By Maria Saporta

Inclusion was the prevailing message at a mayoral forum Thursday evening sponsored by the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

The forum, held at the Georgia Terrace, included the five top candidates running to become Atlanta’s next mayor.

All five candidates said their administrations would work with the Hispanic community to participate in City Hall’s policies and contracts.

“I would bring the best people to the table,” said Jesse Spikes, an attorney who is running for his first public office.

State Sen. Kasim Reed said he would demonstrate his dedication to inclusion through his appointments. “I want to make sure my cabinet looks like the city of Atlanta,” he said.

City Council President Lisa Borders saisd she would work towards “streamlining the process” for businesses to qualify with the Office of Contract Compliance.

City Councilwoman Mary Norwood said she is a woman business owner, and she would make sure the bid proposals were written in a way that would be most inclusive.

And Glenn Thomas, a former city employee, said his policy of inclusions would include the lesbian, gay and transgender community.

The forum, which was moderated by Atlanta Business Chronicle Publisher Ed Baker, was dominated by the candidates’ positions on fiscal responsibility and dedication to increased public safety.

When asked about their stand on the city’s recent 3 mil property tax increase, real differences emerged.

“I though we should have a 1 mil increase for public safety,” Reed said.

“I think there needed to be a tax increase to bring people back to work,” Spikes said adding that he would work to get rid of waste at City Hall.

Thomas called the tax increase “irresponsible.” Tax increases should just go to providing new services and not to support existing services, he said.

“I did support the tax increase as a last resort,” Borders said.

Norwood said she voted against it because she felt uncomfortable with the growth in the city’s budget and its accounting practices.

Reed then lashed out at Borders and Norwood, without calling them by name, for not having passed a property tax increase a year ago.

The council voted 15-0 in opposition to a tax increase proposed by Mayor Shirley Franklin. “That, to me, was irresponsible,” Reed said.

When asked about their vision for the future, particularly as it relates to transportation, the candidates had a variety of thoughts.

Spikes called for more regional cooperation and the need for a special assessment for transportation.

Thomas urged the city to invest in itself without relying on the state.

Borders said the city has been investing in itself through MARTA and the Beltline. She also said the enabling legislation for MARTA needs to be rewritten without a “paternalistic” control from the state.

Norwood endorsed the city’s Connect Atlanta plan, and said the state should have implemented a commuter rail network years ago.

Reed said the state needs to adopt a regional sales tax for transportation and change the MARTA formula to give it flexibility on how it spends its sales tax.

In his closing statement, Reed said public safety would be his top priority. “The notion that we don’t have enough money to keep our city safe is nonsense,” he said.

Spikes said the race would boil down to one fundamental question: Who can you trust to get it done. He then described himself as a “problem solver.”

Thomas said Atlanta was on the “brink of greatness,” and that it needed to elect a leader, no a politician.

Borders told the audience that she has wanted to be mayor of Atlanta, serving the city, all of her life. “The mayor of Atlanta has an awesome responsibility,” she said. “This is not the time to just step forward. We’ve got to come together and get this city back on track. Atlanta’s best days like ahead.”

Norwood, the last candidate to give her closing statement, said she has spent 20 years in the trenches getting to know the city inside out. “We need a hands-on mayor,” Norwood said, added that she was “propelled and compelled” to run after seeing “ a City Hall that was not functioning.”

The non-partisan election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 3. Because there are 13 candidates in the mayoral race, it is expected to be settled in a run-off, which will be on Tuesday, Nov. 24.

By Maria Saporta

The founding president of the Atlanta Education Fund, Hosanna Mahaley Johnson, has accepted a new position in New York.

Johnson has been named executive director of social justice and district innovation for Wireless Generation, which helps develop innovative technology for classrooms from kindergarten to 12th grade.

The Atlanta Education Fund was started nearly three years ago by a group of top local business leaders including John Rice, vice chairman of General Electric, who chairs the organization. The fund was established by the community to help support improvements in the Atlanta Public Schools system.

Before coming to Atlanta, Johnson started as a middle school math teacher in California. She then spent eight years working on education issues in Chicago, including as special assistant to Mayor Richard Daey. She also worked for Chicago’s Public Schools, where she served as chief of staff to the top executive.

Johnson has been quite active in national education circles, such as serving as a facilitator in Harvard Business School’s Public Education Leadership Program.

She met Wireless Generation CEO Larry Berger when they both were inaugural fellows of the Aspen Institute-New Schools Venture Fund Entrepreneurial Leaders for Public Education Program.

In a statement, Berger said he recognized that Johnson was one of the “rising stars in education.”

According to a release, Wireless Generation creates innovative tools, systems and services to help educators be more strategic in their teaching. It has developed software to help better assess how a classroom is performing and how to make data-based instructional decisions.

As to what the future holds for the Atlanta Education Fund. I have just emailed GE’s John Rice, but I haven’t heard back. Word has it that they’re looking for a successor.

By Maria Saporta

The only executive director the Georgia World Congress Center has ever known — Dan Graveline — announced today he is retiring at the end of the year.

He will cap off his 33-year career by working until midnight, Dec. 31 at the Georgia Dome’s Chick-fil-A Bowl game.

It will culminate an amazing career by one of Georgia’s unsung public servants.

Graveline, 68 as of July 1, was named general manager of the GWCC in 1976 before the facility had even opened.

What now is known as Phase I, or Building A, opened in September, 1976, and the development of the center has continued for Graveline’s entire 33-year tenure.

See Graveline wasn’t your typical government bureaucrat. Instead, Graveline has been as much of a real estate developer as one can be and still work for the state of Georgia.

The GWCC expanded three times in those years — in 1985, 1992 and 2003 — making Atlanta one of the top convention destinations in the country. As other cities would develop their convention centers, the GWCC would expand its facility.

Nationally, the GWCC has been recognized repeatedly as one of the best run convention centers in the country.

But Graveline’s development prowess didn’t stop there.

I got to really witness his skills in action during the building of the Georgia Dome, one of the more complicated developments that I have ever covered with numerous twists and turns.

The Dome first was conceived to be a private venture with 10 friends of then Atlanta Falcons owner Rankin Smith each putting up $1 million as a downpayment on the building.

The group had put together a revenue bond package that would have financed the construction and operations of the building with revenues generated from the facility.

Eventually, it became obvious that the state could become a real partner and back up those bonds. The hospitality community also committed to increase the hotel-motel tax to help pay off the bonds for the Georgia Dome.

Throughout that process, Graveline crossed hurdle after hurdle to help make the Dome a reality. One of the biggest hurdles was working with the Vine City community and two black churches that were going to be impacted by the Georgia Dome.

The GWCC initially faced incredible community opposition to encroachment of the Georgia Dome in their front yards.

At a meeting of the GWCC Authority, Graveline explained the community’s point of view. I came to appreciate how adeptly Graveline ran the authority during that meeting.

Graveline would present the problem in full, uncomfortable detail so authority members could grasp the issues at hand.

Then, he would present a possible and well-thought-out, solution to the problem. But he also invited board members to chime in with their own thoughts and ideas so they could buy-in to the solution. It was a “give me the bad news first” strategy.

In the case of Vine City, the solution was to set aside $10 million of the Georgia Dome’s development costs to help revitalize the community.

The board, usually made up of a group of conservative businessmen, gave its blessing.

Graveline used similar skills in the development of Centennial Olympic Park, an idea inspired by Olympics chief Billy Payne with the support of top Atlanta business and philanthropic leaders.

Because of Graveline’s reputation, it was determined that GWCC should develop and operate the 21-acre park.

“The park to me is one of the most unique and interesting things I’ve ever done,” Graveline said in an adhoc interview today after announcing his retirement at the GWCC board meeting. “What a great asset that has turned out to be. It doesn’t make a dime. But it has generated billions of dollars of development. It’s become the center of gravity.”

Graveline admitted today that it was those kind of projects he loved most.

“Every time it tends to get a little monotonous, something new pops up,” Graveline said.

When making his decision to retire, Graveline said he had to ask himself the question: “If I stay a little longer, could I do one more thing? But there’s no end to that.”

Yes, there is more to do. The GWCC has been working on a master plan for its future growth including the possibility of a new football stadium, a project that could take 10 years or more to complete.

So Graveline decided that instead of waiting for that next project, whatever it might be, it was a good time to retire.

“We did accomplish a few things on my watch,” said Graveline, who added it has been a satisfying and rewarding career with lots of fun.

“It’s not so much what Ihave done for this place,” Graveline said. “It’s what this place has done for me.”

By Maria Saporta
Friday, July 24, 2009

The final numbers are in for Atlanta’s United Way 2008 campaign.

Several amazing developments occurred among local companies despite one of the worst economic climates in metro Atlanta’s history.

In the end, the campaign experienced a drop in revenue of less than 1 percent — raising $80.5 million compared with $81.2 million in 2007.

“The worry was that cities our size were going to see a drop in revenue of about 7 percent,” said Milton Little, president of United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta Inc. “With respect to other United Ways across the country, we did as well if not better than most major cities. We will still be in the top tier of all United Ways.”

Some of the amazing facts:

Publix Super Markets Inc. ran the No. 1 campaign in the region — raising $4.69 million, even more than the perennial top donor — the Combined Federal Campaign, which raised $4.6 million. (Last year, the federal campaign raised $4.9 million; and Publix raised $4.3 million).

The top corporate donor in 2007 — AT&T Inc. — saw a slight increase — from $4.4 million to $4.47 million in 2008. United Parcel Service Inc., a former top corporate donor in Atlanta, dropped slightly from $4 million to $3.8 million.

UPS remains the top corporate donor nationwide. The Coca-Cola Co. went from $3 million to $3.1 million.

The campaign ended up adding two new companies to the million-dollar level — the Kroger Co. and Ernst & Young LLP. One company, Wachovia, left the million-dollar club, going from $1.2 million to $790,000.

Little said a few industry sectors were particularly hard-hit — banking, real estate, legal and hospitality.

But overall, most of the top donors brought in about the same amount as last year.

“Surprisingly, given all that was going on, our major companies that had been longtime supporters of United Way were able to hold their own in a very difficult environment,” Little said.

One company, Genuine Parts Co., saw its campaign go from $961,000 to $991,000.

Companies that were able to enjoy double-digit growth in their campaigns included Ernst & Young, PrintPack, Norfolk-Southern and Kroger.

And Atlanta continued to lead the nation in the number of Alexis de Tocqueville donors (individuals giving at least $10,000) with 867 members. At one time, Atlanta had more than 1,000 de Tocqueville members.

United Way is one of the best indicators of our local economy, the health of our companies and various industries. But it tends to be a lagging indicator, which is worrisome for the 2009 campaign, which will be chaired by AGL Resources Inc. CEO John Somerhalder.

“Every campaign is tough, and I expect 2009 to be tougher than last year,” Little said. “We don’t know what the goal might be. But we certainly do know from all the data we are collecting that the needs are probably greater this year than they were last year. The campaign will be set against the reality that there are more people struggling. That’s the whole conundrum, when the needs are the greatest, the challenge to raise money is the greatest.”

Corrells, Heys to be honored

One of the top honors in town will be given to Pete Correll and his wife, Ada Lee Correll, on Nov. 10 for the 27th annual National Philanthropy Day.

The Corrells are being honored as the 2009 Philanthropists of the Year by the Greater Atlanta chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Pete Correll, retired CEO of Georgia-Pacific and currently a partner of the Atlanta Equity Fund, has played a variety of key civic roles.

The Corrells are being recognized for their contributions to a host of nonprofit causes: Emory School of Medicine, Grady Health System, Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta, Ebenezer Baptist Church, the Nature Conservancy and the Center for Aquatic Animal Health at the Georgia Aquarium.

The luncheon, which will be held at the Georgia Aquarium, also will honor Ed Heys, Atlanta deputy managing partner for Deloitte & Touche, who will be given the 2009 Volunteer Fundraiser of the Year award.

In one of his civic roles, Heys chaired the 2008 United Way campaign, including its one-time Critical Needs campaign.

Heys also has been involved with the Boy Scouts of America, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the Woodruff Arts Center.

Bill Curry, newly appointed Georgia State University head coach and 1985 ACC Coach of the Year, will co-emcee the lunch with his wife, Carolyn Curry.

Women’s Foundation keeps giving

The Atlanta Women’s Foundation is not scaling back its giving.

The organization is donating $1 million to organizations in the five-county metro Atlanta for the third year in a row.

But to keep up that level of giving, it had to dip into its reserves to cover about a third of grants this year.

“We are experiencing all the same challenges that everyone else is experiencing,” said Barbara Mosacchio, CEO of the foundation, adding that the economic challenges also are impacting women and girls who suffer from poverty, illness and homelessness. “[The needs] were evident to us when our applications came in. We have over $6 million in requests.”

The foundation actually decided to give fewer, larger grants. It gave money to 22 groups with an average gift of about $50,000. The largest gift was to the organization — A Future. Not A Past — which is dedicated to eliminating childhood prostitution and sexual exploitation.

The agency — A Future. Not A Past. — received a $230,000 grant, part of a $1 million dedicated gift from the Andersen Family Foundation, which is being distributed over four years.

Of the grants it made this year, 15 were new and seven were multi-year commitments the foundation made previously.

The foundation also will hold its major fundraiser Nov. 12. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof will be the keynote speaker.

By Maria Saporta and J. Scott Trubey
Friday, July 24, 2009

Delta Air Lines Inc., recently criticized by African-American leaders for its diversity record, has taken a key step.

The Atlanta-based airline has hired Karmetria Dunham Burton as general manager of supplier diversity, a position that has been vacant for more than two months.

While pleased with this move, black leaders are waiting for more evidence from Delta to demonstrate that it is truly committed to diversity within its ranks.

Steve Gorman, chief operating officer of the airline, said in a July 21 telephone interview that this is just the beginning.

“I think we have a lot of momentum,” said Gorman, who also chairs Delta’s Diversity Council. “We view having a diverse supply group as a win-win for the company and a key objective for the company.”

In her new role, Burton will work with small, minority and women-owned businesses to ensure they have an opportunity to provide goods and services to the airline. She will oversee and expand Delta’s supplier diversity program with the hope that the airline will be an industry leader.

Before joining Delta, Burton was senior manager of supplier diversity for InterContinental Hotels Group Plc, manager of supply chain for BellSouth Corp. and a senior buyer for Xerox Group.

“I’m happy to see that Delta has followed through on getting someone to oversee diversity,” said Tommy Dortch, a leader in the African-American business community who is a past chair of the Atlanta Business League and founder of the Georgia Association of Minority Entrepreneurs. “It sounds like she has got great credentials and experience.”

Joe Beasley, human resources director at Antioch Baptist Church North who serves on a committee working with Delta executives on diversity issues, said he still has some concerns.

Because less than 1 percent of Delta’s business is with African-American companies, Beasley said Burton “has a huge job to do” to increase the airline’s relationships with minority vendors.

“Good intentions don’t help us out,” Beasley said. “We need to have empirical numbers that we can measure.”

Both Dortch and Beasley said that it was important for Burton to report directly to Delta’s top executives, particularly CEO Richard Anderson.

But Gorman explained that Burton can be more effective reporting to directors in the supply chain group who report to the vice president of supply chain management.

“They are the leads on the purchasing,” Gorman said, adding that the people making decisions on contracts and suppliers are at the middle-management and vice president level.

Gorman also said that Anderson and Delta’s top executives are committed to improving their diversity profile.

In May, after Atlanta Business Chronicle reported that black leaders were unhappy with the airline’s diversity record, Delta amended its 2009 Flight Plan, the management’s guide to all of its operations, to include a mandate to increase diversity in leadership with specific actions and policies.

“As we increase the diversity pool, we can retain diverse leaders,” Gorman said.

He went on to explain that all salaried employees, from managers to the CEO in their midyear and annual reviews will include an evaluation on how they are improving diversity within their ranks.

Gorman said Delta plans to set specific diversity goals in the near future, but he stopped short of saying the airline would adopt benchmarks or quotas. But he repeated that enhancing diversity at the airline has the backing of the senior leadership.

One example he mentioned is that the top officers of the company, including Anderson, will meet monthly to examine every open position at the director level and above to make sure the interview pool includes qualified candidates with diverse backgrounds.

“I am listening [to concerns within the community] and getting the right people in the company to listen,” Gorman said.

Dortch said he and fellow African-American leaders “will be watching Delta’s progress” to make sure it lives up to the standards expected from Atlanta’s corporate leaders.

Beasley said the community council, which includes civil rights leader the Rev. Joseph Lowery, will continue meeting with Delta’s top executives.

“I hope they will create the kind of atmosphere at Delta that will make Atlanta proud,” Beasley said. “Right now, they’re not making Atlanta proud.”

Dortch, however, said that having a general manager of supplier diversity is a good beginning.

“Supplier diversity is a key area, but we also hope to see significant progress in the diversity among executives, management and the board,” Dortch said. “Many of us stand ready to assist in any way to help Delta reach its maximum success.”
Karmetria Dunham Burton

Current job: General manager of supplier diversity, Delta Air Lines Inc.

Previous jobs: Before joining Delta, Burton was senior manager of supplier diversity for InterContinental Hotels Group Plc, manager of supply chain for BellSouth Corp. and a senior buyer for Xerox Group.

By Maria Saporta

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich is not against health reform.

In fact, he told the Rotary Club of Atlanta today that health reform is necessary.

“What I’m opposed to in any health reform in this economy that will mean a tax increase,” Gingrich said. He then added that the bill that is in the House of Representatives today “will kill jobs.”

Gingrich has been working on healthcare reform for years through his Center for Health Transformation. As Gingrich describes it, the center is advocating for a 21st Century personalized intelligent health system.

He then shared his six-point plan.

1. Stop paying the crooks. He said that $70 billion to $120 billion in medical funding is going from the federal government to people who are not delivering the care.

2. Have an electronic health system that would help eliminate fraud and costly medical errors.

3. Provide tax reform so that small businesses and the self-employed wouldn’t have to pay as much in taxes.

4. Create a health-based system that works on improving the wellness of individuals.

5. Reform the health justice system by to discourage a fear of malpractice claims becoming a reason why physicians don’t provide treatment.

6. Invest in scientific research and breakthroughs. Gingrich said he believes the federal government needs to invest more in cutting-edge research to reduce the occurrence and improve the treatment of various diseases, such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s.

Gingrich reiterated his belief that the solution is not having a health care system that’s run by “big government” and a “big bureaucracy.”

In looking to the nation’s economic future, Gingrich said the prognosis isn’t good. He said that the Federal Reserve Bank estimates that unemployment will continue to be between 8 and 10 percent for the next five years, a fact that hasn’t been widely reported.

“It didn’t fit into the media’s happy talk,” Gingrich said.

Asked about how the economy and health reform legislation would impact plans for the mid-term election in 2010, Gingrich said that campaigns for 2010 began “the day after the election.”

Of course, Gingrich has been widely talked about as a potential Republican presidential candidate. Although he never referred to a presidential campaign directly, Gingrich made it clear he plans to stay engaged on national public policy issues.

How far we have fallen.

Today Georgia finds itself in the weakest political position it has ever been at the national level, at least for the last six decades.

Currently, there is virtually no direct link to the party in power at the White House, the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate. And Georgia is at risk of being left out in the political cold when it comes to power and influence.

Take the battle over the $1.75 billion appropriation for new F-22 fighter jets. Both U.S. senators from Georgia — Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson — had placed the continued funding for the F-22s at the top of their political agenda. But their powers of persuasion failed when even many of their fellow Republicans voted against the stealth fighter that’s partly made in Georgia.

And that’s only one example.

There is no one from Georgia holding a senior level position or playing a major role of political influence in the administration of President Barack Obama on issues that directly impact our state.

Of course, part of that is politics.

Georgia, a decidedly red state, voted for Republican nominee John McCain rather than for Obama in November.

We are in a state with two Republican senators who often are the odd men out in the upper chamber of Congress where Democrats have an overwhelming majority.

Seven of the 13 members from Georgia’s congressional delegation are Republicans, but the U.S. House also is solidly Democratic. Despite being members of the House majority, even Georgia’s six Democratic representatives are low in the political pecking order at the Capitol. Not one of them has a committee chairmanship. And it certainly doesn’t help that two of the six — Jim Marshall (D-Macon) and John Barrow (D-Savannah) — often vote with Republicans rather than with their own party.

And of course, all the top leaders at the state capitol also are Republicans, which means they have few friends in Washington D.C. these days.

Georgia’s position of weakness does not bode well as the state tries to figure out how it’s going to create a three-state (Georgia, Alabama and Florida) solution on water to ensure that metro Atlanta — and the rest of the state — retain the ability to make withdrawals from Lake Lanier in the future. A federal judge has given Georgia until 2012 to find a solution, before turning off the faucet at Lake Lanier.

What a difference for Georgia to find itself on the fringes of political power in Washington D.C. after years of being a major player on the national stage.

From 1914 to 1965, the late Carl Vinson served in the U.S. House of Representatives becoming the ranking Democratic member in the early 1920s. He was the first representative to serve more that 50 years in the House, and he undoubtedly was one of the most powerful men in Washington.

There also was U.S. Senator Richard B. Russell, a former Georgia governor who served in the senate from 1933 until his death in 1971. When he died, he was the most senior member of the U.S. Senate and once held leadership positions on the all-powerful Armed Services Committee and the Appropriations Committee.

Thanks to Vinson and Russell, Georgia became a favorite site for military installations and bases.

Their power was enhanced by powerful Atlanta business leaders — especially Coca-Cola magnate Robert W. Woodruff — who was instrumental in getting the Centers for Disease Control based in Georgia.

In the 1960s, Georgia gained national prominence as the base of the Civil Rights Movement led by Atlantan Martin Luther King Jr.

President John Kennedy, his brother U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and President Lyndon Baines Johnson were in frequent contact with local leaders, such as Gov. Carl Sanders, the late Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen and businessman J.B. Fuqua, who helped Georgia make the difficult transition from a segregated society to an integrated one.

The 1970s saw the emergence of a new generation of national leaders from Georgia. U.S. Senator Sam Nunn (D-Georgia) became a powerful force as chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

And of course, former Gov. Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976 giving Georgians extraordinary influence in Washington D.C. during his four-year term.

In the 1980s, Nunn’s influence continued to strengthen. Atlanta had a mayor with an international profile — former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young. And during the administration of President Ronald Reagan, Georgia elected Republican Mack Mattingly, its first Republican U.S. Senator since Reconstruction, who worked closely with the Republican administration.

Over on the House side, Republican Newt Gingrich got elected in 1978 and saw his political star rise during the 1980s culminating with him becoming Speaker of the House in 1994.

Meanwhile, Georgia Gov. Zell Miller (then a bonafide Democrat) and Sen. Nunn were instrumental in getting Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton elected president. Once again, Georgia was in an enviable position by having a bunch of friends in top-level positions in Washington.

When President Georgia W. Bush took office, once again Georgia had strong ties — including Senators Miller, Chambliss and Isakson. Two other Georgians especially close to the Bush administration were Eric Tanenblatt, a senior managing director of a major law firm; and businessman Fred Cooper.

And, of course, when Gov. Sonny Perdue was elected as the first Republican governor from Georgia in more than 100 years, he found friends in the nation’s capitol.

But since 2006, when Democrats became the majority party in Congress, Georgia’s power has dimmed to darkness.

It has become even more pronounced since Obama was elected president.

If it weren’t for leaders in the urban core of Atlanta, we might as well turn out our national political lights.

Among the metro Atlanta luminaries who have some clout with the new administration are: State Senator David Adelman, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, Representatives John Lewis, David Scott and Hank Johnson as well as political power broker Gene Duffy. Former Sen. Nunn and his cohort Ted Turner also can get their phone calls returned.

And two Atlanta mayoral candidates were early supporters of Obama — City Council President Lisa Borders and State Senator Kasim Reed.

Other people who know people include attorney Keith Mason, Georgia Tech’s Catherine Ross, search consultant Veronica Biggins, DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis and MARTA General Manager Beverly Scott.

But while it’s good to have friends who have friends, Georgia’s political power is a faint shadow of what it once was

That’s an unpleasant position for a state so accustomed to standing in the center of power.

By Guest Columnist MATTHEW HICKS, associate legislative director for the Association County Commissioners of Georgia on economic development and transportation policy.

In 2003, a goal was set by those working on the BeltLine to have transit started on the corridor within ten years. It was a lofty target considering that every day brought obstacles and looming doubts about the overall project’s viability.

Yet every hurdle was overcome and soon problems were welcomed as opportunities to prove the BeltLine could happen. Each challenge only made proponents work harder and more proudly as they made a vision that was bigger than any of them come to life.

Today, it is easy to say that early hard work has paid off. With half the BeltLine right-of-way virtually acquired and negotiations finally beginning with CSX railroad (the remaining owner), the transformative construction of the project can begin.

The last three years produced an ambitious and comprehensive planning effort, marked the start of necessary environmental assessments, taught us the parameters of acceptable public-private partnerships and confirmed the core funding of the project through the tax allocation district. The next challenge is selecting a new leader of the Atlanta BeltLine Inc. (ABI).

ABI was created in 2006 and is the entity charged with planning and implementing the creation of the Beltline. Its first chief executive, Terri Montague, is leaving and the ABI board has engaged an executive search firm to help find a replacement by October. The future chief executive officer has a full plate waiting.

Perhaps the most important duty will be to protect the integrity of ABI, whether it is honoring commitments made to residents along the northeast section or ensuring equitable implementation efforts in the southwest.

In addition, the new leader will have to show tangible results quickly, capitalize on the grass roots energy along the corridors, develop a strong government relations strategy, complete acquisition or sharing of the CSX corridor, make transit happen sooner than later and ensure the organization is functional and efficient.

ABI’s next CEO will have to manage those challenges all while operating in a very tough economic climate that is impacting not just bond sales and the project’s funding but public priorities. The new leader must capitalize on the true strength of the BeltLine to succeed: The people and neighborhoods alongside it.

In its initial days, the power of the BeltLine was the organic nature by which it grew and overcame adversity. Volunteers from all over the city and several in very surprising places came forward and joined forces to confront perceived problems. That unrefined collaboration among Atlanta residents and city officials created a sense of shared ownership and destiny. It also created momentum.

The next CEO must continue that tradition and cultivate the home-grown energy sprouting all along the BeltLine by engaging residents in serious, nontraditional ways that promote co-ownership and collective responsibility. Such ownership by the public can enable greater accomplishments than we can even envision today.

The next head of ABI will also be operating in a novel political setting, with a new Mayor and several new council members. The next administration’s support of ABI will be crucial, as will be the versatility of the CEO to work within whatever new political framework emerges. Only through working together can they marshal the public confidence and resources necessary for the initiative.

Another challenge waiting extends well beyond the corridors of the BeltLine to the state and regional levels where leadership is desperately needed to guide future development.

Few realize that the BeltLine is only another in a series of major redevelopments in the metro Atlanta area such as Atlantic Station, Aerotropolis, Doraville GM site, Fort McPherson, and multiple multimodal stations at the Gulch downtown, airport and Armour Yard.

Because of its magnitude, the BeltLine has the potential to connect all of these redevelopments in some way and serve as an example of what carefully planned and citizen-led redevelopment really looks like. Integration with other regional efforts is also crucial to resolving potential differences between projects and giving this region the layered investment of public transportation it needs, including light-rail in the urban core, MARTA expansions, regional bus lines and commuter rail.

The new head of Atlanta BeltLine Inc. has a tremendous opportunity to shape the future of Atlanta and, in fact, Georgia by positively channeling the united spirit and energy that is propelling the project towards reality. In doing so, the value of a real, multimodal transportation program, along with all of the other fascinating components of the BeltLine and their role in the state’s economic development, can be demonstrated.

Before working for the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, Matthew Hicks was the policy director for former Atlanta City Council President Cathy Woolard whose responsibilities included managing the BeltLine project.

By Maria Saporta
Friday, July 24, 2009

The defining moment in Ralph de la Vega’s life happened when he was 10 years old.

De la Vega and his family witnessed firsthand the Cuban revolution that led to the nationalization of his father’s business and an erosion of their personal freedoms.

They decided to leave Cuba for the U.S. But on the day they were supposed to leave — July 1, 1962 — they found out that there were problems with the paperwork, and only one person could leave Cuba — Ralph, then only 10 years old.

So he flew alone to Miami, where he stayed with a family he barely knew, Ada and Arnaldo Baez, until his parents and sister could leave Cuba and join him.

“We thought it would take a few days,” de la Vega said in a recent interview. “It took four years.”

As he explained, he arrived in Miami without his family, without knowing English and without a penny in his pocket. Somehow, de la Vega was able to overcome all those obstacles and become president and CEO of Atlanta-based AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets.

It is a story de la Vega is now sharing with the world in a book that will be published in September. The book — “Obstacles Welcome: Turn Adversity to Advantage in Business and Life” — is part autobiographical and part a business leadership book.

But the story doesn’t stop there.

As of July 1 (an important date in de la Vega’s life), he is chairman of Junior Achievement Worldwide — an organization that has become his outlet to share hope, life lessons and business skills with young people who may feel overwhelmed by the obstacles in their lives.

In true de la Vega-style, instead of keeping the royalties of his book, they are being donated to Junior Achievement Worldwide.

It’s a coming together of several pivotal elements in de la Vega’s life — an opportunity to outline his professional career from one obstacle to another, turning each one into success. And he traces his attitude back to the day he left his family, his home and his culture for the great unknown.

“Nothing has been tougher than those days,” de la Vega said. “It doesn’t matter what the situation is, you have got to make the best of it.”

De la Vega remembered when he was a mediocre high school student and told the counselor that he wanted to be an engineer or an architect. But the counselor told him he should take the vocational route, quit going to classes and train to become a mechanic.

That counselor just assumed de la Vega wasn’t college-bound.

“He had set a limitation on what I could do,” de la Vega said. “The person who broke me out of that mold was my grandmother.”

His “abuela” — Julia Diaz Gomez — had been a school teacher in Cuba. She told him to stay in school and to work toward his personal goals

Now de la Vega is spreading that same message through Junior Achievement. Despite his busy schedule, he takes time to teach JA classes in schools.

His message? “Dream big. Believe in yourself. The sky is the limit,” de la Vega said. “Many people get pigeon-holed. There are a lot of kids with low self-esteem.”

So he will outline the economics of staying in school, and urge students to not only overcome obstacles, but embrace them. “Inside every obstacle is an opportunity,” de la Vega said.

Incidentally, AT&T has made education its top civic cause, committing $100 million over four years.

In his 35-year career in the telecommunications business, de la Vega has been presented several obstacles — from being responsible for network operations for BellSouth in North Dade County, Fla., during Hurricane Andrew in 1992; to becoming president of BellSouth-Latin America in 2002 when he had to create a common vision for wireless operations in 11 different countries with 11 different approaches; to being chief operating officer for Cingular Wireless during its merger and integration of AT&T Wireless in 2004.

“It was the largest cash merger in the history of the United States,” de la Vega said. Despite predictions that the merged company would lose customers, it managed to add 1.7 million customers in its first quarter in business (the fourth quarter of 2004) and another 5 million the following year.
On the fast track

What makes that story more amazing is that de la Vega only had 19 days to integrate the two companies in order to position itself for 2004 holiday sales.

It’s that kind of track record that has led to de la Vega being named CEO of AT&T Mobility in 2007, and then given the additional responsibility for AT&T’s consumer markets, which includes overseeing AT&T’s 2,200 stores across the country.

AT&T has 24,000 employees in Georgia, and de la Vega is viewed by local economic development leaders as a key link to keep the company’s presence in Atlanta. (When AT&T acquired BellSouth Corp., a commitment was made to keep the wireless business in Atlanta for at least five years.)

“As long as we get treated well in Atlanta and get treated well in Georgia, there’s no reason to leave,” said de la Vega, who added that the nature of business is changing. “To me, the location of the headquarters is more virtual than it’s ever been.”

De la Vega then demonstrated the latest technology AT&T and Cisco Systems Inc. are offering to its corporate customers — TelePresence.

The experience is as close to real face-to-face communications as technologically possible, although people sitting around the table could be in several different cities. The people sitting across the table from you are lifesize, nearly three-dimensional, and facial expressions and body language are in full view.

Instead of having to board a plane on Monday mornings to go to AT&T’s headquarters in Dallas, he can go to a room at his Atlanta offices and conduct a meeting through TelePresence.

And it solidifies de la Vega’s relationship with Atlanta, a relationship that has spanned four decades.

“I have lived in Atlanta five different times — in the late ’70s, the ’80s, I came back in the ’90s, then in 2000 and then in 2007,” said de la Vega, who has moved 13 times in his career. “I love Atlanta. It has everything you want in a city, from education to business to culture.”

By Maria Saporta

After a pow wow on water at the Governor’s Mansion earlier today, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin gave a luncheon speech to the Buckhead Business Association, where she praised Gov. Sonny Perdue for taking a lead on this issue.

The water summit followed last week’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson that most of metro Atlanta does not have the legal right to access water from Lake Lanier. The judge gave the Georgia a three-year window to try to find a solution either with the Congress or with the governments of Alabama and Florida.

That ruling certainly has gotten the governor’s attention.

“He did a very good job in presenting a summary of the ruling, and he challenged us to work together,” Franklin said of Perdue. “It’s not a partisan issues. It’s not an Atlanta issue. It’s a Georgia issue. I really applaud him for his leadership on this issue. Let’s give a cheer and applause to the governor for pulling everybody together.”

The governor had about 130 state, regional and local government and business leaders at the mansion to galvanize aroud this issue.

Perdue is setting up a task force on water that will be chaired by Georgia Power President Mike Garrett.

For Franklin, the ruling was a reminder that decisions made 50 years ago have reprecussions or benefits five decades later.

“The hardest thing that I do is to think out 50 years and work back,” she said.

Metro Atlanta’s water quandry can be traced by to the tenure of the late Atlanta Mayor William Hartsfield.

Franklin, who attended the federal hearing in Jacksonville to learn more about the legal climate of the water dispute, said that 25 minutes of the four-hour hearing were about Hartsfield’s intentions at the time.

“There was a lengthy exchange during the hearing about what Atlanta’s position was as expressed at the time by Mayor Hartsfield,” Franklin said.

At the time, the city of Atlanta could have participated in the formation of Lake Lanier and paid for the rights for using it as a source of drinking water. But the entire metro area was a 10th the size it is today, and it may have been hard to imagine the water needs of a region with 6 million people.

Franklin said city residents must continue to conserve more water and change their practices.

“I personally don’t think you should do any outdoor watering,” Franklin said.

As to finding a longterm solution, Franklin said Georgia was going to have find a compromise and work together with its neighboring states.