Fresh Loaf

In 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.

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In an effort to spread the word and educate residents about the Beltline, volunteers and students from Morehouse College and Carver, Washington and Southside high schools will canvass Atlanta neighborhoods every Saturday in February from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Volunteers can be identified by Beltline T-shirts and name tags. The Beltline planners, it should be noted, have stepped up their public outreach efforts and face-to-face communication about the 22-mile project of trails, parks and transit.

Residents with any questions, comments or concerns should contact Soisette Lumpkin at 678-698-2169.

Full list of neighborhoods where volunteers will make the rounds follows after the jump …

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(Photo by Thomas Wheatley)

My esteemed colleague Scott Freeman moseyed over to my corner office in the Creative Loafing headquarters and handed me what is to be our go-to resource if dry taps, comet strikes, and/or nuclear fallout ever befall us.

Behold, the emergency kit! Don’t worry if you don’t have one. According to the press release, you’re part of the 80 percent of Georgians who lack the appropriate emergency supplies should catastrophe strike. Oh well, strength in numbers! I’m a little flattered that we nattering nabobs of negativism got ‘em first. Included in the kit are what the average Joe and Jane would need to survive for 72 hours. Because ya never know how long it may take for help to arrive after “hurricanes and tornadoes” and “ice storms and pandemics.”

The confetti-padded pack includes a first aid kit, a whistle, a weird little key-chain flashlight and a bag of emergency drinking water. According to the press release, it’s missing something — I’ll take a stab at it and guess “food,” or maybe “hope.” Lemme look again … nope.

Should you wish to be one of the many lucky ones to learn what this mysterious “missing” component is, make your way to the Capitol’s south steps at 11:30 a.m Monday, Jan. 28, where the governor will display the basic necessities we’ll have to rely on when our economy tanks and we begin eating one another.

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In this week’s paper, we report that the city of Atlanta is facing a budget shortfall that could be in the neighborhood of $100 million. The fiscal crunch, says Council Finance Committee Chairman Howard Shook, looks to be the result of a combination of rising expenses, declining revenue, an outdated accounting system and good, old-fashioned screw-ups.
Although Shirley Franklin is away this week, attending a mayors’ conference in Washington, D.C., the story caught her attention. How do we know? Because she posted a comment on our website:

Thanks, CL for covering our current budget challenges. Hooray to CL, Shook and [Clair] Muller for openly discussing this issue. As the article pointed out, the COO and CFO have informed me and the Council about the current challenges. With two years left in my term I expect to have ample time to address these problems and the strengthen the city’s financial position just as we have tackled other tough problems like crumbling sewer, antiquated water system, numerous departmental overhauls, crime and the fifth runway delay. Serving as Mayor or as a Council member isn’t for the fainthearted or thin-skinned. Working hard and smart we’ll tackle the budget challenges successfully.

Thus letting us know she’s on top of the situation. We’ll bring you more information as it unfolds.

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DeKalb Commissioner Burrell Ellis, who’s hinted at his desire to succeed Vernon Jones as county CEO, will make good on those hints tonight when he formally declares his candidacy.

Ellis, a two-term commissioner who represents east central DeKalb, including Stone Mountain and Avondale Estates, will make his announcement at 5:15 p.m. in the downtown Holiday Inn conference center at 130 Clairemont Ave. But he didn’t wait to retool his website for the CEO’s race.

He faces a tough opponent in veteran state Rep. Stan Watson, the chairman of the DeKalb House delegation, who threw his hat into the ring last fall. The presence of such strong Democratic candidates on the primary ballot doesn’t leave much room for any other hopefuls. We assume the race for CEO will be a showdown between Ellis and Watson.

Let the rumble begin!

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About 20 years ago, I had an epiphany about pro sports. I worked for a Miami business newspaper, and we began wondering about Dolphins’ owner Joe Robbie’s claims that his new stadium was entirely privately funded. By today’s standards, it was. But our investigation revealed there were tons of public costs.

Whatever else you can say about Robbie, and he could be a sonofabitch, he was just about the last capitalist to own a pro sports team. Since Joe Robbie Stadium was built, the team owners have converted to the creed of socialism for the very rich.

Sports stadiums nowadays are giant palaces built for the affluent and paid for largely — and some entirely — by working- and middle-class taxpayers. I covered two initiatives in Tampa. When Malcolm Glazer purchased the Buccaneers in 1995, he used the standard pout of team owners: Build me a new stadium or I’ll move. As I detailed in a series of reports, Glazer lied about what he planned to contribute. To pass a referendum worth more than $1 billion over 30 years to Glazer, the Bucs’ owner had his political lackeys combine the stadium funding with new school construction. If parents wanted decent schools, they had to give Glazer his stadium.

The Tampa Bay Lightning NHL team, meanwhile, had taxpayers pay for its coliseum based in part on assertions that the owners were a wealthy Japanese golf course company. I won awards for exposing the lie — the owners were deadbeats with virtually no assets. The sources of the money the owners did have were never explained, but former associates accused the owners in a federal lawsuit of being “gangsters.”

In reporting these stories, I got to know a number of sports consultants. One of them gave me the game plan he uses when a client wants a new stadium. Among the recommendations: Keep details secret until it’s too late for the public to act, avoid public discussion, enlist the major newspapers and TV stations with sweetheart deals (for example, the Tampa Tribune never questioned Glazer’s stadium deal because the newspaper had become a “Pewter Partner” of the team), and at all cost, don’t let the taxpayers vote on the deal.

What has happened in Gwinnett County follows that plan. Every man, woman and tyke in Gwinnett is being robbed of about $50 to make the owners of the Braves’ minor league team wealthier than they are. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is dutifully boosterish about the whole thing, hardly noting that not all residents are overjoyed at being taxed to enrich already-rich team owners, not to mention that residents will have to pay for more costs, such as road and infrastructure improvements.

At least among my neighbors and friends in Lilburn, the mood is angry at the politicians who concocted the high-handed and secret deal — especially Commissioner Bert Nasuti and County Administrator Jock Connell. The details still haven’t been made public — Connell, with the arrogance of Marie Antoinette or Leona Helmsley, contends the scheme is too complicated for the little people to understand.

But the little people will be asked to pay. And pay. And pay some more.

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First it’s news that Piedmont Park will be off-limits to festivals this summer. Then it’s word that Atlanta-area swimming pools may not be allowed to use water this summer. Then it’s news that Six Flags may have to shut down its water-based rides.

Now, reports say that if the drought doesn’t ease soon, nuclear power plants across the Southeast could be forced to shut down for the lack of cooling water they need to operate.

Officials don’t expect blackouts, but it would prompt “shockingly high” power bills for consumers because the electricity would have to be purchased from other energy sources.

The ramifications of this drought have only just begun.

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(Editor’s note: Lianna Shen is one of our newest interns at CL. She’s not only new to Atlanta, she’s new to the U.S. Below, she shares her thoughts about some of what she’s seen on her way to the office.)

I have a confession: I’m Canadian, born and bred.

I moved to Mableton from Toronto this month to intern at Creative Loafing. The quickest route to the office from my home is Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway, aka Bankhead Highway.

On my first day at CL, my boyfriend insisted that I take something other than “Hood Road,” but I refused. I didn’t want to get lost on my first day. When I got to work, my supervisor made some comments about Bankhead Highway, notably that he remembered hearing about some guy getting pulled out of his truck and stabbed awhile ago. (more…)

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It’s long been speculated that Mayor Shirley Franklin would go to Washington, D.C., if a Democratic president is elected. The rumor is she would be on the Cabinet as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. And, as a post-Atlanta move, it makes perfect sense.

Franklin waited before she endorsed Sen. Barack Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton. And at a service yesterday celebrating the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., she added fuel to the fire when she tossed in a well-placed barb at Bill Clinton. Clinton happened to be sitting a few feet away and was not amused.

She’s taking a big gamble that Obama will win the Democratic nomination. If he doesn’t, Franklin may have just barbed her way out of a Cabinet position. The Clintons are known to have a long memory. But if Obama wins, Franklin would seem to have earned herself an inside track.

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Atlanta City Councilwoman Felicia Moore introduced legislation calling for council oversight of the city’s involvement in the Atlanta Housing Authority’s plans to demolish public housing.

“[This] ordinance is to make sure in the future it’s clear by code there’s an understanding the Council is the governing authority of the City . . . ”
— Moore, as quoted in Atlanta Progressive News Jan. 7

“We respectfully submit that, because of the legally mandated autonomous operation of the AHA, these items of legislation are beyond the City’s authority and purview.”
— Attorney Sharon Gay, of McKenna Long & Aldridge, in a Jan. 14 letter to Atlanta City Council

“This is a blatant, purposeful media campaign to discredit me because they don’t like this legislation.”
— Moore, as quoted in the AJC, in response to a comment by AHA spokesman Rick White alleging that Moore worries demolishing public housing in her council district would move her supporters out of her district

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Vanity Fair contributing editor Michael Shnayerson wrote an excellent piece in the January 2007 issue examining Rudy Giuliani — presidential hopeful and “America’s mayor” — and his lucrative foray post-9/11 into the business and legal world. Bracewell & Giuliani — formerly known as Bracewell & Patterson before Mr. 9/11 joined the team — represents one of Georgia’s biggest polluters:

By the time Giuliani became part of [Bracewell & Paterson], in early 2005, it had also become the go-to law firm for major polluters: oil and gas as well as coal companies. Among its significant clients are Chevron/Texaco, Pacific Gas & Electric, Dynegy, Southern Company, Valero Energy, and Shell Oil.

Emphasis added. That fact’s been widely reported, known for quite some time, and notable if only because it shows a well-connected local company doing business with one of the nation’s most well-connected men. But included in Shnayerson’s piece is information about another company Giuliani’s firm represents: Macquarie, an Australian banking group that specializes in such public-private initiatives as toll roads and the uber-controversial Trans-Texas Corridor.

During his State of the State address, Gov. Sonny Perdue suggested that newly appointed DOT Commissioner Gena Abraham should oversee the State Road and Tollway Authority, which may hint at some more serious discussion of public-private initiatives. Abraham has said on record that the agency isn’t poised to take on such projects yet in its current mismanaged state, but she’s hinted in the past that it’s an area in which the DOT needs to explore its options.

For your enlightenment, read the VF piece about Giuliani. Note Macquarie’s dealings with the former mayor’s businesses and the opportunities those connections allowed. And just in case we hear some more concrete language from the state about allowing private companies to build and charge for access to roads, remember to keep the name of that Australian banking outfit filed somewhere in your mind.

Shnayerson ends the piece with a beautiful summation of just why any of this matters:

In the businesses that Giuliani built and bought these last six years, more deals have yet to be examined, more dots connected in the picture of his great financial success. But enough are there already, with lines between them, for a shape to have clearly emerged. It’s a picture of a politician leading a parade, as Mayor Giuliani so often did. Only the marchers behind him aren’t drum majorettes or wartime veterans or firefighters or police. They’re a ragtag band of Texas lawyers and energy lobbyists, penny-stock sharpies and security-industry entrepreneurs, agog with visions of the ultimate pay-to-play presidency.

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SEN. BARACK OBAMA PRAYS AT EBENEZER BAPTIST CHURCH SUNDAY: “Must beat Hillary in South Carolina. Must beat Hillary in South Carolina. Must beat Hillary in South Carolina.”

(More photos of Obama at Ebenezer are below the jump. All photos are by Joeff Davis.)

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The influence of Fresh Loaf reaches the highest levels of government, as evident from a brief exchange I had with Sen. Eric Johnson, R-The Garden of Good and Evil, after Wednesday’s Senate committee hearing about the statewide water plan.

After chatting for a moment — and wondering if the gentleman from Savannah was going to pummel me for our paper’s past jabs — Johnson said, “I love Creative Loafing. Don’t always with agree with it in terms of ideology, but it’s a great read. I read Fresh Loaf every day.”

So do we get the credit for your sleek cranium, senator?

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I made up a word on Saturday.

Snowvinism

Main entry: snow·vin·ism

Pronunciation: \ˈsnō-və-ˌni-zəm\

Function: noun

Date: 2008

1) excessive faith in your ability to drive better in snow or ice than the rest of these idiots because you’re from up North, where people know what real snow is; also: behavior expressive of such an attitude

— snow·vin·ist \snō-və-nist\ noun or adjective

— snow·vin·is·tic \ˌsnō-və-ˈnis-tik\ adjective

— snow·vin·is·ti·cal·ly \snō-və-ˈnis-ti-k(ə-)lē\ adverb

I am definitely a snowvinist.

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