Liz Coyle resigns from Beltline board
August 21, 2009 at 1:00 pm by Thomas Wheatley in News
CL reported last month that some residents of political minefield District 6 expressed concerned over City Council candidates Liz Coyle and Alex Wan’s positions on the boards of Atlanta Beltline Inc. and the Atlanta Development Authority.
Some residents of the district — which includes Midtown, Candler Park and Virginia-Highland — thought the candidates’ service posed a potential conflict of interest. There was also confusion about the city’s rules regarding city candidates who sit on such boards. But the rules said there wasn’t a problem for either political hopeful, and that was that.
At Beltline CEO Terri Montague’s going-away party on Aug. 17 (she steps down at the end of the month), Coyle told ABI boardmembers that she was resigning from the board.
Coyle told CL at last night’s Beltline quarterly briefing that she made the decision several weeks ago so she could focus her energy on the crowded City Council race. The debate about the conflict of interest was also a factor, she said.
“While I believe it in my heart there was no conflict, [the issue] was a concern for me,” she said. “But truly the main motivation is focusing my energy on running for City Council District 6.”
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
August 21st, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Liz made a good decision by resigning from the Beltline Board. Now, does Alex Wan plan to resign from the Atlanta Development Authority (ADA) Board?
August 21st, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Hey Liz, the question is whose side you are on. Resigning from a development authority a few weeks before the election does not count as a Damascene conversion. Why should residents / taxpayers expect you to think and work for their interests, when you’ve spent years looking after bidness?
August 31st, 2009 at 9:15 am
It’s troubling that Liz Coyle doesn’t see the conflict of interest with her serving on the ABI board and running for City Council. Liz has sold out the residents of District 6 to the BeltLine. The cut-through streets that BeltLine is proposing through Old Midtown and the development proposed for 10th & Monroe, as well as the high density proposed for Ansley Mall, Amsterdam Mall, and Midtown Promenade are contrary to the vision of the BeltLine and the BeltLine Redevelopment Plan and will greatly harm the Midtown and VaHi neighborhoods. And yet, as our “citizen representative” to the BeltLine, Liz has remained silent on these issues. Now that she has resigned from the ABI board, she may finally take a public stand on these issues. Unfortunately, it’s too little, too late. The residents of District 6 deserve much better than someone who has sold them out to the ABI and developers and doesn’t even see the conflict of interest between serving on the ABI board and running for City Council.
September 15th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Steve Brodie’s biggest campaign contribution comes from Tivoli and Kim King properties…. Lest we forget how hard he fought for tivoli’s high rises on 13th street by piedmont park (they were ultimately denied after the neighbors opposed them).
Who were the developers— why it was a joint development between Tivoli and Kim King Assoc. They wanted to get a property half a mile from the park rezoned so they could build 400? and twice as dense as allowed.
see here, in case you dont remember:
http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/freshloaf/2007/09/26/piedmont-park-high-rise-take-two/
Funny, right after Brodie lost that case he resigned from the MNA land use committee and NPU rep…
Alex Wan’s biggest donators include Ken Britt, co-chair of the board of the Human Rights Campaignd longtime LGBT activist E.D. Cofrin; Paul Horning, a director of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund; and the Jerusalem House.