Shirley to face Council inquisition
January 25, 2008 at 4:04 pm by Scott Henry in NewsIn the wake of news that the city of Atlanta is facing a budget shortfall that could be as high as $100 million, Mayor Shirley Franklin will take the rare step of appearing in person before the Council Finance Committee at its next meeting on Wednesday.
It was at the committee’s previous meeting last week that Finance Director Janice Davis and Chief Operating Officer Greg Giornelli first reported that the city’s books didn’t add up, but they would not offer a public guesstimation of the anticipated deficit. Now that it’s known the figure approaches a staggering nine figures, Herroner has decided to take the heat herself and field Council questions on behalf of her administration.
There should be no shortage of questions.
“I am alarmed to have this kind of shortfall sprung on us, and I’m very interested in knowing what checks were written for what,” Councilwoman Mary Norwood says.
Adds Councilman Ceasar Mitchell: “We’ve passed some very conservative budgets, so I’m very curious as to how this happened.”
And those folks aren’t even on the Finance Committee – although it’s a good bet that some Council members will sit in on the meeting to find out what’s going on. Finance Chairman Howard Shook has also called for a full Council work session on Thursday to start figuring out how the city will dig itself out of this hole.
Wednesday’s meeting begins at 1 p.m. in the notorious Committee Room 2.
January 26th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
I’ll bring the rotten eggs and/or tomatoes!
January 28th, 2008 at 9:25 am
i’ll bring dog poop
January 29th, 2008 at 8:05 am
When Ed Rendell became mayor of Philadelphia, he faced a budget deficit of $1.246 billion. That was in 1992.
I think Atlanta can make it through this.