Sunday, July 26, 2009
News, In this Issue..., Politics, Atlanta

For mayor?

The recent Campaign for Atlanta forum gave a rare—and at times shocking—glimpse at the personalities and priorities of Atlanta’s four leading mayoral candidates

By Stephanie Ramage

The Sunday Paper recently found itself in the odd position of being the only press at a serious, meticulously planned forum for the four front-runners in Atlanta's mayor’s race: State Sen. Kasim Reed, Councilwoman Mary Norwood, Council President Lisa Borders, and local attorney Jesse Spikes. The event, organized by Campaign for Atlanta and held at the Carter Center, featured questions from a panel of experts on the topics of the city’s water system, city management and public safety. Here is a condensed sampling of the candidates’ statements from the two-day forum.
 
Q: While acknowledging that the city is ahead of schedule in satisfying one federal court order aimed at its water system, the panelists asked if the candidates felt the current water rates were reasonable and whether costs were distributed fairly. 
 

BORDERS: “This mayor, this City Council and this administration inherited the sins of the former administration. So when we look at the [water] rates, we have to be very clear that we started behind the eight ball. …This mayor [Shirley Franklin] has stepped forward and put us on a platform for growth for the next generation, so we don’t have these difficulties in the future.”

 
Borders said rates are high because “we have responded appropriately. … I think overall it is a good program. Anytime you have a new program, you have to work out the kinks.”

REED: “I’m going to start with a complete reevaluation [of the water department]. So, I’m not going to make any assumptions based upon any success that we’ve had under the past administration.” He said the rates are “unacceptable.” Further, “I don’t believe that it is fair at all.”

NORWOOD: “In 2008, when the rate increase happened, I had initiated the audit. At that point, we had spent an awful lot of money and I wanted to see if, at that point, I could get a review. I was concerned back in 2004, before we had the sales tax. We need the kind of high-level review I wanted to happen in 2004 to happen now, so the next phase of these billions of dollars is more carefully contained.” 

SPIKES: “Most of the work that’s being done is being outsourced by the Department of Watershed Management, even the initial costing of the project. There is no responsibility from beginning to end for project delivery. If we can address that and make sure we have responsible and responsive people in place, we can go a long way in making sure that they are doing what they are supposed to be doing and no more than what they are supposed to be doing.”

Was it appropriate for the city to transfer $30 million from the Department of Watershed Management to Atlanta BeltLine, Inc., especially considering that the water department often justifies its rates by pointing to its costs? [Every member of the City Council, except Cleta Winslow and Joyce Sheperd, who were absent, voted in support of giving the mayor the power to execute the transfer on Sept. 4, 2004. Borders, as council president, does not vote.]

BORDERS: “It is cheaper to borrow from ourselves than others. I believe in the Beltline. This was something we needed at the time.”

REED: “I would not approve those kinds of transfers. … I will not engage in those kinds of transfers because I believe they are fundamentally unsound and I don’t believe they are as transparent as they need to be, and I believe they strongly suggest economic weakness.” He said non-traditional funding makes him “uncomfortable. I am very fiscally conservative, and if you can finance something, I believe you should finance it in the light of day, in a very direct way.”

NORWOOD: “I literally can’t go back and figure out what their rationale was. I was not serving on the committees that were over that. That does not absolve me of the responsibility. I don’t want to speak and not have full information … I want to have facts. I was not on the committee that oversaw that.”

 
[Editor's notoe: Norwood voted in favor of the transfer of funds.]

SPIKES: “The Department of Watershed Management is not there to fund other operations of the city. I don’t think it’s appropriate to be transferring money between this enterprise fund and [Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. or any city department] in that way.… I would insist that it be paid back.” 

For Atlanta Beltline Inc.'s view of this topic, please see this week's Letters to the Editor.

TOP PRIORITIES FOR THE POLICE FORCE

 BORDERS: “A new chief, because he has indicated he is retiring.” Management, compensation and retention initiatives. “We have been able to recruit many police officers,” she said. “We have not been able to retain many of them.” Part of her answer is “housing pools,” a way of making more cops residents of the city. She’d like to see more police officers on the street, “riding cars, riding horses or riding Segways,” the kind of flexible coverage that is more doable when the police force’s numbers are stable. Ultimately, she said, “I want police officers who are happier campers.”

REED: “My top three would be, No. 1, making sure we actually have a force that is motivated and adequately paid. No. 2 will be to find a chief that will lead it and revitalize it. So, I’m going to be personally involved in that process. No. 3, making sure the men and women of the Atlanta Police force know that when they are out doing a job that is as difficult as anything that any of us do, that if they are injured they are not going to have to worry about whether their insurance provider is going to treat them in a fair way. I am going to get down in the trenches and determine what the issues are that are affecting our attrition rate, which is three to four points higher than comparable cities. So, I want to stop losing the quality men and women that we have and get to the bottom of what is the problem.”

When panelist Lou Arcangeli, a former APD deputy chief, asked Reed who should be answerable for the performance of the police chief, Reed answered, “If the next chief doesn’t succeed, it will be because of me. See, I’m not going to pass the buck. If the next chief doesn’t succeed, I will fire them. My next chief will not come into office with a contract.”

NORWOOD: “I will work very hard to hire [a police chief] from within the force. I believe that it is critical to do so, because many times we bring people in from outside the region and it is very difficult for you to know where the city limits are. I want someone running the police department who has an in-depth knowledge of the department, of the city, and can hit the ground running. We have to do a better job of working with the court system; we all know we have tremendous issues with all our courts.” She would also restore step-pay increases, and redesign police beats so that residents can more easily understand them. 

SPIKES: “There is a lack of a sense of somebody being in charge. I was at a public safety hearing [featuring the police department’s leadership] last year and the citizenry were up in arms, they had a feeling of being unsafe and they were coming for some comfort, for some guidance as to what the future would hold, and I was very disappointed, and so were they, to not get much reassurance as to what we could do from a public safety planning standpoint to address the crisis we are in today, so we need to do better than that. [If I am elected], hold me accountable. To the extent the job is not being done, I don’t need you to call the police chief. I need you to call me, because I am the one you put into position to make those decisions.”

Arcangeli pointed out that the past few years have seen substantial growth in the number of neighborhoods that employ private security forces. Some, he said, might see that as an indictment of the Atlanta Police Department. How, he asked the candidates, do they feel about that?

BORDERS: “They actually act as a complement” to the police force. “I look at the patrols in the neighborhoods as an asset.”

REED: “I think that supplemental police are appropriate until we actually turn the curve and obtain our objective of building the police force into what it can be. I don’t really view the private police patrols as a knock on the men and women [of the police force] who do that job every day, I view that as a knock on the failure of leadership … and if I were mayor, I would view that as a criticism of me.”

NORWOOD: “In my own neighborhood, we have had private security patrols and it is not off-duty police officers, it is a private security force, and my husband and I participated in that and paid hundreds of dollars every year since 1984 in addition to whatever taxes. With our challenging topography, with our tree cover, it is very hard to have somebody on the street every place you need them. What I believe is that it is critical that everybody is working together,” that private patrols work closely with the APD. 

SPIKES: “I don’t see it as a vote of no confidence, in the sense that people don’t trust the police department. It’s the feeling of being unsafe, and to the extent that people who feel unsafe have the wherewithal to put in place a private security force that will guarantee them more safety and responsiveness, they do that. It will be my intent to provide the type of public safety in this city so that local neighborhoods will not find it necessary to develop their own police forces to protect them. I think it is a failing of the police department that this is what is required now for people to feel safe in the city.” 

What would the candidates do about persistent and aggressive panhandling?

BORDERS: “We actually decriminalized panhandling,” Borders said, explaining that the city’s anti-aggressive-panhandling ordinance is not enforced, on the advice of the law department. She would enlist the nonprofit and faith-based communities to help. “I don’t want to characterize people as not wanting help,” she said. “It is really disappointing that we have this chronic homelessness problem.” She added that it “could happen to any of us. The state closed all the mental hospitals and put these people out on the street.”

REED: “Because of what you have done in the Gateway Center and areas of homelessness, you also should be more muscular about making sure that people who visit our city feel safe.” Reed would make the panhandling ordinance crystal-clear and enforce it robustly. “When you have aggressive panhandling, it’s not the lawyers and accountants and doctors who feel the brunt of [it],” he said. “It’s the person who’s the waitress in the restaurant, the hostess, the person who makes the bed in the hotel. They’re the ones who suffer.”

NORWOOD: “Well, we clearly have to re-do that ordinance over again. I never let anybody panhandle me. I always make you do work before I will pay you any money. It started out very ad hoc, where I would say ‘If you’ll pick up all the trash from that door to that window over there, I will come back in 10 minutes and I will give you $2,’ or whatever. … I was disappointed that with our entire regional commission on homelessness, with the opening of the Gateway Center, we did not have a strong work component. We need a WPA [Works Progress Administration, part of FDR’s new deal] kind of program.” 

SPIKES: “People on the street who really are in need, I would be in favor of providing the social services to address those needs.” He believes the Gateway Center requires individual problems, such as substance abuse, mental health issues, etc., to be addressed in “a very short time frame. I am persuaded that not everybody can be addressed in that time frame.” Spikes says the nonprofit Pine Street shelter, which some police officers call a nuisance because of the petty crime they say it attracts, is an important facility for those whose problems take longer to solve.


Former Atlanta Fire Chief David Chamberlin asked the candidates for their thoughts on the depletion of Atlanta Fire Rescue. The department has lost 40 percent of its staffing, even as the city has grown by more than a quarter.

BORDERS: “We have infinite need and finite resources,” Borders said. She alluded to previous statements she’s made regarding the possible consolidation of services in order to make the fire department less costly and more efficient, while overcoming inter-jurisdictional barriers within Fulton County. She says she’s spent a lot of time with public safety personnel lately, and that “I intend to keep riding fire trucks. It’s a heck of a lot of fun riding in fire trucks, and it’s a heck of a lot of fun riding in a police car.”

REED: “After 9/11, for what you [Chamberlin] say to be true, that represents a threat that I will not tolerate as mayor.” Reed related how, at a recent neighborhood meeting, one attendee raised the idea of neighbors chipping in to provide their own fire engine. He shook his head and said, “That shows a breakdown in confidence in the most basic function of government.” 

NORWOOD: “I have already been on record saying we would not have brownouts, we would not have furloughs, and we would restore the [pay] increments. It’s my view that we should reduce the steps so that the career ladder is quicker for the firemen.” Norwood warns against an impending loss of substantial experience in the fire department as a major portion of the staff retires. “And, as a personal point of reference, I have a cousin who is a captain in the Atlanta Fire Department.”

SPIKES: “My vision for Atlanta is that it will be able to afford the basic needs of its present as well as the grandest designs of its future. It goes back to the finances again. The reason we have these problems is that we don’t have the money.” SP

THE AIRPORT DUST-UP

Not all the candidates talked about the same topics. Lisa Borders introduced the subject of the airport when she said that she is a fan of public-private partnerships, but one thing she would not be in favor of privatizing is Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Bringing up the airport led Borders to a string of non-sequiturs.

“Nobody is taking this airport,” she said. “What happens at the airport stays at the airport.”

As for a possible takeover of the airport by the state, she said, “If the boys at the state want to take that airport, they need to get their house in order.” Then she added, “They tell me I have a sweet face, but a velvet hammer.”

Kasim Reed, who appeared at the forum on the same day as Borders (Norwood and Spikes were featured on the second day), was asked his thoughts on control of the airport, and answered: “We had a piece of legislation introduced this year about management and control of the airport, and I was one of the first people called to deal with that.”
 
Then, after pointing out that he is uniquely positioned to work with the state because of his 11 years in the state legislature, Reed went on to talk about other state initiatives on which he has worked. SP