Category: David Pendered

Left with no viable “Plan B,” nearly 18 percent of Atlanta’s registered voters turned out Tuesday to pass the extension of the penny sales tax for sewer improvements by an overwhelming margin.

The outcome has implications for the upcoming referendum on a regional 1 percent sales tax for transportation improvements. There is no “Plan B” in that campaign, either.

In the sewer tax campaign, Atlanta voters were told that “Plan B” was for water rates to rise by as much as 30 percent if the 1 percent sales tax were not extended. In the transportation sales tax, voters are being told that there is no “Plan B” to fund mobility improvements if the proposed sales tax is rejected.

Emory Morsberger is still having incredible days, and now they are spent nurturing the Stone Mountain Community Improvement District.

In less than a year, the region’s newest CID has made demonstrable improvements to the quality of life and streetscapes in a teetering area along the Gwinnett/DeKalb county line.

But the vision of this CID goes beyond creating streets that are pretty and secure. It’s about creating jobs.

“Our goal is to create 2,000 jobs in the CID,” Morsberger said. “Our first priority has been to secure it and clean it up, and then we’re going to fill it up. We have 2 million square feet of vacant space in an industrial area that has 10 million square feet. Once we fill it up, we’ll create 2,000 jobs.”

For some odd reason, the folks in North Carolina think they are able to build a deep water port that could rival Charleston or Savannah for the massive vessels expected to sail through the expanded Panama Canal.

The Old North State even issued last week a draft copy of its governor-sponsored study into the possible project: “North Carolina Maritime Strategy.” Public comment sessions continue this week.

This possible port development is barely mentioned in Georgia, where the public discourse is of competition between Charleston and Savannah. Sometimes there’s a nod to a potential ocean port in Jasper County, S.C., which could complement the Savannah port along the shared river.

Yet North Carolina bears watching – the state is a fierce contender that already is a regional leader in areas including scientific research and development, banking and finance, transit and tourism.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has funded the entire campaign for the extension of the 1 percent sales tax to pay for sewer upgrades with a $50,000 loan from his 2010 inaugural committee, according to campaign finance disclosures.

Reed’s inaugural committee has provided the only contributions received by the MOST campaign, according to a disclosure filed Feb. 24 with the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission. Of the loaned sum, the campaign has spent $30,000 on polling and $5,000 on media – all of it with two firms located outside of Georgia.

The Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce is hosting at least three campaign materials on its website in advance of the March 6 referendum. One file is a letter signed by three former mayors (Shirley Franklin, Sam Massell, and Andrew Young) urging readers to support the campaign and contribute to it. Two other files are fact-based documents about the purpose of the MOST and its use in the federally mandated $4 billion sewer upgrade.

The effort to provide more green space in Buckhead received a lift Monday from the Atlanta City Council.

The idea is to establish a linear park in the right-of-way beneath and alongside the actual freeway corridor of Ga. 400, from North Buckhead to near MARTA’s Lindbergh Station. This planned trail is to be linked at some time in the future with other green space that backers hope to assemble with help from a host of public/private partners in Buckhead.

It’s all part of an effort that kicked off in October 2010 to provide more public space in park-starved Buckhead. The Buckhead area has the fewest acres of parkland of the 12 city council districts, according to a recent study.

Challenges continue to mount for the proposed 1 percent sales tax for transportation, which is up for a vote in exactly 24 weeks.

In Congress, a new debate is starting over a transportation funding bill described by its Republican sponsors as the most sweeping reform plan since 1956. It could reduce the amount of federal money available to help pay for projects on metro Atlanta’s $6.14 billion list.

At the state Capitol, pending legislation could delay a sales tax referendum for at least two years. Even then, a sales tax vote could be called only if Georgia voters first agree to amend the state Constitution.

At the grassroots level, the campaign that’s to urge voters in metro Atlanta to approve the sales tax is still taking shape. The original campaign budget of $6 million to $8 million evidently has been revised. A spokeswoman said Monday the team is not ready to reveal its fundraising goal or how much money has been raised.

Georgia in recent weeks has been the site of three significant developments that illustrate the nation’s struggle over energy sources.

A Republican proposal to loosen the market grip of power companies in order to promote renewable energy resources was introduced last week in the General Assembly. Senate Bill 401 bill carries the signatures of party leaders including Sen. Tommie Williams (R-Lyons), who essentially governs the chamber, and Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), the majority leader.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration has granted both approval and financing for a nuclear power plant in Burke County, at Plant Vogtle. On the other side of the coin, a developer of a planned coal-fired power plant in Early County relinquished in December its permits for the plant as part of a settlement of a lawsuit brought by environmentalists over its plant in Texas. The fate of a proposed coal-fired plant near Sandersville appears uncertain after Cobb EMC pulled out of the deal.

This story has been updated to reflect comments from the federal Justice Department.

A proposal to close the Atlanta field office of the U.S. Antitrust Division of the Justice Department has drawn opposition from U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat from Lithonia.

The Atlanta office would close as part of the Justice Department’s effort to save almost $8 million by consolidating the field offices now located in Atlanta, Cleveland, Dallas and Philadelphia. A total of 94 employees would be to existing offices in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Washington.

The department has not said when the consolidations would occur.

The Atlanta office has 26 employees, Johnson wrote. It is located in the Richard B. Russell Building in Downtown Atlanta.

To the CEO of the Panama Canal Authority, there isn’t a question about the need to deepen the Savannah Harbor, or any other east coast port. All of them should be expanded so their regions can benefit from global trade.

The real question is whether the ports of Savannah, Charleston, Miami, New York and Jacksonville will have the highways, railroads and distribution centers to accommodate cargo delivered to and from the new generation of really big ocean-going vessels, according to Alberto Aleman Zubieta, chief of the Panama Canal Authority.

During a question and answer session after his speech Tuesday at the Modex 2012 logistics conference in Atlanta, Zubieta was asked how many trillions of dollars the U.S. needs to invest in its ports, and which ports are the closest to being fully prepared to handle newer ships that carry twice the cargo of older vessels.

A central question related to the proposed deepening of the Savannah Harbor is to be addressed today by the CEO of the authority that oversees the Panama Canal.

The question involves how much additional cargo the Savannah port can expect to handle once much-bigger ships from Asia are able to reach the east coast through the canal.

A corollary question involves the amount of Asian cargo expected to stick with the nation’s two largest ports – Los Angeles and Long Beach. Those ports are hurrying to respond to the direct challenge the canal presents to their import/export business, and to their labor markets and local economies.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, the Atlanta City Council, and a host of Atlanta’s past leaders today celebrated Marvin Arrington, who served 16 years as council president and is retiring as a judge of Fulton County Superior Court.

“Indeed, you have made your mark,” Reed said. “Thank you, judge…. Please, carry this man in your heart, and when you see him around the city, tip your hat and say, ‘Thank you.’ God bless you, judge.”

Councilperson Michael Julian Bond presided over the ceremony. Both Bond and Arrington were 27 years old when they were first elected, at age 27 years.

An Atlanta-based airport concessionaire that was awarded a major contract at Atlanta’s airport is the subject of litigation in Orlando that dates to an airport contract it won there in 2007.

The case illustrates the fierceness of battle that can be waged over government contracts to sell products to airline passengers. The Atlanta contracts are valued at about $3 billion over a lifespan of seven to 10 years. The Orlando case involves a 15-year, $300 million contract.

The situation now before U.S. District Court in Orlando has some interesting twists. The losing vendor, which is seeking to oust the Atlanta company, was founded by a man whom federal authorities charged in 2002 in relation to allegations that he had ties to Middle East terrorist organizations.

Two recent media advisories from the Atlanta Regional Commission are of note, arriving as they do at a critical moment in the campaign for a 1 percent sales tax for transportation.

Taken cumulatively, the advisories sent last week fill the void of two purported campaigns being waged by advocates: One campaign is for public awareness of the July 31 sales tax referendum and the projects it would fund; and one is to encourage voters to support the sales tax. To date, both campaigns have been mostly silent in public.

The first ARC advisory, which pertains to air quality in metro Atlanta, also underscores the import of two recent political appointees – one by President Barrack Obama, one by Gov. Nathan Deal.

Gov. Nathan Deal’s transit task force has recommended making GRTA responsible for all transit operations in the state – except MARTA, according to a report made public Wednesday.

The proposed legislation (available here) is included in the report and is more than 50 pages long. The proposal significantly rewrites Title 50 of the Georgia Code, which creates the structure for GRTA – the Georgia Regional Transporation Authority.

The draft legislation specifically says the authority will not have control over MARTA. But it does say that MARTA may sign an agreement with GRTA and would gain more flexibility over its spending if such an agreement existed.

Atlanta announced today that a contested airport concessions contract already signed by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has been revoked, following the city’s investigation into complaints filed by a losing vendor.

Atlanta’s news statement says that evidence submitted by a losing vendor was accurate, and sufficient to compel the city to halt the contract.

The contract was not among the $3 billion in food and beverage contracts the Atlanta City Council approved on Jan. 3. But the case has been closely watched by the losing food and beverage vendors because of its implications for those contracts.