Atlanta City Council President Doug Shipman carefully selected his 2024 committee assignments, making sure to rotate leadership among various city council members.
Making annual committee assignments is perhaps the greatest power bestowed to city council presidents, and it often provides a roadmap of how the city’s legislative branch will operate in the coming year.
“All the chairs of committees are new except for one — Liliana Bakhtiari, who will continue to chair the Committee on Council,” Shipman said in an interview Tuesday explaining his picks. “Obviously, I have tried to give opportunities to different council members. There’s rotation from year to year.”
The new committee chairs are as follows:
Matt Westmoreland will chair the Zoning Committee, a role he had initially been given for the 2023 year. But Black women council members objected to not having a committee chair assignment last year, so Westmoreland stepped aside, and Marci Collier Overstreet became chair. She will continue to serve on that committee.
Andrea Boone will chair the Public Safety Committee, a role Dustin Hillis had for two years. Hillis will remain on that committee.
Antonio Lewis will chair the City Utilities Committee, succeeding Jason Winston in that role.
This year, Winston will chair the Community Development/Human Services Committee, succeeding Jason Dozier, who will remain on that committee.
Byron Amos will be the new chair of the Transportation Committee, succeeding Amir Farokhi, who will continue to serve on that committee.
Howard Shook has been named chair of the Finance/Executive Committee, succeeding Alex Wan, who was in that role for two years. Shook has chaired the Finance Committee previously under a different administration. Wan will continue to serve on that committee.
“There’s always a balance between continuity and change,” said Shipman, who described it as moving puzzle pieces every year. All the while, Shipman said he was sensitive to achieving racial, gender and geographic diversity among the committee chairs and committee assignments.
“There are two female chairs, and there are four African American chairs,” Shipman said. “Every committee has at least two women, except Utilities. And every committee has at least three African Americans, and some have four.”
Shipman also had to balance the assignments with the preferences of the individual council members.
“I talked to everybody individually before making any decisions, and I talked to everybody after I had made my decisions,” Shipman said.
Four council members will serve on four committees: Boone, Bakhtiari, Farokhi and Westmoreland. All the other council members are serving on three committees.
The committee assignments are particularly important during the administration of Mayor Andre Dickens, who has given city council members more leeway than most previous mayors.
“This council is engaged,” Shipman said. “You have members who are very interested in the issues. And a lot of council members have a collaborative spirit with each other and the mayor’s office. Some initiatives actually originated out of council, such as increased funding for parks.”
Shipman also said the current council is scrutinizing policies and practices more closely.
“The council takes its oversight role seriously,” Shipman said. “We have seen that with MARTA and public safety. We want to make sure we have transparency and openness.”
For the full list of committee assignments, see our earlier coverage.
