Fresh Loaf

Vote early, vote often!

As you may have noticed, we at CL offered our City Hall endorsements this week — but only for four races: mayor, Council prez and two of the three at-large seats. Frankly, the reasons for being so selective were more practical than anything else. I mean, have you seen how many people are running for some of these seats? It wasn’t feasible to bring in 20 or 30 candidates for individual interviews. As it was, we ended up meeting face-to-face with a dozen candidates.

Does this mean we’re blowing off the rest of the Council races? We’re glad you asked, because the answer is no! In each of the contested district races, we asked the candidates to answer a questionnaire that we’d then post online to help educate voters. (Links to candidate responses are below the jump.)

You may recall that the Metro Atlanta Chamber (dba Committee for a Better Atlanta) does the same thing; we’d encourage you to read both sets of questionnaires — and visit the candidates’ websites, and watch forums, and attend meet-and-greets, etc. — in order to get a more complete idea of the choices facing you in the Nov. 3 election.

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The qualifying period’s still weeks away, but that’s not stopping unions and organizations from endorsing candidates in the Nov. 3 city elections.

The Atlanta-North Georgia Labor Council, which boasts approximately 9,000 members who live inside city limits and nearly 70,000 more in metro Atlanta, made its final endorsements last week for the Atlanta mayor and City Council races. Included in the list are incumbents Ceasar Mitchell and Ivory Young and political upstarts Amir Farokhi and Miguel Gallegos.

ANGLC President Charlie Flemming tells CL that 17 of its 42 affiliate organizations sat down with candidates to discuss privatization, cost-of-living wage increases, workforce housing, and other labor-related issues. The slate of endorsed candidates either agreed with policy stances or had reached out to labor in past policy discussions.

The union’s endorsement has been like the touch of God in the mayor’s race: for the last 20 years, its pick to run the city has gone on to win office. Flemming says its record isn’t as spot-on for council elections, but political hopefuls lucky enough to get a nod — or unlucky enough, depending on how voters’ opinions of unions — can expect a strong force working in their favor.

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Apparently, Joyce Sheperd is concerned that some Pat Swindall sleaze may have rubbed off on her.

At last night’s NPU-Z meeting (what, you weren’t there?), the Atlanta Councilwoman took a moment’s break from taking about tax allocation districts and upcoming park events to distance herself from the crooked ex-Congressman.

Last month, as you may recall, Swindall was indicted for making illegal contributions to Sheperd’s 2005 re-election campaign. He and a business partner allegedly used “straw” donors to help funnel $8,000 to Sheperd’s campaign. Then, in 2007, Swindall’s partner, Bruce Richardson, allegedly told her about the $8,000 and began pressuring her for help on some zoning matter.

Sheperd says she immediately reported the shenanigans to Fulton DA Paul Howard, who launched a two-year investigation of the allegations.

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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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Robby phone home — to bitch about my tax bill

Yesterday, a fresh round of robo-calls went out across Atlanta, urging homeowners to call their Council member to protest a likely tax increase. Here’s the basic script:

Your Atlanta City Council member is just days away from voting for a massive tax increase. But we can’t afford an increase in property taxes. This is your last chance to voice your concern to Council member _______ before (Thursday’s) scheduled public hearing on this multi-million-dollar tax increase. Urge (him/her) to represent the people of this district by voting “no” on the 29th. Call (him/her) at 404-______ to urge (him/her) to represent the district by and vote “no” on the 29th. Call your Council person today. This call is paid for by the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation.

Last time, back in May, the calls were creepily anonymous, but they too came from the FCTF. Executive Director Barbara Payne later told me the organization didn’t want people to think it was trying to use the situation to boost its profile or solicit support. But apparently they realized the message carried more authority if they identified themselves.

I’m still not sure how the group decided which Council members to target, since few have gone on record to support the mayor’s proposed 3-mill tax hike. But the Taxpayers Foundation is certainly correct in guessing that, unless you live in Buckhead, your Councilman or -woman will likely vote for the increase come June 29.

Just last week, Councilman Ceasar Mitchell, who’s running for Council president, told me he’s planning to vote for the increase.

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