CL’s pick for Atlanta City Council President is…
October 12, 2009 at 6:13 pm by Thomas Wheatley in News
Clair Muller
Pity the candidates for City Council president.
As a non-voting cat herder whose only mandated duties are running Council meetings and making committee appointments, the job of Council prez hardly seems worth the time, effort and expense it takes to win it.
Still, we have a hard-fought race between two councilmembers — one young and ambitious, the other a veteran who sees the post as way to leverage her accumulated experience.
An at-large councilman for the past eight years, Ceasar Mitchell is bursting with ideas. He wants the city to adopt zero-based budgeting. He’d like to allow private sanitation companies to compete with city trash collectors. Mitchell even suggests that pumping desalinated water in from the coast might be a way to solve the region’s water issues.
Just taking the time to study all of his suggestions would require the next Council president to be a whirlwind multitasker. But the nature of the job is not to initiate reams of legislation; it’s to help guide city policy by building consensus among councilmembers with competing interests.
Mitchell, an affable and thoughtful attorney, could be perfectly fine in that role — but Clair Muller was arguably born for it.
Muller, a former neighborhood activist with a background in transportation issues, has become, over the years, the city’s reigning technocrat, with an unparalleled knowledge of virtually every aspect of city operations. A Council workhorse, she’s served on every committee and chaired one or another for 17 of her 20 years in office. She’s the architect of both the citywide recycling program and Mayor Franklin’s sewer repair plan. And Muller has served 14 years as the city’s emissary to the Atlanta Regional Commission, where she gained invaluable expertise with transportation issues.
Muller wants to dedicate her next few years to solving the city’s transportation woes — regionalizing MARTA, developing the Beltline, implementing the Connect Atlanta plan developed with her oversight — and there’s no one better qualified to do so.
And Muller’s two-decades-long public record is spotless. Although she’s consistently voted against all tax increases, she’s put our money where her mouth is; she’s been frugal with her office expenses and this year returned more than $240,000 in unused administrative funds. Mitchell, on the other hand, has shown questionable judgment in hiring his brother to do work for his Council office, an ethics violation for which he was recently fined $15,000.
We’ll be the first to warn you: Muller isn’t an exciting politician or a stirring speaker. She’s a policy wonk who’s managed to keep the respect of her fellow councilmembers. She won’t lead by force of personality, but through a combination of solid reasoning and hard work. That’s fine by us.
If you’re looking for the CL’s complete endorsement package, including our pick for Atlanta’s next mayor, check back tomorrow. Here are our endorsements for the Atlanta City Council Post-1 and Post-2 At-Large seats.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
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October 12th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
E’en better, CL! Mitchell shouldn’t even be in the running. Didn’t he try to run for mayor, then drop out of that race when Borders came back in? There’s also the matter of his ethics violation. Good for Clair.
October 12th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Considering Mitchell has received the endorsements of groups such as Georgia Equality and the Labor Unions and to my knowledge Muller has yet to receive an endorsement (prior to CL) it seems odd that they even endorsed her. She is indeed more experienced in terms of number of years on council but I don’t think her heart is in this race.
The looming question really is that why now for Councilman Muller considering she has been on Council for so long…
October 12th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Firstly, Councilman Mitchell brought the ethics issue up to the City Ethics Officer and proactively addressed it. Further, one issue that he’s pushed on the campaign trail includes expanding the very office that investigated this complaint and installing a citywide Inspector General to investigate these claims and other claims of fraud and abuse across the City. Have we heard anything from Muller on making City Hall more transparent or accountable?
Secondly, journalists in this City need to better understand the difference between enumerated powers and actual power — a key difference in this race. The Council President’s actual powers include, in part, being a policy entrepreneur (see Cathy Woolard and the Beltline), an effective check on the executive branch, the agenda-setter for the Council (in picking the right committee chairs and members, in monitoring the legislative process, etc — how else would one know whom to pick without a grasp of what they want to see out of the body they lead? This requires vision and a plan!). To boot, the Council President has a bully pulpit by virtue of the office to speak to the City on matters of legislative concern as well as to bring ideas to the table for the next Mayor. Nothing in the charter prevents the next Council Prez from thinking and innovating. They just can’t propose legislation and vote unless it’s a tie. Nothing says you can’t innovate, Mr. Wheatley.
With all that said — take a look at Clair’s vision for the City (see: http://www.clairmuller.com/issues.htm) and Ceasar’s (http://www.ceasarforouratlanta.com/site/on-the-issues) and you be the judge. Now who looks like the skilled technocrat and the empty suit? Nothing about this position requires you to be the neutered empty suit that Clair represents or that Mr. Wheatley describes. Get a clue, sir!
Again, the enumerated powers in the charter are not an exhaustive list of what the office can do. Why is this so difficult to grasp in the local media? Enumerated vs. actual powers, Mr. Wheatley!
And yes, I’m a Ceasar Mitchell supporter who has grown tired of the media’s misinformed (and ahistorical…remember Pitts and Arrington…two activists City Council Presidents?) view of the Council office.
October 13th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
The correct address for Clair Muller’s campaign website: http://www.clairmuller.com/issues.htm
October 13th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Thanks, Elizabeth. Sorry for the bad link. I’m glad you picked that up, as City voters should be making an informed decision based on the comparative vision of the two candidates for office.
October 13th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
And they should do so with a full understanding of the office’s real AND enumerated powers. Sorry for the excessive posting, but the misreporting about this office has really gotten to me.