Fresh Loaf

Some random observations:

• Write-in candidate Dr. Tiffany Brown got in the neighborhood of 60 votes city-wide. That’s about one vote for each time the line “Vote for Tiffany Brown” was used in her catchy campaign rap song.
• At the end of September, mayoral front-runner Mary Norwood had a huge campaign warchest. But over the past month, she burned through more than $600,000, spending more than Kasim Reed ($274,000) and Lisa Borders ($300,000) put together. As of Oct. 25, Norwood and Reed each had about $166,000 in cash on hand (although Reed had loaned his campaign about $100,000 of that amount).
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Atlanta City Councilwoman Anne Fauver recently voted against a study to help make the Peachtree Streetcar project eligible for federal stimulus funding. She says the Beltline is better positioned for federal funds, questions the streetcar’s scope, and wonders who will maintain the estimated $120 million project if it’s built.

On July 20, the Midtown and Downtown business associations offered the City a $600,000 grant to do a feasibility study on a streetcar line along Atlanta’s famed Peachtree Street and to prepare the City’s application for $300 million of stimulus money.

I voted against the legislation to accept the grant. It passed 11-3 so the feasibility study and the application for Federal money will be done. My position is based on the following:

The Franklin Administration asked for the legislation to be fast-tracked. Council had not had a work session or public hearing on the project. We never specifically endorsed the Streetcar proposal. The Streetcar is not THE top priority in Connect Atlanta, the City’s first comprehensive transportation plan either.

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Ivory Young

One says she’s had trouble sleeping because of anonymous threats. Another received a nasty phone message described as “the most disgusting, vulgar thing I’ve ever heard.” Others have gotten e-mails labeling them the “Hate Eight.”

Yes, the eight Atlanta City Council members who voted Monday to approve a 3-mill property tax increase have been reminded over the past few days that, no matter how sincere your intentions, you can’t please everybody.

For weeks now, most of the folks who voted for the tax hike — Carla Smith, Ivory Lee Young, Jr., Natalyn Archibong, Anne Fauver, Felicia Moore, C.T. Martin, Joyce Sheperd and Ceasar Mitchell — have said most constituents indicated a willingness to pay more in taxes in return for an end to police furloughs.

With the city bean-counters expecting only $490 million in annual revenues — down from nearly $650 million a couple years back — the alternatives to a tax increase, according to Mitchell, would’ve been cutting back on weekly trash pick-up, eliminating the recycling program, closing more rec centers and parks or, perhaps, additional employee furloughs.

But now the Eight are catching hell from people whose top concern was higher taxes.

Once the dust settles on the vote and the hate mail subsides, Council members agree, the newly un-furloughed city workers are going to need to step up their game in order to meet heightened taxpayer expectations.

“There can be no excuses now for poor service delivery,” says Young. “From here on, it’s zero tolerance for mediocrity.”

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The race to represent Morningside, Druid Hills, Virginia-Highland and Midtown residents at City Hall gets bigger by the week.

The Southern Voice reports that Miguel Gallegos has officially entered the contest, joining Liz Coyle, Alex Wan and Steve Brodie. Councilwoman Anne Fauver has said she would not seek a third term in office.

We’re hearing another potential candidate has been seen handing out campaign information in Piedmont Park. That mystery person hasn’t officially filed their papers yet. When she does, however, be prepared for this race — which is already spinning with political dynamics — to get even more interesting.

Gallegos, who the Voice reports is openly gay, doesn’t have a website just yet. Hey, Miguel! Send us a line sometime!

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Liz Coyle

Loyal AJC “unpluggers” might have noticed a little morsel of newsy-ness in Sunday’s conversation between the paper’s Deborah Solomon Rosalind Bentley and Terri Montague, the Atlanta Beltline Inc. CEO who recently announced her plans to leave the $2.8 billion project come September.

[Montague]:…So I started looking at near-term changes that were going to occur: a turnover in my board that’s about to happen, the mayor leaving. I’ve got one member who hasn’t declared yet but they’re planning to run for public office.

[Bentley]: Who? You’re not being coy are you, and it’s really you?

[Montague]: (Laughs) No, I said a member of the board.

Montague was referring to Liz Coyle, a politically active Midtown resident who’s the Atlanta City Council appointment to the Beltline board. Maria Saporta recently reported Coyle’s hinted at her plans to run for the District 6 Council seat.

Councilwoman Anne Fauver, who’s represented the diverse intown district that includes the Morningside, Midtown and Druid Hills neighborhoods for two terms, won’t seek re-election. Before Coyle can jump into the race, she has to resign from her board position, which she is expected to do at its meeting this morning.

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Atlanta City Councilwoman Anne Fauver’s unexpected exit from the District 6 race yesterday took nearly everyone in the politically active and tight-knit neighborhoods she serves by surprise.

In a Tuesday interview with CL, Fauver said the decision, which she’s wrestled with for the last two months, largely came down to two things: frustration with city politics and the desire to try something new.

“[Atlanta] once had a strong council and a weak mayor,” Fauver said. “That’s been reversed. That can be very frustrating because council is supposed to determine policy…As of now, we don’t.”

Fauver added that it’s difficult to juggle a career and serve in City Hall. The job of a councilmember, which pays $39,000 a year and is supposed to be a part-time gig, is more like a round-the-clock position.

“It’s four years,” she said, referring to another term. “Four years on top of eight years is a little bit longer than I want to do it. I’m frankly looking forward to a new challenge and I don’t know what that will be.”

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Atlanta City Councilmember Anne Fauver says she won’t seek a third term.

Fauver represents the Morningside, Midtown, Virginia-Highland and Druid Hills neighborhoods, among others.

In an unexpected email blast to constituents and supporters she says:

After eight years you begin to be part of the system, and you find yourself with less energy to pursue better ideas and, frankly, with less faith in the ability of the system to be responsive to them. It’s time for me to pass the baton to a successor; to someone with the energy and vision I had eight years ago.

As of this writing, Midtown business consultant Steve Brodie is the only candidate running for her seat. In 2005, he narrowly lost to Fauver by five votes.

Fauver’s full letter, in which she outlines her proudest accomplishments on council, is after the jump. We placed a call to Fauver’s office and will update when we hear back.

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Steve Brodie’s in the race to represent Midtown on the Atlanta City Council.

According to press release from his campaign, the Midtown business consultant this morning filed his paperwork to run for the District 6 seat currently held by Councilmember Anne Fauver.

“Over the past eight years, City Council has not shown the skills, or delivered the measurable results, that we so desperately need,” Brodie said in the press release. “I intend to introduce progressive ideas and build coalitions to give serious consideration to all the change that needs to come.”

The race will be the second time Brodie’s faced off against Fauver. In 2005, she won a hotly contested race against Brodie by five votes. As it looks right now, it’s just the two of them again — the Southern Voice reports Charlie Stadtlander, who announced his candidacy late last year, has dropped out of the race and endorsed Brodie.

Brodie, who is openly gay, is a decorated Vietnam veteran and business consultant. He’s served on numerous public organizations including NPU E, the Midtown Neighbors’ Association and the Beltline Subarea 6 Steering Committee. His full bio is available here. His campaign website is here.

(Courtesy Steve Brodie Campaign)

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The Midtown Ponce Security Alliance hosts a special meeting tonight at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer to address the city’s crime problem. Atlanta City Councilmembers Kwanza Hall and Anne Fauver and Major Khirus Williams of the Atlanta Police Department’s Zone 5 will attend. The public is welcome.

Full release and additional details are after the jump.

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Consider, for instance, recent negotiations to purchase the northeast quadrant of the Beltline, a 22-mile loop of transit and trails that will one day circle the city.

That deal — and the history of the controversial plot of land — has resulted in the city parting ways with two developers and paying millions of dollars that critics say was squandered.

Mike Dobbins, a Georgia Tech professor and Atlanta’s former planning commissioner, says the city rushed to pay Gwinnett County developer Wayne Mason and his son Keith $65 million for land that could have been had for much, much less.

“Buying out Mason was a flawed proposition,” Dobbins says. “I mean, name me anyone who wouldn’t love to make a 300 percent profit in three years on a $25 million investment. It’s crazy.”

Says Keith Mason: “I’m pleased with the outcome.”

Read the rest of this story.

(Photo by Jim Stawniak)

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Anne Fauver readily concedes her proposals for bringing in new city revenue amount to rummaging for change between the municipal couch cushions.

The Atlanta councilwoman estimates her two suggestions could raise upwards of $3 million. That’s not much compared to the half-billion-dollar city budget, but until someone comes up with a better idea, Council will take what it can get.

Fauver has proposed legislation to allow the city to expand its 911 tax to include users Voice-over-Internet phone service. The monthly tax, which currently applies to cell and land-line phones, is used to fund the city’s 911 system. Closing the Internet-phone loophole could net the city an additional $1.5 million, Fauver says.

Her other proposal is aimed at reclaiming costs for false burglar and fire alarms, which most folks likely assume the city already collecting. Though police collected false-alarm fines totaling about $1.4 million in 2000, Fauver was surprised to discover that number has tapered off. Since 2005, almost no fines have been collected, even though 90 percent of all 911 calls reporting possible break-ins and fires are caused by faulty home-alarm systems or homeowner error.

“We just basically stopped collecting,” says Fauver, whose legislation would shift collection duties from the cops to the city court. Under her proposal, the 911 system would report false alarms to the city Solicitor’s Office, which would issue warnings and citations.

Homeowners would get one free false alarm a year; fines would start at $100 for the second alarm and go up from there. Unpaid fines would be turned over to the same private collection agency that hounds people for delinquent water bills and license fees.

Fauver’s confident the effort could bring in $1.5 million a year. “Gradually, we could reduce the number of false alarms because people would learn to be more careful,” she says.

If approved by Council, the new programs would kick in Jan. 1.

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