Wednesday, August 19, 2009
News OMG — Atlanta puts candidate disclosures online!
Posted by Scott Henry @ScottTheHenry on Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 9:20 PM
This is big, folks.
Before now, if you wanted to see who gave money to a mayoral candidate, you had to schlep down to City Hall, find your way to the municipal clerk's office, park yourself in front of a computer — there's only the one — that looks like it still runs Windows 95 and click on a PDF file. If you wanted the information printed out, it cost 25 cents a page, as I recall. If you wanted it put on a disc so you could view it using an operating system from this century, it cost $30 a pop.
I recently described this set-up to someone as what you'd put in place in order to meet the absolute minimum requirements of state open-records laws if you didn't actually want anyone to have easy access to these documents.
Well, lo and behold, the clerk's office has just launched a new page that allows online access to city disclosure filings — just as if they were county or state filings! And it works!
Now it only takes a moment to confirm that perennial City Hall hanger-on Dave Walker hasn't raised one red cent for his "campaign" as Council President.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
Comments (9)
Showing 1-9 of 9
Wan Romps Home in 6th! The guy took in $51k for gawd's sake. Liz and Steve did about 3k each. Campaign disclosure 6/30/09. Look for Liz to warn of yellow peril. Many of Wan's donors have suspiciously short names. They may be more motivated by his ethnicity than by their greed for developer giveaways. That's downright un-Atlantan. C'mon Wayne Mason, time to bankroll your girl. Liz deserves some of that $40mm profit she helped you turn on the disused rail line along the park. Land speculators need a safe pair of hands in the 6th.
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You might not have noticed that some of Steve's biggest contributors are land developers.
Joe, Brodie took in more than I'd noticed, at 21k. (He only put 3k worth of contributions on his main listing, the rest on an addendum.) But the only ones with potential for developer connections that I see are Tivoli, Randall Cobb and Kim King. You got any dirt on those boys?
Howard Shook, whose brilliant leadership of Finance and Utilities has brought the town to this sorry pass, has so much moolah left from past campaigns that he's hardly bothering to collect fresh cash. But Live Nation and Atlanta Realtors chipped in a grand apiece to keep him on their sides.
Looking at Lisa's endless (83 page) campaign contribution list inspires a migraine. But a few standouts. Why so many big checks from Price Waterhouse? Georgia Power? Troutman? Cousins checks not exactly a surprise. Why do we still allow the big water-sewer contractors to pay to play - Jordan Jones, for example? Why did Barbara Payne of Fulton Co Taxpayers kick in $1250 - and what does that say about FCTA, given Lisa's pitiful record at protecting the taxpayer's interest? (Hubbie, a lawyer, kicked in same amount, so his business may supply motive) Why does John Rice, GE vice chair, who lives in Roswell, think he knows who should manage us poor peons in the city, to the tune of a $2400 check?
@Borders on the ridiculous: But you read all 83 pages! Check under your keyboard for an official Creative Loafing No-Prize. Perhaps the reason there are big checks from big corporations is because -- wait for it -- THEY SUPPORT HER. Or maybe a handful of $5 and $10 donations would look better. But then you'd have more than 83 pages of disclosure info to sort through. Look under that keyboard again and see if you can find an Excedrin.
Amnesia, have you forgotten that we are in the capital of pay to play? Quid pro quo is the one Latin phrase recognized at City Hall. Do you get paid from the same source as Rush Limbaugh to distract readers from reality? And no, fool, if Lisa had more $10 checks the list would not be longer. They only have to list checks >$100.
Resorting to name calling...oh brother. Honey, lighten up! If I was getting paid, don't you think I'd be a lot more lucid? (Don't discount that it's Friday either.)
recoyle: Steve's biggest campaign contribution comes from Tivoli and Kim King properties.... Lest we forget how hard he fought for tivoli's high rises on 13th street by piedmont park (they were ultimately denied after the neighbors opposed them). Who were the developers--- why it was a joint development between Tivoli and Kim King Assoc. see here, in case you dont remember: http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/freshloaf/2007/09/26/piedmont-park-high-rise-take-two/ Funny, right after he lost that case he resigned from the MNA land use committee and NPU rep...
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