Fresh Loaf

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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BACKS AGAINST THE WALL STREET: The Dow is suffering its worst loss since 2001 following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the buyout of Merrill Lynch, with AIG possibly next, despite recently borrowing $20 billion from its subsidiaries. The Fed today infused $50 billion into financial markets to stem the freefall.

MCCAIN: Reconfigures his recent statement that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.”

PALIN: Won’t cooperate with the ongoing ethics probe because she says Obama’s campaign has infiltrated it. Actually, she didn’t say that. Despite the probe being into her conduct as governor, the announcement that Palin won’t be cooperating was made by the McCain campagin.

JUST THE TICKET: Atlanta scofflaws will have two months, starting Oct. 1, to pay old parking tickets and have all late fees waived, a measure approved by City Council in hopes of collecting at least some money they otherwise might never have seen.

GASOLINE: Prices in Georgia are the second-highest in the country, although analysts say they should settle somewhere around $4 soon.

NATURAL GAS: Prices in Georgia may rise 25 percent this winter.

BARR VS. BLOOMBERG: The Libertarian presidential candidate will appear in federal appeals court in Atlanta today to defend his defamation suit against the New York City mayor, which alleges Bloomberg libeled Barr’s client, Adventure Outdoors Sporting Goods, by calling the Smyrna store a rogue gun dealer in his famous 2006 lawsuit.

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The Old Fourth Ward, which has coped with prostitutes, drug dealers and gentrification, is on tap for a facelift.

The Atlanta City Council is set to adopt a master plan this month for the historic intown neighborhood, which includes Auburn Avenue and Boulevard. It served before desegregration as the business district for black Atlantans.

But city planners also are trying to fend off a potential traffic mess and other problems that could come with the renewed interest in intown living. The Bureau of Planning predicts the neighborhood’s population will rise over the next two decades from 6,000 to 20,000 — approximately the same number of people who lived there before the Civil Rights Movement. The redevelopment vision could create more walkable streets lined with energy-efficient buildings.

To view the plan, click here. (PDF file)

(Screenshot courtesy of City of Atlanta)

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Last week, City Council voted to override Mayor Shirley Franklin’s decision to shutter Atlanta’s oldest fire station as part of a round of budget cuts. Despite council’s vote to fund the station, the decision to re-open it rests with the mayor — and herroner ain’t budging.

“Why would the mayor just let this money sit in an account in order to just win an argument with the City Council? There is no good reason other than to impose her will.”

— Jim Daws, head of the city’s firefighters’ union, to the AJC

“This is certainly a different Council than the one I’ve been serving on during this administration or the previous administration. People have been more independent in their thinking — and not necessarily in agreement with the administration. This is a new day.”

— Councilmember Felicia More, to CL

“The hubbub over Fire Station No. 7 and the needless confrontation with Franklin only add to the evidence that this council lacks credibility in dealing with the city’s significant financial problems.”

— Sept. 5 AJC editorial

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Despite warnings of decreased public services and reassurances that its shuttering wouldn’t affect response times, the Atlanta City Council today voted 11-3 to override Mayor Shirley Franklin’s veto of their plan to re-open Fire Station No. 7 in Southwest Atlanta.

The council’s plan involves sluicing $1.12 million from various municipal departments to pay for the historic station’s operating and maintenance costs.

The legislation now heads back to the mayor’s desk, where she will douse it in gasoline and set it ablaze.

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OBAMA’S SECRET: The Democratic presidential nominee has picked a running mate. But he’s not gonna tell you who it is.

NO-SHOW REED: After hyping John McCain in anticipation of last night’s Atlanta fund-raiser (and after the GOP candidate allegedly told him ‘no thanks’), baby-faced former Christian Coalition prez Ralph Reed decides not to grace the event with his presence.

COUNCIL HEARTS TADS: Late last night, Atlanta City Council green-lighted controversial Tax Allocation District funding for the $125 million Center for Civil & Human Rights museum and the multi-billion-dollar Beltline transit-and-trails project. More than $200 million was approved — which marks the first infusion of government funds for the Beltline.

NO PRESSURE: The Georgia Bulldogs are the top-ranked college football team this year. It’s the first time the UGA team has started a season with the top ranking. Last year, the Dogs finished No. 2.

DESPERATE DEPOT: Atlanta-based Home Depot Inc. expects profits to tumble 24 percent in this weakened housing market year. Still, the world’s largest home-improvement company reported unexpectedly high profits this quarter.

SICK VITAMINS: A Marietta man claims his daily vitamin caused his hair and fingernails to fall out. Apparently, he’s not the only one.

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At its first meeting following a six-week summer recess, the Atlanta City Council today will finally take on a knotty issue that has troubled the city for years: street vendors.

Mayors have come and gone (and gone to prison) in the time that local officials have discussed, debated and feuded over the appropriate way to clean up what has long been described as the scroungiest bunch of street vendors and sidewalk hawkers this side of Sao Paulo.

But now the Council thinks it has the answer: outsourcing.

We don’t mean they’re shipping the guys selling fake Chanel handbags outside the Five Points MARTA Station off to Mumbai – although there’s something to be said for that idea.

(more…)

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Being a Superior Court judge is a pretty sweet gig. You set your own hours. Everyone calls you “Your Honor.” And when you hold people in contempt, they go to jail. It’s not just the job of a lifetime – it’s the job for a lifetime.

So what would induce someone to voluntarily leave these perks behind and jump back into the job market? Well, in one case we can think of, the goal would be to trade a seat on the bench for the throne in City Hall.

Yes, it seems that Marvin Arrington, former City Council president and current Fulton Superior Court judge, is planning to make his second bid for the city’s top office.

(more…)

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Terri Montague looked disappointed.

The CEO of Atlanta Beltline Inc., the nonprofit agency tasked with planning and building the 22-mile project, stood before the Atlanta City Council’s finance committee on Wednesday to present how the group planned to spend an estimated $117 million that was to be generated from the first round of TAD bonds. Councilmember Felicia Moore asked Montague what was the rush — council was about to go on recess and the Beltline has until Oct. 31 to settle an outstanding debt for a key piece of property near Piedmont Park. Moore was planning on tabling the item, she said.

What’s the rush? Well, to put it simply, Beltline leaders are against the slow-moving bureaucracy that is modern-day government. Council returns from its summer sojourn in mid-August and the Beltline has investors coming to scope out the project the following week. Montague said the investors need to have a sense that the city is truly committed to the project. It needs the money.

(more…)

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VACANCY: Atlanta police have a new burglary unit dedicated to monitoring houses that have been foreclosed or abandoned, as copper thieves grow in numbers and audacity.

CITY COUNCIL: Wants to keep Fire Station No. 7 open.

SOUTH BY NORTHWEST: Northwest Airlines tells its employees that it may move up to 400 jobs to Atlanta.

JACKSON COUNTY: Gets state approval to sell discounted gas to the county’s nine municipalities, the first county in Georgia to do so.

BLUE JEAN BANDITS: Five suspects are arrested.

WITHOUT A PADDLE: Fifty thousand tons of sewage spill into the ground in Gainesville, entering a tributary of Balus Creek.

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THIS TIME IT’S PERSONNEL: City Council unanimously passes an ordinance requiring the mayor to get its approval before making additions or reductions to the city’s personnel, the latest in an ongoing melodrama between the council and mayor.

DEER IN HEADLINES: A six-legged deer found in Rome, Ga., is understandably popular.

BUSH: Went down to Georgia.

CHILDRESS: Hawks’ restricted free agent is considering an offer to play in Greece.

RIGHT TO AIR ARMS? U.S. House Homeland Security Committee chairman doesn’t think we should have guns at the airport.

ROCK DRUMMERS: Require at least as much physical endurance as soccer players, according to a recent British study that used Blondie drummer Clem Burke as its test subject.

LOOKS GOOD ON PAPER: Researchers and companies like Xerox are backing away from utopian visions of a paperless society that became popular in the late 20th century, using the phrase “paper-less” instead to focus on the more pragmatic, but less glamorous, goal of simply not wasting as much paper as we do now.

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The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports City Council member Ceasar Mitchell is proposing bars in the city stay open past 3 a.m. if they pay an “impact fee” to cover additional safety and sanitation services.

So sayeth Mitchell:

“My objective at this point is to find a way to embrace night life as one of those things that makes Atlanta a great city,” he said. “Something that makes Atlanta attractive to visitors and those who live here but at the same time not make it something that is a burden on folks that live and work here.”

Mitchell says the city is losing convention and tourist dollars to other cities who have a more vibrant nightlife.

There’s a little commotion about his proposal. Residents in Buckhead, who fought their own bitter battle to roll back the hours in 2003, and the increasingly popular Castleberry Hill neighborhood who were interviewed for the story think it’s a bad idea.

The article also says Mitchell would like to extend the pouring hours at Underground Atlanta, which already can serve booze until 4 a.m. Now if we can just get going on Fulton County Commissioner Robb Pitts’ casino idea, we’d be well on our way to a New Orleans lifestyle.

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If you hadn’t noticed, the Atlanta budget crisis has resulted in some raw nerves and strained relations down at City Hall. The process has gone something like this: Mayor Shirley Franklin announces budget cuts. The City Council criticizes her cuts, but asks her to make some more. Franklin makes more cuts. The Council criticizes the new cuts. And so on.

On Friday, Council President Lisa Borders released a formal response to the Mayor’s announcement of $21.6 million in cuts, which include closing a fire station and laying off several dozen firefighters:

I am disappointed that additional personnel are being laid off by the Mayor as a way of achieving the City Council’s mandated 2.5 percent cut in the General Fund budget. Instead of reducing costs by eliminating jobs first, we should be more innovative in the way we do business and deliver services to residents.

A few hours later, Franklin sent this e-mail response directly to Borders:

You will have your chance as Mayor should you be successful in your election.

Snap! And minutes later, Franklin added:

The Council added costs to the budget and then gave me the authority to make the cuts after refusing to do so themselves. The Council and Chairman [Howard] Shook punted with your concurrence and instigation. I made the decisions for cuts the Council didn’t. I’m OK with that because that’s what Mayors have done all over America for years.

The ball’s in Border’s court:

I have great respect for you and the job you have done as Mayor of our beloved city. But let’s be clear: the Council is a 15-armed octopus and to suggest that I could “instigate” a unanimous vote – especially on something as complicated and critical as this monumental budget gap – is a stretch, to put it mildly. I certainly don’t have to tell someone with your experience that disagreements over policy choices are part of a healthy, natural tension between our branches of government.

Now, we should point out that we abbreviated the discourse slightly. Both Franklin and Borders acknowledged that the city is better off when the Mayor and Council work together and they expressed a desire to do so in the future.

But while it’s easy to imagine those two women settling their differences cordially and professionally, there are several members of the Council – C.T. Martin, for starters – who make collaboration between the administration and the Council all but impossible. Which means we’re probably stuck with the current back-and-forth.

Unfortunately, we’re probably not in the home stretch. Later this week, Atlanta officials expect to learn from Fulton County how much the city will be able to collect in property taxes in coming months. Because of assessment appeals, the figure could be much lower than the one the Council used when it approved the city budget last month. If so, there could be more budget cuts – and more bickering – in the city’s future.

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Good job, one and all.

Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management reports the city’s business and residential customers used an average of 91.22 million gallons of water a day last month, besting its conservation goal by 7.5 percent. Customers used 17 percent less than the 109.57 million gallons a day slurped in June 2007.

Those wacky bond payments being what they are, expect a token of the city’s appreciation to be included in your next water bill.

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The Atlanta City Council officially approved a new budget this afternoon that not only doesn’t include the .43 mill tax hike recommended by Mayor Shirley Franklin, but actually includes a modest tax rollback.

It’s a scenario that wouldn’t have been predicted even two weeks ago when the city was still $40 million short of making up a projected $140 million shortfall in the FY 2009 budget.

The council unanimously approved the budget which, according to Finance Committee Chairman Howard Shook, has not happened in years. “We definitely suspended the political dynamics to work together,” he said.

The $570.8 million budget restores the cuts in the City Solicitors Office and the city’s public defender program. It also restores code enforcement officers cut by Franklin.

The budget approved by the council includes almost $14.6 million in cuts, which will be accomplished through an across-the-board 2.5 percent cut in each city department. Council members said that the bulk of that, $13.4 million, can be done by not filling vacant positions.

Franklin reacted angrily, saying that anyone who believes the city can cut an additional $14.6 million without laying off current employees doesn’t understand the operations of a city government.
“The budget decision of the council today is among the worse I have seen in my almost 20 year professional career and it will have negative ramifications for the quality of life in this city,” she said in a statement.

Franklin has line-item veto power, but the unanimous vote makes the budget all but veto-proof.

“This is a risky choice in a bad economy, and the people of Atlanta will have to bear the burden of the council’s decision to not do what is in the best interest of the residents,” Franklin said.

The council also reduced its own budget by $1.3 million and expects to generate an additional $2 million through the sale of taxicab decals currently held by the city.

Shook said members are counting on extra revenue from a tax digest that has “sky-rocketed” in the city — almost 20 percent on average — and especially with commercial property. He also said the city has to look at ways to generate more income through police tickets, code enforcement and the municipal court system.

“We’re politicians and we listen to our constituents,” he said. “They were very clear about being unhappy with a property tax increase.”

Shook said he hopes the mayor will not create a “feud” with the council by closing swimming pools or recreation centers.

At a late afternoon press conference, Council President Lisa Borders tried to strike a conciliatory tone with Franklin. “This is a very tough economic time for everyone,” she said. “The council wanted to give ultimate flexibility to the mayor on the across-the-board 2.5 percent cuts. We wanted to meet with the mayor. We’re open-minded and want to have conversations with the mayor.”

Shook echoed that sentiment. “We want to work with her,” he said. “I hope she spends the weekend kicking furniture, and then comes back Monday ready to work together.”

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Mayor Shirley Franklin is none-too-pleased with the city council’s adopted budget that actually lowers property taxes and cuts an additional 2.5 percent from departments.

In fact, she calls it the worst decision she’s seen in her almost-20 year professional career.

UPDATE: The mayor’s office has release a revised statement that has the correct dollar figures and a mysteriously removed exclamation point. Yet no punctuation has replaced it… scandal!

Original statement follows after the jump. Here’s the revised one:

The Atlanta City Council is now asking the Administration to make an additional $14.6 million in cuts without cutting personnel. As I stated earlier, anyone who believes that the City can cut $14.6 million (the proposed Administration’s budget already included almost $60 million in cuts) without laying off current employees does not understand the operations of city government. It cannot be done, responsibly

This is a risky choice in a bad economy and the people of Atlanta will have to bear the burden of the Council’s decision to not do what is in the best interest of the residents, both short term and long term.

To balance the budget on the backs of employees is irresponsible, when they were offered an alternative of a modest tax increase in an effort to preserve gains in public safety and to maintain core services. The Council had the authority to do this but it is an unwise business decision and represents one of the worst public policy decisions I have seen in my 20 year professional career and it will have negative ramifications for the quality of life for the people of Atlanta.

(more…)

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Here at CL, we’d been reporting that an Atlanta tax increase seemed increasingly inevitable. Well, the same Council members who seemed so fatalistic last week got together last night and cobbled together an alternative plan that appears to allow them to escape Mayor Shirley Franklin’s proposed tax hike.

Just minutes ago – with a curious Franklin herself sitting in the audience – the Council voted 14-0 (with Lamar Willis walking in moments later) to adopt an amended budget that wipes out the .43-mill tax increase, cuts all departments by an additional 2.5 percent and even includes a teeny-tiny tax rate rollback that will save the owner of a $200,000 home about seven bucks.

However, the budget the Council is looking to pass is $570.8 million, about $13 million less than the Mayor’s proposal. When we figure out how they made these numbers work out, we’ll update this post.

Meanwhile, the Council is on recess and will re-convene shortly after lunchtime to finish up on this stunning turn of events. Stay tuned or head down to City Hall to catch the action yourself!

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One of the more bothersome consequences of having a $140 million budget shortfall is the need to cut public services to save money. Which ones, and by how much? One that was proposed – and all but certain – for the chopping block was weekly pick-up of recycling. The program was outsourced to a private company and city solons had decided that reducing the service to every other week was a good way to cut costs.

Well, it seems that new Public Works Commissioner Joe Basista has figured a way out of this looming tragedy. A recent memo to the Council from Public Works explains that the city will save $3 million by un-privatizing curbside recycling (take that free-market champions!) and that city workers will happily continue to pick up cans, bottles and newspapers every week.

Atlanta homeowners had already dodged a bullet when the Council decided against scrapping yard waste pick-up. If you need further info about trash, recycling or yard waste collection, go here.

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Much wailing and gnashing of teeth has been heard in Atlanta over a potential property-tax hike. Fair enough; no one likes paying higher taxes. But relatively little public attention has been paid to the prospect of higher water rates, which will end up costing the average homeowner more than 10 times as much.

At around 1 p.m. today at a special-called meeting, the City Council approved a new water/sewer rate schedule for the next four years that will cause the average monthly household water bill to jump next month from about $85 to $105, a 27-percent increase.

This new rate includes a 15-percent increase to make up for lower revenue due to water conservation. Last year, this measure was introduced with the label “drought surcharge” and people went crazy: The city asked us to conserve water and now it’s punishing us for doing so!

Instead, the city simply rolled it into the new rates, but we’ll pay it just the same. Rates will continue to climb 12.5 percent for the following three years, until we’re eventually paying an average of $143 a month for water.

Council members had debated the water rate increases for weeks; some even hinted they would vote against them. But, in the end, the vote was 13-0; the only amendment calls for an audit of the $4 billion sewer program. Why did everyone finally get on board? Mainly, because they didn’t really have a choice.

The rate hike was necessary to abide by the federal consent decree that mandates the sewer improvements. If the council had voted down the new rates, Federal Judge Tom Thrash could have put the entire program in receivership.

At one point, Council member Kwanza Hall asked city finance chief Janice Davis what would happen if the rates weren’t raised.

Davis’ answer: “The city’s bonds would be downgraded to junk.”

Well, alrighty, then!

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NBA FINALS: Doc Rivers’ Celtics beat the Lakers in Game 6 of the Finals, demolishing L.A. by five more points than they demolished Atlanta in that first-round Game 7.

DROPPING OUT LIKE IT’S HOT: In Georgia, where the graduation rate is 12 percentage points below the national average, class of 2008 dropouts will cost the state economy about $15.5 billion during their lifetimes.

GOLDEN RETRIEVEE: A Gainesville family’s golden retriever is returned to them after going missing five years ago, when they lived in Powder Springs.

A ROUNDABOUT SOLUTION: Roundabouts like the one at North Decatur and Lullwater keep traffic moving at busy intersections, resulting in less wasted gas from idling and saving drivers time.

ATLANTA TRAFFIC NO. 10: But we were just told we’re the worst.

TAKING SURCHARGE: Atlanta City Council passes a resolution, similar to one recently passed in Holly Springs, that would allow a $10-$15 gas surcharge to traffic ticket fines and could help offset the budget shortfall.

JIMMY WILLIAMS: Cut by the Falcons.

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The chance that Atlanta residents can avoid a property tax increase next year seems to diminish with every new conversation we have with a Council member.

You’ll recall that Mayor Shirley Franklin called for a tax hike about a month ago in order to erase the last $40 million of a projected $140 million shortfall in the 2009 budget. The suggestion didn’t go over well with Council members, who vowed to find new revenue sources and/or other budget items to cut, in order to sidestep higher taxes.

A couple of weeks back, the Franklin administration announced that, because of higher-than-expected tax collections, the tax increase could be much smaller than first proposed. That may have softened the will of some Council members, although publicly they continued to push for more cuts.

Then, last week, the Council learned that its two leading prospects for generating new revenues have fallen through. The first was refinancing employee pensions to stretch out the payment schedule, a move that would free up $20 million in the coming year. The result, however, would be huge balloon payments in future years; the Council dismissed that possibility as irresponsible. Another $10 million or so might be raised through selling tax delinquencies, but the city would have to coordinate that with Fulton County, which has so far been unreceptive.

The Council is still looking at cutting some vacant staff positions, but nearly any other potential action would merely be nickel-and-diming a $40 million hole in the budget. Reading between the lines of what Council members are saying, it sure seems as if they privately believe there’s no way around a tax increase.

“The question is, are you willing to lay off police and fire personnel or absorb a tax increase?” says Council President Lisa Borders, who nonetheless says: “If we can avoid raising taxes, we will.”

Council Member Anne Fauver now expresses some regret at having said at a public meeting that the city would raise taxes “over my dead body.”

“We’ve found some things to cut, but I can’t say it’s $40 million worth,” Fauver says.

And Howard Shook, who chairs the Council’s Finance Committee, describes the quandary this way: “Which is worse – your constituents blaming you for a modest tax increase or them blaming you for the unprecedented failure to approve a balanced budget, and all the catastrophic financial fallout that would have?”

If the city were to miss its June 30 deadline to adopt a new budget, Shook says, Atlanta would officially be in default of tens of millions of dollars in municipal bonds, a move that would send our bond ratings crashing down.

Even though the Franklin administration has estimated that it cost the owner of a $200,000 house an additional $24 a year, Shook still says he hopes a tax increase can be avoided.

The Council has only a few more days to make it happen. Public meetings are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday of this week, and Monday and Wednesday of next week before a final vote next Friday.

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An Atlanta City Council member complained to me recently that the capitol city was taking a drubbing in the media over Mayor Franklin’s proposed tax increase, while other tax-hiking entities were getting off scot-free.

After a bit of research, I determined she’s right – depending on your definition of tax increase.

At the risk of boring the tax-savvy, I’ll explain that the amount you pay in property taxes is determined by two variables – your property assessment and the millage rate – and one constant, your total exemptions. If your assessment doesn’t change, but the millage rate is increased, you pay more. If the millage rate stays the same, but your assessment goes up, you also pay more – what is commonly called a “back-door” tax increase.

A few weeks ago, Fulton County, which oversees the assessment process, announced that property valuations had risen a whopping 19 percent, mostly due to higher assessments for commercial property. This means that Fulton, its 12 cities and two school systems, can all expect a tax-revenue windfall even without raising millage rates.

For Franklin, that’s not good enough. In order to erase a projected $40 million city budget shortfall, she initially proposed a tax hike of about 1.7 mills, then dropped that to .43 mills, based on the county’s assessment estimates. This would mean the owner of a $200,000 house would pay an extra $24.50 a year in property taxes, assuming a standard homestead exemption.

That’s fairly meager compared to the $2,400 total tax bill for the example we’re describing, but it still represents a tax hike. The Atlanta Board of Education, on the other hand, plans to keep its tax rate – at 22.65 mills, more than twice the city’s proposed rate of 9.35 mills – the same as last year.

But just by virtue of the higher assessments, the school board expects to collect an extra $88 million in property taxes next year, more than twice the $40 million the city wants to raise by increasing its tax rate.

In other words, the schools’ back-door increase would bring in far more additional tax revenue than the city’s proposed up-front tax hike. And the Council member was certainly right about there being no public outcry over the back-door increase. Should there be?

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Janice Davis, chief financial officer for the Franklin administration, handed in a letter of resignation this morning. But, allaying the worst fears of some Atlanta officials, she won’t be departing until after the contentious city budget is put to rest.

“The budget is about to undergo open-heart surgery and she’s the only one in the room with a medical degree,” says Councilman Howard Shook, who received Davis’ two-sentence resignation by e-mail a short while ago.

A few council members have grumbled that Davis should be fired for presiding over a budget process that produced a $60 million shortfall in the current-year budget and a projected $140 million shortfall in the upcoming 2009 budget. But Shook, who chairs the Council Finance Committee, and others have argued that doing away with Davis would leave the city without a finance chief when it needs one most.

Several council members have privately speculated that Davis would leave the city’s employ shortly after the adoption of next year’s budget – and it now appears that will be the case.

According to Davis’ brief letter, she will stay on the job until July 9, then leave to accept a position in Texas. A Franklin administration spokesperson had no comment.

As of now, the Council is preparing to hold a series of budget discussions to tweak a Franklin budget proposal in an attempt to erase a proposed tax increase. The Council is scheduled to approve the final budget at a special meeting June 27.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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CAMPAIGN RELIEF: Clinton is expected to concede the delegate race to Obama today. * She’s saying she’ll “do whatever it takes” to put a Democrat in the White House, which was taken by Obama supporters as a hint she’d accept a VP offer.

* UPDATE: Now the Clinton campaign denies AP reports that she will concede the nomination tonight. Sigh.

WATER RETENTION: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approves plan to keep more water in Lake Lanier and other Georgia reservoirs.

CHAMBLISS: “Amazed” by public support for the U.S. Homeland Security Department’s National Bio- and Agro-defense Facility in Athens.

KSU PROF: Gets $201,000 grant, seen as boon to smallish university’s research cred.

SMOLTZ: Comes off DL, blows save.

BORDER TOWNS: Would lose their edge, literally, if that Georgia/Tennessee border change ever happened.

A TAX TO GRIND: Mayor Franklin proposes 4.8 percent shortfall-alleviating property-tax increase, which is palatable to some City Council members compared with her original estimate of 20 percent or more, but still too much to others.

WHAT ALES US: Beer prices are rising as ingredients cost more and production is down. Apparently, beer may not be recession-proof.

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WE FIT: Atlanta’s the sixth-fittest city in the country, according to a report released Thursday.

TAXES TWO-STEP: City Council, worried about approving the mayor’s property-tax increase, may not adopt the budget by the June 30 deadline, a delay the mayor says could affect city services such as public safety and trash pickup.

TRIBAL STUDY: Researchers shoot aerial photos of an Amazonian tribe that hasn’t had contact with the outside world while the tribe aims arrows at their plane. Survival International says the group is one of about 100 uncontacted tribes worldwide.

INTERPOL: Posts red-flag alert online for Columbus, Ga., double murder suspect.

HUSBANDRY: Decatur woman is indicted for allegedly being married to six men simultaneously to help them become U.S. citizens.

BEAR KILLED: The menagerie that is I-75 — where a zebra and a pig were hit by cars in April — suffers another casualty, this time a bear that was hit and killed at I-75 and I-285 in Cobb.

GREASE DE RESISTANCE: Restaurants are beginning to lock up their grease barrels as gas-price-weary thieves have been stealing thousands of dollars worth.

FRAUGHT TRAINS: The nation’s rail network is creaking under the strain of added workload on aging infrastructure.

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