Friday, February 27, 2009
News Franklin: Furloughs can't end without mo' money
Posted by Scott Henry @ScottTheHenry on Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 10:40 PM
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.
Instead, the mayor embarked on an explanation of how the furloughs came to be – that falling revenues, combined with the Council's unwillingness to approve a small tax hike, ultimately made them necessary. Council members have complained about the furloughs, but none have been willing to go on the record to suggest other city services or departments that could be cut to free up money to pay police.
"I understand why they didn't want to make the cuts," Franklin said. "They're hard cuts to make."
And she revealed an interesting tidbit I hadn't heard before: During the spring budget process, the city revenue projections submitted by Council members were so irrationally optimistic, the mayor refused to sign them. Franklin said she believes it's the first time a mayor has taken that step.
And, of course, the rosy projections proved to be way off-base, the mayor has been forced to take a hatchet ever since – and the Council has been all too willing to let her take the heat for the tough decisions.
Still, my question got answered, if indirectly. Franklin maintains the city doesn't have the money to allow her to end the furloughs. She's not going to back down. And a Council facing an upcoming elections is unlikely to muster the political courage to find a solution for the furloughs.
That leaves only one possible salvation: Obama-bucks! Stay tuned…
Comments (8)
Showing 1-8 of 8
To make matters worse, not only do we have fewer police, now the city has decided to shut off streetlights in certain inner city neighborhoods. Evidently, some Atlantans are less deserving of safety then others. While areas such as Iman Park have DOUBLE sets of streetlights burning brightly on both sides of their streets, the lights in areas of the Old Fourth Ward have been turned off creating an increase in crime. This is true even in the most highly populated area along Highland ave. What are they setting us up for?
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i havent seen streetlights going out or read anything about it. whats your source on that, carolyn? and has the darkness actually led to a crime increase, or is that supposition?
I suggest the mayor release an easily accessible list of all the grants and expenditures the city funnels through their recreation department, jobs programs, and community outreach funding, including money to non-profits for special events. Also, travel expenditures, business junket stuff, and awards ceremonies. Also, non-academic school programming, including "Say No to Drugs" money that comes from the city (not the feds) and other optional and frequently repeated programming. Also, a list of the salaries of non-teacher, non-janitorial public schools personnel. Also, the entire budget for city's weirdly vast summer camps expenditures, staff, facilities et. al. -- few know how much we spend for day care for unemployed people (also, some employed people, while you pay for your own kids -- but what really chafes is the day care for those whose mommies don't work and daddies don't pay for them, just so neither have to take care of their own offspring for a nanosecond between school terms). And, while we're at it, I'd like to see a database of every dime we've given to select clergy and non-profits in the past eight years of the Franklin administration to do "stepping-up" ceremonies and similar boondoggles. There's lots of money in the budget to pay for police -- you just have to figure out how to pry it out of the usual suspects' hands. So if Franklin is going to criticize the Council -- and there are council people who deserve criticism and council people who don't, then she should make the budget REALLY public first. And then each council person should do the same -- and then we'll know where them money has gone. These records should be easily accessible. It's called accounting. So if they're not, why not?
Here is the Mayors proposed budget - http://www.atlantaga.gov/client_resources/media/financial/fy2009%20budget%20presentation.pdf Feel free to join me in examining it. There are other docs and resources linked there. Not a bad place to start.... I am not certain if there is anything listing the specific expenditures you list over the last eight years. That would be to easy for us. You can obtain them, but they are likely buried in reams of information. A lot of things should happen, but won't because they are not required by law. Politicians write the laws that govern them, you don't expect them to make it easy on us to catch them, do you? I understand your frustration, I feel it, as well. Good luck.
Tina, how about the Council make a rational recommendation of where to find money. Isn't that part of the reason they got elected? Why should we have to figure it out? The mayor is saying she has tried and can't find any money. Have any of the council members made one suggestion? I tend to believe the mayor has a lot more credibility than most of the council. How many of them even have real jobs? Being on council is supposed to be a part time job. Can anybody tell me which council members work? They should have plenty of time to find the money. Instead they run around and criticize the mayor. What a joke.
All of this criticism of the Mayor is pathetic and pointless. Mayor Franklin has done and will continue to do an excellent job. She has to make the tough decisions, it is not called being a Mayor it is called leadership. S Decatur Guy hit the nail on the head. Why is it the City Council is not offering solutions. Why? Because the majority of them can barely read a spreadsheet. The city council position is viewed as a part time job so where do Atlanta City Council members work? Where is there 9-5? Let me help you out...they don't. Well not all of them. Rather than Creative Loafing continue to do trash stories about Mayor Franklin why don't they look into where exactly the 15 members of the City Council work.
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