Last year the Cobb Board of Commissioners agreed to become certified with the federal IMAGE program, which stands for ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers.
County spokesman Robert Quigley said that process should be completed in the next few months while the county is waiting on final approval from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The county has 4,200 full time employees and 850 part time employees.
On Feb. 26 the Board of Commissioners may vote on a proposal by Commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Bob Ott that would require contractors doing business with the county to also apply for IMAGE certification.
Marietta Mayor Steve Tumlin said he wants to see his city achieve IMAGE certification as well as the contractors with whom Marietta does business.
“As we were early participants in E-Verify and happy with such, I personally think that Marietta adopting the IMAGE certification is an excellent way of staying in compliance,” Tumlin said.
Tumlin said it’s not enough just to have city employees be IMAGE certified because city contractors represent the city as well. Contractors, in turn, hire subcontractors, who would also have to certify themselves and their employees if working on a city project.
“As a city we use federal contracts, do a lot of DOT contracts, we work with a lot of different people, and I think we have a duty to make sure the subcontractors are in compliance also. They vicariously represent us whether they’re on the list or not.”
Powder Springs Mayor Pat Vaughn said she wants her City Council to discuss the matter at their Wednesday meeting. Vaughn said she believes Powder Springs should seek IMAGE certification, but she wants to learn more about it first.
“We need to know the ins and the outs,” Vaughn said. “Let’s say that we do find something amiss. What do you do at that point for an employee you’ve had, say, going on 20 years or 10 years or something? Those are things we have to discuss.”
Vaughn said she is working on securing an expert such as an ICE agent to attend the meeting to help the Powder Springs Council better understand the program.
Acworth, Kennesaw not buying in
Acworth Mayor Tommy Allegood said Wednesday his city has no plans to seek IMAGE certification.
“We do not have any plans at this point to implement IMAGE certification to our employees or our contractors,” Allegood said. “We are basically using the E-verify and are compliant with everything as far as that goes, and at this time our staff and our City Council are not discussing any plans to even move forward with something like that.”
Kennesaw Mayor Mark Mathews said his city has no immediate plans, either.
“I’ve personally been sitting back watching the county on this, and we’ll make whatever decisions we need to make after the county has taken action,” Mathews said. “There’s not been a big push for us to do anything at this point from anywhere. But it’s not that we’re avoiding it because we’re not. It’s just not on the radar at this point.”
Austell Mayor Joe Jerkins said he hasn’t discussed the matter, but was open to considering it.
“If we need to do it, we’ll do something. I’m not sure what,” Jerkins said. “We don’t want to be doing anything illegal.”
Smyrna Mayor Max Bacon said he was not opposed to seeking IMAGE certification, provided it didn’t cost the city anything or duplicate something the city was already doing.
“If it doesn’t cost any money, I don’t have a problem with us doing it, but I would need to learn more about exactly what it is and why we would be doing it, and then if it did show that we have employees that are not here legally, that they’re illegal residents, then what I want to know is how did we employ them to begin with. Why didn’t the system we have in place now work?”
King takes swipe at Bacon
Immigration activist D.A. King of the Dustin Inman Society answered Bacon’s question about how a government could employ an illegal immigrant.
If Bacon has illegal immigrant workers on the city’s payroll, they were hired before the use of E-Verify with false or stolen ID or were able to slide through the E-Verify system with fake or stolen ID. King said E-Verify only goes forward from the date of authority to use the system, not backwards for existing employees. And it is not foolproof. That’s why the Obama administration recently streamlined and improved the IMAGE system.
“IMAGE audits expose use of stolen and fake ID,” King said. “I suspect that is regarded as a negative to many entrenched political bosses in Cobb. It certainly is the case with Boss Lee.”
King said illegal immigrants lie on their I-9 forms every day just as they use stolen ID on I-9 forms.
“Why am I not surprised that Mayor for life Max Bacon doesn’t seem to know that?” King said.
Bacon barks back
Bacon took a few swipes at King, noting that adopting IMAGE would presumably take care of the illegal immigrant problem, “until D.A. King finds something else we need to be doing.”
Bacon also questioned what King does for a living.
“I need all the help I can get, but I’ve had some pretty radical people come down here and make a lot of statements that are untrue about people from different countries, and they’re not true, and they’ve used D.A. King’s name, and it makes me wonder about his credibility,” Bacon said, laughing. “D.A. King needs to get a life. I’m going to send him back to the country he was born in, which was the country of euthanasia and see if we can’t get him back there as soon as possible.”
In response, King referred to Smyrna as a Mecca to many illegal immigrants and the people who employ them.
“I will pass his un-medicated insults on to the members of the Dustin Inman Society board of advisors,” King said. “Meantime, anytime Mayor Bacon wants to confront me face to face – and I do mean anytime, I can meet him. For the record, I was born on an Air Force base in South Dakota to proud American citizens whose great grandparents immigrated here lawfully.”
King went on to say, “I will certainly be happy to inform Mayor for life Bacon if I find any other no-cost programs to save jobs for Americans – including real immigrants. Funny, many of us are very curious about everything Bacon does for a living as well. I live on personal funds and donations. Maybe Bacon wants to donate?”
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It will be interesting to see who King & his cronies manipulate poor white folk to target and scapegoat again. Or maybe, just maybe, since he says he loves Mexicans and other people of color, he will join with us to welcome and help them become a part of our community. (Thank you Mayor Bacon and other leaders with the courage to do that already, regardless of their status, and due to the simple fact that they are fellow human beings, in spite of the bullies. That is true leadership in the American spirit!)
Smyrna is run by white man.
City council, white. Attorneys, city managers, etc.
Almost all departments & department heads, white.
Where is the minority representation?
You will only find minorities as the slaves working the low paid jobs in landscape and roadwork.
Oh, and the one token, the mayors assistant.
26 or 27 years of one man rule over Smyrna has created the perfect example of 'absolute power'.
Smyrna, just it's location alone, should be competetive w/ other north perimeter cities.
Under good ole boy Max rule, it is nothing more than a struggling, vacant city w/ sprawl neighborhoods annexed for the sole purpose of tax revenue.
No business or development has come to Smyrna in the last 20 years.
It is pure arrogance & greed that drives the Bacon.
Lets see if Max Bacon can have an actual ADULT conversation with DA King, or will he just run & hide behind his bullies, as usual.
What race exactly is "illegal alien"? What exactly are the meds that Max Bacon seems to have lost? Is this you Tim? Helen? Rich?
In her suit, Kirkendoll alleged that her 2010 arrest had been orchestrated in retaliation for her prior antagonistic encounters with Smyrna officials in an ongoing political dispute with the city.Kirkendoll had accused local government of ignoring immigration laws by allowing illegal immigrants to work on city construction projects. During a March 2009 council meeting, Kirkendoll tried to give Mayor Max Bacon a flag of Mexico and asked him which flag he wanted to be flown over City Hall, the suit said. Bacon did not accept the flag and ruled her out of order.
A month later, Kirkendoll was cited for violating a city ordinance that made it a crime to “behave in any way contrary to public peace or morality to the disturbance of any citizen of the city.” The charges were later dismissed, and the ordinance has since been repealed, Counts said.
Kirkendoll was immediately put under arrest and then jailed for more than two hours. Later, she filed a federal lawsuit, alleging her free speech rights had been violated and that she had been falsely arrested and imprisoned.
In 2012, the city’s insurance carrier agreed to pay $85,000 to Kirkendoll to settle the litigation, city spokeswoman Jennifer Bennett said. The city was not involved in the carrier’s decision to settle, she said.
“I hope that the city and mayor got the message and that no one else will ever be arrested for simply speaking out during a public meeting,” Kirkendoll said
Openly? In public?
In front of God and everyone?
Oh my goodness, she surely must be a witch!
She must be banished from the city at once!
How have your urban renewal programs worked out for the City? Illegals thrive in large areas of Smyrna.
Mayor Bacon, NEVER EVER underestimate D.A. King and his supporters on the Illegal issue!
Please put it on the radar get Kennesaw and its contractors IMAGE certified.
Why does Convicted Felon King keep getting a pass from the MDJ?
We all know what King does for a living and why his so-called society is a 501-C-4 rather than a 501-C-3.
It's just that, like King, most of the MDJ's audience doesn't like people from South of the Border, so nobody asks any questions.
Make that "they enforce the law for Americans who violate gambling laws, but no corrupt illegal alien helping mayors D.A. King". You must not be allowing King and his diverse pro-enforcement group to look for a better life. Doesn't that mean you hate them? PS - what is Max Bacon smoking?
You have an illegal immigrant panderer for a mayor.
The more I see of D.A. King, the more I like him!
Earth to Mad Max Bacon: Breath, focus, re-enter atmosphere slowly. Then try harder to remember us Americans. And that you have made a fool of yourself yet again.
Thanks for the info MDJ. This will all be part of the next election. Thanks to Mayor Tumlin for saying he is for IMAGE. When, we all wonder, exactly will he be acting instead of talking?
Anyway, Bacon - keep up the moronic attack on King. We all need a laugh and here is your chance to remove all doubt about your IQ we will be watching closely. MDJ! UPDATES PLEASE!
The illegals that become foremen on government jobs and the illegals confident enough to start and run their own business are making huge amounts of untaxed cash.
The lower paid laborers are still accumulating cash, goods and new vehicles, by living 5 to 10 per house and knowing where to find free stuff, like doctors, dentists and Must Ministries grocery and household goods handouts.
The large contractors bottom line, profit, is a direct result of the laborers being paid 7 to 10 dollar per hour cash, instead of paying legitimate LEGAL workers a living wage between 15 to 30 dollars an hour, plus social security, workers comp, insurance, 401's , etc.
Thomas, if you can't grasp the very basics please just go play with your train.
Kennesaw mayor Mathews obviously wants to be "pushed" before he takes action in his city!
Why not just do it because it's the right thing to do!!!!
Absolutely unbelievable that he makes public statements that make it seem he would ever be concerned w/ spending taxpayers monies.
He's had no problem spending millions upon millions to buy out & run off businesses along Concord Road and turn a $9 million dollar SPLOST project into an utterly wasteful & unnecessary $20 million dollar SLUSH fund to contractors & engineers.
Also, gotta wonder just how much did the city pay all their attorneys over a 3 year period, to keep the mayor & his minions from having to testify on the witness stand about my arrest(to show whose boss out here).
How the the hideous lights in front of city hall, at a cost of $750,000.. or the new exercise equipment, drapes & carpeting in a fairly new community center. (while the used equipment goes to department employees private offices)
What is the cost to taxpayers to have the full time landscape company (w/ quite a few employees that would likely turn up showing illegal status, if checked through the IMAGE program),run around in circles around city hall, so as not one piece of pine straw is out of place, while so many of Smyrnas neighborhoods are ignored & rundown.
While Mayor Bacon continues to hold public meetings behind locked doors, disrespect his citizens & bring NO NEW business nor encourage PRIVATE development to his vacant city,..DA King actually STANDS for something!
God bless you, DA King & Kathy and Billy Inman!
Shame on you for disparaging Mr. King, his passion for helping the Inmans, and his citizenship. He is not profiting from illegal slave labor subsidized by taxpayers like you and your contributors.