Fresh Loaf

Last night, mayoral candidate Mary Norwood threw a well-attended wing-ding at Amsterdam Atlanta, a popular gay bar in Morningside. I missed her speech, but caught up with former City Council President Cathy Woolard, who’d stopped by to check out the festivities.

Woolard isn’t publicly backing either Norwood or opponent Kasim Reed, but she believes Reed’s stance on gay marriage — he favors civil unions — has hurt his appeal among gay voters. This could be a significant factor in the election because, as we noted in a news article this week, the contentious race for Council District 6 is likely to turn out a large number of gay votes.

It seems a bit odd that a candidate’s position on a non-local issue such as gay marriage — or Jewish settlements, global warming, immigration policy, etc. — would have much bearing on a municipal election. Frankly, if you’re looking for a litmus-test to help determine whether a candidate is supportive of your interests, there are many others that would be more relevant.

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A new 11 Alive/Survey USA poll of the Atlanta’s mayor’s race shows State Sen. Kasim Reed with 49 percent, and City Council Member Mary Norwood with 46 percent. Reed’s three-percent advantage falls within the poll’s 4.5 percent margin of error.

In other words, according to this poll, it’s a dead-heat.

Norwood and Reed finished first and second in November 3’s mayoral election. They will face one another in a run-off election December 1.

Assuming it’s an accurate snapshot, of course, this poll suggests Reed has been far more successful than Norwood at winning over the 9,829 Atlantans who voted for third-place finisher Lisa Borders.

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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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Mable got paid, beeyatch!

Finally I’ve got an answer to my earlier question of what Mary Norwood had to spend to earn an endorsement from “Able” Mable Thomas.

Thanks to the most recent financial disclosures, filed Friday evening, we now know that the councilwoman’s mayoral campaign paid the mercenary rabble-rouser $1,500 for “consulting services.” Here’s the PDF.

Is it too cynical to wonder if Thomas’ services consisted of consulting with Norwood on what it would cost to buy her endorsement?

Frankly, unless there was some kind of “in-kind” compensation promised, “Able” Mable comes cheaper than I thought.

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For months now, Councilwoman Mary Norwood has insisted, promised, all but swore on the baby Jesus that if she’s elected mayor, Atlanta’s next police chief would be hired from within the ranks.

Despite her denials, many observers figured she must already have someone in mind. Otherwise, it wouldn’t seem to make much sense to narrow your options like that. Sure, Pennington didn’t work out so well, but it’s considered a best practice for cities of our size to conduct a national search for such important positions.

Still, Norwood repeatedly defended her decision at one forum after another, explaining that she wanted a chief who was already familiar with the local geography. As she told the AJC: “It takes them a long time for them to figure out where Adamsville is, where Moores Mills is and Browns Mill is.” (Psst — that’s why Al Gore invented GPS.)

Well, WABE radio reports that, just yesterday, Norwood flip-flopped and signed a pledge sponsored by a local human-rights organization stating that she’d undertake a national search for the next top cop.

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These are a couple days old, but I’m just catching up with them. Before I saw the Lisa Borders ad, I heard it described as a dramatization featuring a “group of women talking together in a kitchen whom you’d never see talking together in a kitchen”:

After seeing the ad, I’d have to agree it’s fairly contrived, in the same way that most political ads using actors tend to be. Of more interest is what they’re saying. After the women express their concerns about crime, they offer these choice bullet points:

• “It’s time for these things to change.”
• “We need new leadership.”
• “What we need is a Democrat.”

OK, first the obvious: This ad is clearly aimed at female voters and, judging from the cast, specifically African American women. I assume it’s mainly intended to siphon women away from Kasim Reed. Take note of the line, “My girlfriend, she was out walking her dog, and someone came up behind her.”

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Tom Houck, state Rep. Ralph Long, and Aaron Turpeau discuss race at Uptown Lounge

Over the past few months, the leading candidates for Atlanta mayor have dutifully taken part in dozens of public forums across the city, giving the impression that no interest group is too obscure or any issue too unimportant to be addressed.

Last week, however, a politically oriented event was held downtown without a single office-seeker in sight. But this was hardly surprising. Most candidates would prefer being waterboarded than to go on the record discussing the evening’s chosen subject: race.

It didn’t help that one of the participants in last Wednesday’s panel discussion at Uptown Lounge was Aaron Turpeau, the longtime political operative associated with a controversial memo calling for coordination among black leaders to elect a black mayor.

When the memo surfaced in August, City Council President Lisa Borders quickly denounced it. State Sen. Kasim Reed labeled it “racist.” Even Mayor Shirley Franklin weighed in, dismissing it as “bigoted.”

But like it or not, where the mayor’s race is concerned, race remains the mastodon in the room. Although few have discussed it openly, it’s quite possible that no single factor will have as much impact in determining Atlanta’s next mayor — although not necessarily in ways that seem obvious.

Continue reading “Race looms large in Atlanta’s upcoming mayoral election”

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Have you been wondering which city candidates were most likely to be anointed by powerful northside CEOs? Well, wonder no more, because the Buckhead Coalition has spoken — by putting a not-inconsiderable sum of money where its mouth is.

Like the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the Coalition doesn’t do direct endorsements. Unlike the Chamber’s questionnaire process, the Coalition makes its picks known with sizable campaign contributions through a PAC.

So here’s who got the cash:

• In Council races where an incumbent faces opposition, the Coalition gave the incumbent the $2,400 maximum contribution.
• In contested races without an incumbent, the $2,400 max went to Yolanda Adrean for District 8, Michael Bond for at-large Post 1 and Ceasar Mitchell for President. For reasons not made clear, the Coalition made no contributions in the races for District 6, District 11 and at-large Post 2.
• The Coalition split its donations in the mayor’s race, giving Mary Norwood $1,344 (56%), Kasim Reed $528 (22%), and Lisa Borders $528 (22%).

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Last night in north Atlanta, during what must now be the 83rd mayoral forum held so far, Council President Lisa Borders said a rather interesting thing: “Yes.”

This single-word statement came in response to a question of whether, as mayor, she’d roll back the 3-mill tax increase adopted by the city only a couple of months back. To those who’ve repeatedly heard Borders take credit for coordinating the passage of the tax hike by the City Council, it sounded like a remarkable — and unexplained — about-face.

Well, it’s unexplained no longer. Liz Flowers, Borders’ campaign spokeswoman, told me this morning that the candidate thought she was being asked if she’d favor a rollback after the city’s public-safety needs had been adequately funded.

“We’re not backing away from her original position” supporting the tax increase, Flowers said. “She misunderstood the way the question was framed.”

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Last night was the couch-sitting public’s first window onto the Atlanta mayor’s race, courtesy of a semi-televised forum by WSB-TV. I say “semi-” because the station inexplicably showed only the first half-hour of a 90-minute event. Apparently, it was deemed more important that viewers be able to see “America’s Funniest Home Videos” than their next mayor.

Anyway, even those who didn’t bother to switch over to radio or the Interwebs to catch the final hour didn’t miss a great deal. No clear winners or losers emerged, but the candidates’ relative strengths and weaknesses do tend to become more visible the longer you see them in action.

Fortunately, last night’s forum was sponsored by the Atlanta Police Foundation, a law-and-order support organization, so the candidates didn’t waste time pandering to special-interest groups, as has been the custom at several previous forums. Instead, they got right down to the first order of business: bashing Chief Richard Pennington.

It usually goes without saying that every new mayor brings in his or her hand-picked police chief, but it didn’t go unsaid last night. Everybody, most conspicuously Council President Lisa Borders, was sticking the boot in Pennington’s ribs, claiming how they would hire a top cop who’s responsive, visible, accountable and doesn’t fancy himself too good to mingle with common beat cops — unlike you-know-who.

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Tuesday’s looking to be one of those days just jam-packed with forums.

While Georgia STAND-UP hosts its City Council candidate forum in Southwest Atlanta, a coalition of transportation advocates will be grilling Mayoral candidates about their stances on transit, bicycles and pedestrian friendly streets — and how mobility options other than automobiles could improve Atlanta’s quality of life and economic potential.

Citizens for Progressive Transit, the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition and PEDS are hosting the 6:30 p.m. forum at the Atlanta Regional Commission. Mayoral candidates Lisa Borders, Mary Norwood, Kasim Reed, Jesse Spikes and Glenn Thomas will give their take on the issues. Longtime business columnist and smart-growth advocate Maria Saporta will moderate the discussion.

For more information about the forum, visit the coalition’s website. For directions, click here. You can also try CfPT’s online transit trip planner. The ARC is convenient to three MARTA stations and Five Points bus transfer center. The coalition’s advocacy team will provide free bicycle valet parking.

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Kasim Reed

Earlier this week, a memo by African-American political operative Aaron Turpeau calling on black leaders to join forces to ensure the election of a black mayor injected controversy into, well, the mayor’s race.

“The view that the times are too serious to stand on the sidelines is absolutely correct from the perspective of a black mayor at all cost. In fact, if a white candidate were to win the 2009 mayoral race, it would be just as significant in political terms as Maynard Jackson’s victory in 1973.”
— Turpeau, from his memo

“These tactics divide the very community that has made Atlanta emerge as a leading city in the South and dishonors the legacies of Mayors Maynard Jackson, Andrew Young, Ivan Allen, Sam Massell, and William Hartsfield.”
— Mayoral candidate Kasim Reed, in an Aug. 27 press statement

“I reject the analysis offered by Aaron Turpeau. He is absolutely wrong. I oppose anyone, of any race, who would distract us from what is important today.”
— Candidate Lisa Borders, in an Aug. 27 press statement

“Mary’s take on all of this is that she is who she is and people are going to judge her on her ideas, value and ability.”
— Roman Levit, campaign manager for candidate Mary Norwood, as quoted Aug. 27 by the AJC

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Judging from many Fresh Loaf commenters, the answer to that is, “Duh!”

But that wasn’t my first reaction when I read the instantly notorious memo by longtime political operative Aaron Turpeau, which calls for black leaders in Atlanta to rally behind a single black mayoral candidate in order to avoid seeing the election of Mary Norwood.

To me, the memo wasn’t racist so much as it was a plea for naked self-interest — although arguably wrong-headed, outdated and certainly politically incorrect.

Let me explain. I’ve always defined racism as the belief that there are inherent differences — character, intellect, ability, etc. — between people that directly result from race. Racism can be in the form of conscious prejudice — Jews are greedy, blacks are lazy, white men can’t jump, etc. — or the vague sense that one person is in some way inferior to another simply because of the color of his skin.

But I don’t think Turpeau was motivated by the kind of racism defined above. In fact, he was quite clear in explaining his goal:

There is an unstated assumption that having a black mayor in Atlanta is equal to having a black social, economic and political agenda or at least someone in office who would be sensitive to that agenda if not a full promoter of that agenda

In other words, having an African American mayor is a benefit to black Atlantans and their “agenda”; therefore, blacks should take steps to ensure that City Hall stays black.

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Maria Saporta got Mayor Franklin’s take on the flap over a memo by Aaron Turpeau, in which the longtime political operative calls for black Atlantans to throw their support behind Lisa Borders for mayor in order to prevent a victory by the very white Mary Norwood.

Here’s what Shirley told Saporta:

As the current mayor of Atlanta and someone who has sought to represent the best interests of the entire city and all the constitutents in my performance, policies and management style, I believe Turpeau has it all wrong and has missed the mark.

Franklin challenges Turpeau’s implication that the late Maynard Jackson’s legacy lies in having won City Hall for black residents and it’s up to African Americans now to band together to make sure thay don’t have to give it back:

Jackson opened doors and kept the doors open for all Atlantans and people of good will to particpate regardless of race, social status or other political party. His consensus building success are legendary.

Turpeau tells a lopsided version of the history of Atlanta politics of the last 40 years and the civic history of Atlanta for decades.

So far, the only interested party yet to be heard from is Norwood. If I were her, I’d take the phone off the hook and lay low. Ironic as it may seem, she is likely the main beneficiary from all this fuss.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Kasim Reed is not happy with memo

The Atlanta mayor’s race has just blown up with a controversy whose fallout could well linger over the rest of the election season. Sometime yesterday, an incendiary bomb in the form of an e-mail went out calling on African American leaders across town to throw their support behind a single black candidate for mayor  in order to head off a victory by Councilwoman Mary Norwood, who is painfully white.

The e-mail cites WSB polls showing Council President Lisa Borders gaining support to trail closely behind Norwood while state Sen. Kasim Reed remains trailing in the single digits. On the strength of the numbers, the e-mail author invites the recipients to join him in supporting Borders for mayor.

Reed is taking the missive seriously enough that he quickly retaliated with a statement calling the e-mail’s message “divisive,” “vitriolic” and “racist.”

And who is author? None other than Aaron Turpeau, a longtime political operative who could be considered the most prominent remaining gear in the old “Maynard Machine.” Turpeau worked on Jackson’s first two campaigns for mayor, then for both of Andrew Young’s successful bids, and then for Jackson’s third go-around.

But Turpeau, wasn’t simply Jackson’s appendage. Despite his longtime boss’ endorsement of Bill Campbell, Turpeau worked for both of Campbell’s opponents, Michael Lomax and Marvin Arrington. He later jumped on board Shirley Franklin’s campaign, which gave fuel to critics who dismissed Franklin as the “machine candidate.”

Turpeau hadn’t signed on to work with any mayoral hopefuls this time, a fact which stirred the curiosity of many political observers.

Obviously, however, Turpeau isn’t content to sit on the sidelines. In a follow-up memo (view PDF here), he elaborates on his position, which he calls, in a striking display of candor, the “Black Mayor first” approach:

1.    There is a chance for the first time in 25 years that African Americans could lose the Mayoral seat in Atlanta, Georgia, especially if there is a run-off;
2.    Time is of the essence because in order to defeat a Norwood (white) mayoral candidacy we have to get out now and work in a manner to defeat her without a runoff, and the key is a significant Black turnout in the general election;
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Mayor Shirley Franklin called a press conference today to discuss city finances, then, as soon as it began, told reporters, “There won’t be any big news here.”

Great. And I stopped watching a video of kittens riding a Roomba for this?

As it was, the mayor and Atlanta Chief Financial Officer Jim “I Don’t Need This Job” Glass discussed a range of topics in the service of, as Shirley said, “fiscal transparency.” Here’s a short list:

• The Fulton County Tax Assessors’ office is running late in sending out tax bills this year because of an unprecedented deluge of property appraisal appeals. The later the process lags, the later the city gets its tax revenue, which raises the danger of a short-term shortfall.
• The city is seeking a crazy half-billion dollars in federal stimulus funds. So far, a more reasonable $42 million has been approved. Among the city’s wish-list items is $13 million to install 400 CCTV cameras on public streets across the city in an effort to combat crime. While public video surveillance is commonplace in the UK, Americans typically don’t take kindly to being watched in that manner.
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According to the tirelessly self-promoting pollsters over at Insider Advantage, Council President Lisa Borders has moved up in the estimation of registered voters, while Councilwoman Mary Norwood is maintaining her lead. Here’s the lowdown:

An InsiderAdvantage survey conducted the evening of Monday August 17 among registered voters who said they were likely to vote in the November race to replace outgoing Mayor Shirley Franklin showed City Council Member Mary Norwood continuing to lead the race, with 30% saying they would vote for Norwood. But statistically tied with Norwood was City Council President Lisa Borders with 28%.

Lagging behind the two women were state Sen. Kasim Reed with 8% and attorney Jesse Spikes with 2%. The rest said they were undecided.

Borders was quick to send out a press release:

“We’ve almost tripled our support in just three months. That’s tremendous,” Borders said. “Everywhere that I’ve gone in the City, Atlantans have been eager to hear solution-based answers to how our next mayor will get Atlanta back on track. They want a plan for enhancing public safety, and they want to know where the funds will come from. I hear the need for a budget that gets our money’s worth and responsible government that cares for our community. Atlantans want a city that works. I welcome this news and look forward to speaking with more citizens about solutions to the challenges that we face.”

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City Hall insiders were whispering on Thursday that Atlanta mayoral candidate Mary Norwood would receive the valuable endorsement from the city’s firefighters. The rumor surprised some, considering the city councilwoman’s vote in June against the three-mill property tax that has helped end police and firefighter furloughs.

But win the endorsement she did, the AJC’s Eric Stirgus reports. Jim Daws, head of the local chapter of the International Association of Fire Fighters and a lieutenant with the city’s Department of Fire Rescue, told Stirgus that the union weighed Norwood’s overall support of the department in making its decision. The official announcement by the union, which boasts roughly 450 members, will be made today.

(UPDATE): Kasim Reed’s campaign chimes in about Norwood’s endorsement:

“Throughout my career in public service and over the course of this campaign, I have made Public Safety my number one priority. While I am respectful of the decision to endorse another candidate, I am unwavering in my support for our city’s firefighters. The men and women of the Atlanta fire department—who place their lives on the line to protect our families—deserve to have a mayor who will fight for them, day in and day out. If elected mayor, I would be honored to serve them.”

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In mid-July, the citizen coalition Campaign for Atlanta held a two-day series of forums with Atlanta mayoral candidates Lisa Borders, Mary Norwood, Kasim Reed and Jesse Spikes at the Carter Center.

Topics covered during the events included Department of Watershed Management issues, creating and maintaining a competent city bureaucracy, and police and fire issues. Candidates were grilled by civil engineer Bob Bunker, Georgia Tech Professor Jim Martin, former Fulton County Manager Sam Brownlee, former Atlanta Deputy Police Chief Lou Arcangeli and former Atlanta Fire Chief David Chamberlin.

All 32 videos of the event, grouped by candidate remarks and responses, were made available today on Campaign for Atlanta’s website. We’ve uploaded each candidate’s opening remarks after the jump.

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In unveiling his new “Blueprint for Restoring Public Safety in Atlanta,” state Sen. Kasim Reed brought out the big guns — in the form of Evander Holyfield’s right and left arms. While bringing a well-known heavyweight boxing champ to a campaign press conference might initially sound like a publicity stunt, there was actually a relevant connection: Holyfield was a friend and mentor to Vernon Forrest, the welterweight boxing champion who was murdered at a Castleberry Hill gas station this past Saturday night after he confronted a mugger.

Reed’s plan, which will now go toe-to-toe with the patented Mary Norwood 12-Point Public Safety Program, is titled “Securing Atlanta.” Here’s the campaign blurb:

Securing Atlanta is a comprehensive plan to tackle the growing problem of crime in the city. The plan includes increasing the existing size of our police force with 750 additional police officers, establishing a dedicated revenue stream for public safety, updating our technology such as adding more surveillance cameras, improving officer retention by restoring step increments and making salaries more competitive. Securing Atlanta also takes a holistic approach to reducing crime by addressing other contributing factors such as the importance of revitalizing our neighborhoods, giving our young people greater opportunities and addressing the escalation in gang activity.

Unlike Norwood’s plan, Reed’s proposal includes a funding method, the above-mentioned “dedicated revenue stream for public safety,” which he has said would be in the form of a special tax district whose residents (that’s us) would foot the additional cost.

Can we now expect Lisa Borders to roll out her own splashy public-safety initiative, perhaps called, “Kicking Butt and Taking Names: Fighting Crime in the ATL?” Apparently not, judging from her most recent campaign release, headlined: Borders Calls For End To Public Safety Rhetoric.

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Matt Towery — former GOP state legislator, political pollster and possessor of the most otherworldly tan this side of John Boehner — has put to work the most advanced polling tools available at his disposal and determined the Atlanta mayoral race is…a three-way tossup between Council President Lisa Borders, Councilwoman Mary Norwood and state Sen. Kasim Reed.

Oh, and furthermore, it’ll probably go to a runoff.

Well, frankly, I came to those same conclusions weeks ago and I don’t own a fancy polling firm.

But Towery goes on to share some of his insights into the dynamics of the race. Here’s Matt:

The candidate who buys substantial television post-Aug. 1 will, based on every pattern I have seen, be likely to make the runoff. There is a caveat here. That candidate must have a deep enough level of support to be able to build on the huge name identification boost he or she will receive by being daring and “going for it” early. The only way this strategy works is if the candidate is already viewed as credible and by becoming the “frontrunner,” he or she then basically scares the money on the sidelines into supplying another round of serious cash to keep the television and radio buys going until election day.

And here he offers the perspective of a jaded ex-politico:

If you think turnout will be light in November, try December. That’s where a little thing called “street money” will become critical. In the South, money paid to “consultants,” tithed to churches, donated to charities and just plain handed out has played a huge role in turnout in the black community. That tradition dried up with the 2002 race for governor between Roy Barnes and Sonny Perdue. The Barnes crowd put their money into television — in part because so many top African-American leaders had significant races of their own (or involving family members) that there seemed no need to put cash in the community.

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Last night, the four leading candidates for mayor — Council President Lisa Borders, Councilwoman Mary Norwood, state Sen. Kasim Reed and attorney Jesse Spikes — semi-debated each other at a forum at GSU sponsored by the city’s police and firefighters’ unions.

Not surprisingly, in an auditorium polpulated largely by cops and firemen, all of the candidates voiced strong support for full funding of both departments and competitive compensation for public-safety employees. And they all supported the idea of hiring the next fire and police chiefs from within the ranks — while still saying they’d launch a national search to find the best candidates.

But a few stray ideas did rise from the fray, helping set the candidates apart. Here’s a sampling:

• Reed would push for a special public-safety tax district to generate additional revenue — mostly through property taxes — that would be dedicated to enhancing public safety in Atlanta. He’d proposed something similar during the recent General Assembly.
• Borders wants to raise funds by offering the services of Atlanta’s public-safety training facilities to other jurisdictions.
• Reed wants to give police more time to write citations, which, in turn, generate revenue through fines.
• Both Borders and Reed aim to offer housing incentives to make it affordable for cops to live inside the city limits. Reed wants to go a step further and exempt cops from city property taxes.
• Reed wants to overhaul the city’s worker’s comp program, which he indicated could be more fair to employees.
• Norwood wants to create a WPA-style work program for Atlanta’s homeless and says the city could raise revenue by arresting aggressive panhandlers. Swear to God. I don’t understand how you make money from locking up guys who are flat broke.

If I’ve left out Spikes it’s because his answer to nearly every question was a variation on: “We have to get the city’s financial house in order.”

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Jim Maddox, caught between naps

The Atlanta City Council voted today to raise property taxes by 3 mills, an outcome we’d been predicting for weeks. But the actual vote count — 8 to 7 — was closer than anyone expected it to be. Not because Council members believed the tax hike was a bad idea. Hell, with only one or two possible exceptions, even those who voted against it were privately praying it would pass.

No, the vote was so close because several of our Council members possess, as Teddy Roosevelt once said, “the backbone of a chocolate eclair.”

Exhibit A is Jim “40 Winks” Maddox, the self-proclaimed “Dean of the Council” because he’s warmed a chair in City Hall for more than three long decades. Today, Maddox shocked his colleagues by voting against the tax hike and the $541 million budget. This is a guy who, two months ago, said publicaly that he didn’t think Mayor Franklin’s proposed 3-mill increase was big enough!

“I’m prepared to approve a tax increase to end the furloughs for all employees,” he announced at a budget hearing at the end of April.

But that was before he picked up three challengers for his beloved Council seat. So, today, without giving anyone a heads up, the lily-livered Maddox cravenly hung his colleagues out to dry.

Here’s guessing the next Council retreat is going to be awwwkward.

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Who is Jesse Spikes, you ask? Well, here’s your chance to find out.

Spikes is a former Rhodes Scholar and a senior partner with McKenna Long & Aldridge, one of the city’s largest law firms. He’s also running for mayor, having announced his candidacy a little more than a year ago, just before City Council President Lisa Borders — temporarily — dropped out.

Over the past year, I can’t say that Spikes has made many waves in the mayor’s race, but I’d comfortably rank him first among second-tier candidates. At the end of the last disclosure period, he had about $125,000 in his campaign war chest — far short of the amounts being raised and spent by the three first-tier candidates: Borders, Councilwoman Mary Norwood and state Sen. Kasim Reed. In fact, in the first quarter of 2009, Reed raised more in a week than Spikes raised in three months. The next round of disclosures should be out in early July.

Anyway, if you like underdogs or are simply not satisfied with the folks leading the field, you can check out Spikes this Saturday at his official campaign kick-off. The event begins at 11 a.m. in front of the large pavilion on the west side of Grant Park near the entrance on Boulevard. The speechifying is scheduled to begin around noon. You can study up on Spikes beforehand at his campaign website.

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Mayor candidate and Councilwoman Mary Norwood has responded to Kasim Reed’s call for a 1-mill tax increase to end police furloughs — as well as criticism directed at her for not suggesting an alternative funding source.

Here’s her statement:

I issued a 12-point public safety platform early in March in which I made my position very clear: end the furloughs now and pay for the public safety personnel our citizens need and deserve from existing revenues. That will mean that the Administration will have to prioritize its use of money, but that’s what we expect our city to do: prioritize resources in the public’s interest.

In her 12-point plan, Norwood also calls for the city to:

• Expand the police force by at least an additional 10 percent over the 2,000 officers that Mayor Franklin has said are necessary. The city now has about 1,700 cops.
• Raise police and firefighter salaries and benefits to be more competitive with other cities.
  
• Boost annual raises to induce police officers to stay with the department.
• Help public safety personnel buy homes inside the city limits.
• Put more police on the beat.
• Keep repeat offenders in jail until bond is set.
• Upgrade the city’s communication technology.
• Invest additional resources in city code enforcement.

Now, I’m no budget expert, but my guess is that each and every one of the those items would cost money — and all together, they’d add up to a medium-sized fortune.

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