Fresh Loaf

UPDATE: Word comes in that City Council might make a motion to reconsider the property-tax vote. More details to come. The move to reconsider failed. The final budget adoption will most likely take place around 1:30 p.m.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports the Atlanta City Council this morning narrowly approved a three mill property-tax increase that will plug a $56 million budget shortfall. The average homeowner will see his or her property tax bill increase by $240.

The 8-7 vote Monday morning to raise property taxes by 3 mills was still considered preliminary. It is contingent upon council members adopting the mayor’s $541 million fiscal 2010 budget, a vote expected to take place on Monday afternoon.

The closeness of the tax vote reflected criticism aimed at the council during several public hearings for considering a tax hike in the midst of a severe recession.

…

If the budget passes, the tax increase would allow the city to end employee furloughs during the fiscal year that starts on Wednesday. Furloughs of police officers and firefighters, and the subsequent impact on public safety, emerged as major concerns during the council’s review of Franklin’s budget.

The vote’s roll call:

Yeas: Carla Smith, Ivory Lee Young, Jr., Natalyn Archibong, Anne Fauver, Felicia Moore, C.T. Martin, Joyce Sheperd and Ceasar Mitchell.

Nays: Kwanza Hall, Cleta Winslow, Howard Shook, Clair Muller, Jim Maddox, Mary Norwood and H. Lamar Willis.

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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.

(more…)

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The Atlanta City Council’s Finance Committee voted unanimously today to send Mayor Shirley Franklin’s budget proposal — which includes a 3-mill tax hike — on to the full Council for a vote later this month. This was a formal necessity; the Council must approve an annual budget before the beginning of the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.

Last year, the final vote didn’t take place until late on June 27, which, because it was a Friday, represented the last possible moment the Council could act without being in violation of the city charter. This year, the vote is scheduled for June 29, a Monday, which gives them one more day to find a consensus if they reach a stalemate.

But chances are, they won’t.

As of this writing, I count at least nine likely votes in support of the mayor’s budget. Franklin only needs eight to win. The Finance Committee sent the budget forward without a recommendation, so no members would need to tip their hands in advance, but the chatter at City Hall is that the budget will pass.

(more…)

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AJC Political Insider Jim Galloway posted a video this morning I suspect Mayor Shirley Franklin doesn’t want you to watch.

The video shows five men and women severely wounded while on duty as Atlanta police officers. Each claims the city is denying them medical benefits they need, and to which they are entitled.

Why do I assume Mayor Franklin doesn’t want you to watch it?

Simple.

Because she’s spent the last week dodging questions about the video’s subject matter.

During the same week, however, Franklin has somehow found the time to launch an administrative, legal and public relations assault against APD union leader Sgt. Scott Kreher, the man who presented the video the city council.

Admittedly, Kreher made himself an easy target.

While speaking to city council last week about Atlanta’s alleged poor treatment of police officers severely wounded while on duty, Kreher said he’s so frustrated with Mayor Franklin’s intransigence that he feels like hitting her on the head with a baseball bat.

It was an ugly figure of speech for which Kreher apologized. But Franklin won’t move on.

She has evidently decided to use Kreher’s slip-up to once-and-for-all silence Kreher; one of her most persistent and (until last week) effective critics.

First, Franklin told Fox 5 she interprets Kreher’s statement as a literal physical threat meant to intimidate her and her family, even though it clearly an ugly metaphor for extreme frustration. Franklin says she wants a local, state and, FEDERAL investigation into Kreher’s comment.

Strange. When Atlanta residents express their fear of actual crimes, the mayor mocks them with cherry-picked stats. Hurt Franklin’s feelings, however, and she’ll summon federal help.

But wait. There’s more.

On Saturday, Franklin’s APD toady Chief Richard Pennington suspended Kreher from active-duty pending a psychological examination. Using a mental health bureaucracy and the stigma of mental illness to destroy a political opponent is a time-honored political tactic — in Russia.

Why is Franklin bending over backward to destroy Kreher? My guess is that she’s desperately hoping you won’t pay attention to his message.

So watch the video.

And if you still feel like blaming someone for drawing attention away from the important issue of benefits for wounded cops, go ahead and blame Kreher or Franklin if you’d like.

But remember, Kreher distracted us by accident. Franklin is doing it on purpose.

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You can spend all day wagging your finger at Atlanta Police Union chief Sgt. Scott Kreher for his inappropriate comment last week. You know, the one he said at City Hall about wanting to hit Mayor Shirley Franklin in the head with a baseball bat?

You can debate whether Kreher’s frustration over delayed compensation claims to five injured Atlanta police officers forgives such an outburst by a 17-year veteran of the force.

But to do all that does nothing to address the problem that Kreher says has festered in City Hall, one that’s reportedly led to back-and-forth legal challenges and injured officers allegedly being stonewalled for medical treatment.

What this issue needs is a little bit of sunlight. Let’s take a quick look at the contracts the city’s signed — and re-signed — with NovaPro Risk Solutions, the San Diego-based company that’s handled employees’ compensation claims since 2004, back when it was known as Ward North America Inc.

Just so, you know, we’re up to speed when this issue comes back up for discussion.

(more…)

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Grayson Daughters spoke with Atlanta Police Union President Scott Kreher at the most recent Atlantans Together Against Crime rally in Midtown. Topics included how the organization will endorse a candidate in the Atlanta mayor’s race, what role the community plays in fighting crime, and what’s needed to end police furloughs. 

In March, the Atlanta City Council unanimously passed a resolution urging Mayor Shirley Franklin to introduce a budget that ended police and firefighter furloughs. Last week, the mayor granted its request. Council is expected to vote on the budget in June.

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“I requested the air unit for assistance but I was advised they were furloughed tonight.”

Those chilling words are from the police incident report written by APD Officer Nicholas F. Parete after Monday’s robbery and shooting of Georgia Tech student Patrick Whaley outside his apartment near campus. A Georgia Tech police officer spotted the suspects, but lost track of them when they ditched their stolen car and ran behind houses near the campus.

“Let’s not lose sight of the fact that ultimately it is the level of crime that is important, not the number of police officers.”

And those chilling words are from a February 12, 2009 AJC opinion column written by Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.

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The state Senate passed legislation today that would allow Atlanta residents to decide if they want to pay extra for more police officers and firefighters.

State Sen. Kasim Reed, a Democrat from Atlanta who’s also a front-runner in the mayor’s race, sponsored the bill.

Dave Williams of the Atlanta Business Chronicle reports:

Legislation asking Atlanta voters to tax themselves to pay for additional police and fire protection cleared an important hurdle in the General Assembly Thursday.

The Senate voted 30-23 to hold a referendum in the city in November on a plan to raise property taxes to hire more police officers and firefighters.

…

Reed said the legislation is modeled after a bill the General Assembly adopted allowing a sales tax referendum in Atlanta to pay for water and sewer improvements, which won approval from 71 percent of city voters. He said the property tax increase would expire after four years unless reauthorized in a subsequent referendum.

The bill now moves to the House. If approved, Reed says the owner of a $250,000 home would pay an additional $6 a month on their property taxes. The senator received some guff from his colleagues, who said Mayor Shirley Franklin and the City Council could resolve the dispute over raising taxes vs. cutting public safety themselves. But Reed says the problem can’t wait for a new administration in City Hall.

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On only a couple of hours’ notice, Mayor Shirley Franklin called a surprise press conference Thursday to “discuss the current state of the city.”

After a cryptic opening statement in which she invoked Shakespeare and the “Ides of March,” Herronor told the assembled print, radio and TV reporters: “I came here today for no other reason than to answer your questions.”

And with that, she opened the floor for a no-holds-barred Q&A session. One guy asked about an Atlanta Police Foundation report comparing the size of the APD to other cities’ police forces. Someone else wanted to know the schedule for paying back funds borrowed from the Watershed cash reserves.

But the question that seemed to set Franklin off came from this reporter. I observed that some Council members (cough, cough, Mary Norwood, cough) had publicly blamed the mayor for the current police furloughs, while she has criticized the Council for rejecting her suggestion to raise property taxes – a move she says made the furloughs necessary. My question had something to do with what it might take to break this stalemate, but I never quite got to finish asking it.

(more…)

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