Fresh Loaf

Walker: Without war chest

This is big, folks.

Before now, if you wanted to see who gave money to a mayoral candidate, you had to schlep down to City Hall, find your way to the municipal clerk’s office, park yourself in front of a computer — there’s only the one — that looks like it still runs Windows 95 and click on a PDF file. If you wanted the information printed out, it cost 25 cents a page, as I recall. If you wanted it put on a disc so you could view it using an operating system from this century, it cost $30 a pop.

I recently described this set-up to someone as what you’d put in place in order to meet the absolute minimum requirements of state open-records laws if you didn’t actually want anyone to have easy access to these documents.

Well, lo and behold, the clerk’s office has just launched a new page that allows online access to city disclosure filings — just as if they were county or state filings! And it works!

Now it only takes a moment to confirm that perennial City Hall hanger-on Dave Walker hasn’t raised one red cent for his “campaign” for Council president.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Shortly before noon, in front of Old City Hall (the Mitchell Street side), Council President Lisa Borders jumped back into the Atlanta mayor’s race with both feet and a couple dozen well-wishers.

Her first order of business was to address why she’d changed her mind after leaving the campaign trail seven months ago. As Borders delicately explained, it seemed at the time that her parents’ failing health would demand so much of her time that she couldn’t continue her mayor campaign. Since then, she said, her family situation had “stabilized,” enabling her to rejoin the race. To underscore her point, both her parents were at her side during the announcement.

Borders’ family connections are a substantial part of her appeal for many older Atlantans. Her grandfather, the Rev. William Holmes Borders, was an influential pastor at Wheat Street Baptist Church who, in the pre-Civil Rights era, successfully helped push the city into integrating its police force and public transportation system. The Council president also name-checked late Mayor Maynard Jackson as having “inspired me to serve.”

But Borders’ main political asset is her close relationship with the Chamber of Commerce crowd. A Council member told me as an aside that, at a business breakfast he attended this morning, people came close to cheering when it was announced that Borders was getting back into the race. (more…)

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City Hall had three separate, unrelated civil cases before the Georgia Supreme Court that received rulings yesterday. The result was a mixed bag with no unexpected blows to city coffers – but no big victories either.

First, the least interesting case: The city was a co-defendant with the state in a wrongful death suit involving a passenger in a taxi that veered off the highway and hit a tree. The state DOT was sued for allowing a tree to remain too close to the Downtown Connector; the city was sued for a botched taxi safety inspection. The High Court ruled there was no compelling evidence to suggest the city was aware of inspection shortcomings. That’s one win for the city.

Next up, a biggie: Atlanta has brought suit against a number of online hotel booking services – Expedia, Travelocity, etc. – because they don’t collect the city-imposed hotel tax when accepting bookings. This is an industry-wide battle being waged by cities across the country over whether online companies are required to collect local taxes on the sales they facilitate.

(more…)

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Over at City Hall, the second-quarter revenue figures are in – and, surprise, they’re grim. The notorious police furloughs (remember them?) that began about a month ago were part of an effort by the Franklin administration to slash spending by $40 million. But, according to the latest projections, the city may need to cut another $40 million to avoid a year-end deficit.

If this situation sounds dire, you bet your ass it is. Franklin herself was scheduled to deliver the bad news to the Council Finance Committee, but for reasons unexplained, she left the unpleasant task to COO Greg Giornelli.

To bring you up to speed: The city began its fiscal year on July 1 with a $570 million budget. By the end of the first quarter, revenues were already running $14 million lower than anticipated – which meant the city was looking at a $55 million budget shortfall, providing the downward trend held steady. So the mayor announced city-wide furloughs and closed City Hall on Fridays to save money.

What we learned today, however, is that the downward trend hasn’t held steady – it’s gotten worse.

(more…)

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If you’ve attended or watched an Atlanta City Council committee meeting, you’ve witnessed the blunt opinions and insight of Dave Walker, a 63-year-old Vietnam veteran and street vendor who says he’s attended nearly every meeting since 1984.

How did you end up in Atlanta?

I was hitchhiking around the country back in the ’70s and I went to Los Angeles. And then I went from LA to New York. And I was standing in my sister’s front yard in New York, and I asked the almighty God “Where do I go now?” And clearly he said to me, “Atlanta.” And that’s how I got here. I came hitchhiking with two pennies.

How does God manifest himself to you?

He can talk. God talks to man’s conscience.

Do you still hitchhike?

No, I am afraid now. And a little too old. (laughs).

Do you like Atlanta?

The thing that I used to like about Atlanta is that Atlanta was a wholesome town. But it’s no longer wholesome. If I left Atlanta, I would starve to death. So I stay here. No other city could I have gone to and become famous. I am famous now, so I like it.

When you say that you are famous, what do you think you are famous for?

I am famous for my quick wit. I am famous for my knowledge of world events, etc. I don’t think there is no council member, no government official, in this state or in this country, who is as qualified to talk about government as I am.

Why do you wear hospital scrubs? [Ed. Walker often wears scrubs to meetings.]

Every great man has to have their notch in history, their notch in the community; the scrubs are part of my notch, part of my identity. Most doctors, nurses, they have on scrubs and I view myself as somewhat of a doctor. And scrubs secondarily are very comfortable. They are versatile and you can wear them anywhere, anytime. And the reason I don’t have them on now is it’s too damn cold. But I tell you, I miss them. (laughs)

(more…)

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About two weeks ago, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin announced city-wide employee furloughs to cut spending.

Today, she dropped the other shoe.

This morning, Franklin laid out her plan to slash another $14 million from the budget; the casualties include 23 recreation centers, the annual Atlanta Jazz Fest and a total of 222 more city jobs.

We’re not talking here about eliminating unfilled positions — nearly all of those were wiped out in previous rounds of cuts. These are actual city employees.

As the Mayor put it: “We are cutting into what we believe is the bone.”

Here’s where the bulk of the layoffs are falling:

• 58 employees from Public Works, mostly in trash and yard waste collection
• 25 employees from Planning, predominantly in building permits
• 107 recreation center employees

(more…)

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The internal investigation conducted by the City of Atlanta into why former arborist Tom Coffin was fired is complete, the AJC reports. Its conclusion? He wasn’t a team player, yo.

On Monday, the city’s human resources director wrote a letter to Coffin that said he was fired by the city’s Planning and Community Development department “as a result of an unwillingness or inability to work in a team environment.” The three-page letter says Coffin reinspected properties checked out by co-workers without his supervisor’s approval, unnecessarily issued “punitive citations” as the primary means of tree conservation and that he too frequently sought reprimands against his subordinates instead of trying to mentor them.

Coffin denied each of the findings and said he plans to sue the city for wrongful termination.

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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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After months of not much going on with Atlanta’s public art program – otherwise known as the red-headed stepchild of the parks department – suddenly City Hall has announced a list of new projects that will mean work, and income, for more than a dozen local artists.

At a time when frustrated arts advocates are threatening to sue Atlanta for mismanaging its own program, does the city’s announcement represent a craven attempt to buy off the arts community with public funds?

First, some background. As attentive CL readers know, we ran a story in October about a long-hidden study done by City Hall in which bean counters estimated that Atlanta’s public arts program might have been shortchanged as much as $3.6 million over the past few years.

In response to that revelation, a group of arts activists decided to file a lawsuit to force the city to account for the uncollected public arts money and to self-enforce its own percent-for-the-arts ordinance from now on.

The new public art projects include multidisciplinary works for 12 city parks; “gateway” sculptures for several Atlanta neighborhoods; and a mural design for the MLK natatorium.

“I’m pretty excited that they’re looking at putting art in parks around the city,” says activist Bill Gignilliat, adding, “But I’ll believe it when it actually happens.”

Despite the timing, Gignilliat doesn’t believe the city is trying to placate artists with the prospect of work. City Hall just doesn’t move that fast, he says.

Even if that were the intention, it doesn’t seem to be working. This week, both the Eyedrum artist co-op and Public Space Initiative, an advocacy group, announced their plans to become plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which is likely to be filed after the holidays.

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