Thursday, December 8, 2011
Guv'ment Council committee chairfolks no friends of Kasim
Posted by Scott Henry @ScottTheHenry on Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 4:04 PM
OK, this is inside baseball for City Hall-o-philes, but I wanted to comment — and solicit same — on the 2012 committee appointments (PDF) recently announced by Council Prez Ceasar Mitchell, because some of them struck me as odd.
Granted, most people, and about half the chairmen, will remain in place from this year, but the result is, IMHO, something of an inverted picture of who're the most effective city elected officials. In fact, it would seem that some of the more combative, argumentative and cantankerous people have been elected to chairman status.
Exhibit A: We now have two CPAs and a Wharton MBA on the Council, yet Finance/Executive — the single most important committee, especially for a city with Atlanta's troubled accounting history — will soon be headed by Felicia Moore, whose main qualification for the job is that she sees herself as a budget watchdog. Two other important committees, Utilities and Transportation, are chaired by Natalyn Archibong and C.T. Martin, respectively.
Without getting too deep into personalities, I will simply point out that the above three folks are ones not generally known for playing well with others or building consensus through reasoned discourse. That said, there could be several strategies behind Mitchell's choices.
One could be that, while these people often act as antagonists and name-callers as mere committee members, being in the position of actually leading a meeting forces them to behave. It's been known to happen.
Another, less likely, possibility is that Mitchell is trying to neutralize potential rivals — Aaron Watson, maybe? — by denying them the higher profile afforded by a chairmanship. Or, it's a function of payback: During the pension debates, then-Finance/Exec. Chairwoman Yolanda Adrean butted heads with Mitchell over his proposal to stretch discussions out over several months. Now, she's been busted down to chair of the Committee on Council, which has little influence on public policy.
Finally, and this is not so far-fetched, is that he has made a point of appointing committee chairs who have uneven relations with Mayor Kasim Reed. Case in point: Michael Bond, who'll soon be heading Public Safety, has been top of the mayor's shit list since criticizing the city's handling of the Occupy Atlanta protests. The rougher Reed's next two years turn out to be, the better Mitchell's own chances to replace him as mayor.
"That's a coincidence," Mitchell says of his arguably anti-Kasim picks. He likewise says he didn't boot Adrean off Finance/Exec. as a punitive measure. "I have no problem with Yolanda," he says.
While he concedes that some of his choices might not be the obvious ones to outside spectators, Mitchell predicts: "You might be pleasantly surprised."
There is that chance.
Comments (18)
Showing 1-18 of 18
Cover the unfair redistricting: CLATL! Midtown and buckhead (whites) are getting screwed; 1 person 1 vote = fair; If this were the reverse = major NAACP rallies! Funny how CLATL never covers anything controversial about reverse race issues! let see of the 15 seats only 3 white council people; yet city is now 44% white; yet the districts are remaining virtual unchanged...let's take to task our elected at large and buckhead and midtown council people....
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/back-to-drawing-board-1252603.html
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Yolanda is not helping buckhead by her stepford wife attitude either..."some african american council persons are upset that they are losing parts of their districts (i.e.: becoming more white and vulnerable)...and you can throw the Voting rights Act bs oput the window...35K per district...don't megap[opulate buckhead and midtown to nearly 100 percent white districts (goal of Felicia Moore)
Former council member Anne Fauver took issue with the new map. She said the latest plan does not adhere to the principle of "one man, one vote" -- the idea that each voter's voting power should be equivalent to any others'.
She noted that Districts 7 and 8 in north Atlanta and District 2 around Midtown have thousands more voters than other districts. Those districts are majority white.
Felicia Moore is widely respected as the only council member who will read the ENTIRE budget, wanders around with it under her arm - post-it-notes poking out all over, pestering other council folks about it.
That she ain't toadying for nobody nor toting water for the Mayor is no reason to diss her. I'm quite pleased really; she's the only one who consistently has drawn some kind of fiscal restraint line in the sand.
What i find interesting is Wan replacing Watson for Zoning. Wan's gotten plenty of lessons on Zoning the hard way... I always wondered what the heck Watson was doing to earn his keep besides smiling whilst perching on a bicycle (after the Stepford Moms PTA Junta got him elected). This comes after the overhaul in permitting? Did Watson have any hand in overhauling the permitting process/bldg dept? I've not heard.
The Mayorship holds basically all the power in this town, so why is it bad for bidness to have some sort of loyal opposition in power to provide counterbalance? Ain't that something vaguely "democratic"?
The whole Reed/Mitchell thing i think really may be a smoke screen, based on the tasty rumor i heard about who's expecting to go where when, and who gets annointed to backslot.
oh scott, scott, scott. still taking orders from d. l. bennett and hiding your late night tissues after dreaming of kasim. you are such a sad sack of shit excuse for a reporter. just more gossip and angling for a job with k. reed. maybe you can share an office with stephanie ramage when you get to city hall!
Good article. I'm glad Mitchell is finally exercising his only real power - the ability to appoint the committee chairs.
Adrean had to get slapped down from the Finance chair. Mitchell took a risk to appoint a newcomer to the slot in 2010 and held firm in 2011. What does she do to repay him? Totally back stab him during the pension debate.
Also, don't diss Moore. Her coalition (Martin, Archibong, Bond) are the ones who deserve the most credit for pension reform, not Reed and Adrean.
Adrean finally did for this city what it needed. Took the unsustainable pension plan and corrected it. Someone had to do it. Now Caesar's childish musical chairs is his way of getting back at her. I'll take a newcomer with a CPA over Moore anyday.
After the pension problem is successfully addressed with Adrean as Chair of Finance, Mitchell's statement that "I have no problem with Yolanda," sounds petty, clueless, and vacuous.
You all ^^^ are clueless if you think Adrean "corrected" and "successfully addressed" the city's pension plan. Both her plan and Reed's would have taken away the current employees benefit plan. That didn't happen. The proposal that Felicia Moore put forward was accepted.
If pension reform is the measure for picking a finance chair then Moore deserves to be the chair.
oh lord. she didn't do shit. she tried carrying kasim and peter aman's water on the pension. but she was unable to persuade her colleagues to vote for her/their version. it was moore and martin who negotiated the pension compromise that saved more money for taxpayers than yolanda's plan. and i believe yolanda's cpa is some 25 years old. she has been a housewife and soccer mommy for the interval, not a practicing cpa for more than two decades. no point in misrepresenting her qualifications.
Um, Question Man, am I correct in thinking you posted a comment rather than an actual question? OMG! It's true! Now you have to grant me three wishes!
I guess you guys don't understand the word "compromise", totally understandable given the trolls on this board.
@Six Degrees, please elaborate on those tasty tidbits. Inquiring minds want to know!!
Felicia Moore is great, I have no problem with putting her on Finance/Executive.
CT Martin on transportation... LOL. I would hate to be on that committee.
Wan on zoning... a little weird. He's not known as a zoning guy, is he?
Real World, you don't need to use sock puppets — you're already anonymous.
here you go, scott. this is an example of a well-written analysis of the changes made to council committees. it serves as a nice alternative to the garbage you produced.
http://www.peachpundit.com/2011/12/09/chan…
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