Draft Atlanta.

That was a different request, by someone else, six years before I wrote to the City.

2017: Georgia Tech walked Buford Highway. A Georgia Tech planning studio’s Fall 2017 study for the City reported that “pedestrian infrastructure on Buford Highway is lacking consistent ADA accessibility. Impaired pedestrians do not have equal access and opportunity” (Georgia Tech, Buford Highway Brookhaven Vision, Fall 2017).

The City’s own count. Brookhaven’s ADA Transition Plan Update, adopted January 23, 2024, says: “The 2019 inventory identified 1,856 curb ramps with 731 of those ramps ADA non-compliant.” (City of Brookhaven, ADA Transition Plan Update)

2025: the City asked its own residents. In the City’s own November 2025 resident survey, 54.1% of residents with an opinion were satisfied with “How open the City is to public involvement and input from residents,” and 19.8% were dissatisfied; 41.0% were satisfied with their “Ability to participate in the development process as a citizen,” with 24.8% dissatisfied. The City scored above the national average on most items. (ETC Institute for the City of Brookhaven, November 2025)

2025: one elevator. In the City’s public comment record for the I-85 pedestrian bridge, a resident wrote: “Relying on a single elevator creates risks: breakdowns, size limits, and safety concerns.” The City answered that “ADA accessibility is taken into consideration at both ends of the proposed project with a ramp at Executive Park South and an elevator at West Druid Hills Dr.” and that it “will closely monitor and clean the elevator and will have a contract for maintenance and repairs.” (City of Brookhaven, June 27, 2025)

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