At the quarterly meeting of the influential Atlanta Committee for Progress on June 14, business leaders told Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens they stand ready to help the city navigate recent hardships.
The meeting followed two recent major disruptions in the city.
First, there were numerous water main breaks that caused many residents and businesses to lose water for days. Countless others were under boil water advisories for nearly a week.
Then, there were two separate high-profile shootings within hours of each other on June 11. An ex-convict shot multiple people in the Peachtree Center food court, but no one was killed. Shortly afterward, a man hijacked a Gwinnett County transit bus, boarding it on Ivan Allen Boulevard and taking it on a multi-county chase. A passenger was killed during the incident.
In an exclusive interview after the ACP meeting, Dickens said the business leaders “gave their input and were responsive,” expressing a willingness to help the mayor achieve his priorities.
Dickens said the meeting was well attended and included most ACP board members. The mayor spoke about changes in his senior leadership team — LaChandra Burks as interim chief operating officer and Peter Aman as chief strategy officer — introducing them at the ACP meeting. They also were joined by Courtney English, chief policy officers and Odie Donald II, chief of staff.
Much of the meeting, which is closed to the press, centered around the water main breaks and aging infrastructure. The mayor was able to talk about the city’s new Blue-Ribbon panel that will study the issue along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin spent much of her administration fixing sewers, but Dickens said the city had not been able to address freshwater delivery or stormwater needs. The city is reconsidering the possibility of creating a stormwater management utility.
“We’re looking at it again,” Dickens said. “We actually are pretty far down the road on what it would look like and feel like, but of course there’s a cost, so we’re just trying to balance that out right now.”
Earlier this year, city taxpayers overwhelmingly approved extending the one-cent Municipal Option Sales Tax (MOST) for water and sewage projects for another four years.
But the mayor cautioned the tax would end after this cycle unless the state legislature were to pass legislation allowing the city to renew the MOST water and sewer tax beyond 2028.
Carol Tomé, CEO of UPS and 2024 chair of the Atlanta Committee for Progress, said business leaders discussed the city’s water issues.
“Businesses weren’t complaining or anything. Folks offered up their support,” Dickens said. “How can we be helpful?”
Dickens said they also talked about public safety, including the new training center that is under construction. The city showed ACP members recent photos, and he said the city is on track to having a ribbon cutting on the controversial project by the end of the year.
“They are very excited by it,” Dickens said of the training center. The plan is to start operating out of the center in January or February of next year.
When about transit on the BeltLine, Dickens said the city is analyzing various modes before deciding on which way to proceed.
“It is underway,” Dickens said. “It involves looking at modes of transportation, the costs associated with them, the cost of construction, the cost of operation, the benefit to the public. How they look. How they feel. How long the construction will take. This is the type of analysis you have to do.”
Dickens said the goal of BeltLine’s Clyde Higgs is to complete the analysis by the end of the year. Among the issues being looked at include how complicated and disruptive the process will be. Will it mean people won’t have access to the BeltLine while they build it.
“Rail or bus or pods or whatever – how does that look and feel?” the mayor asked rhetorically. “That’s the type of research they’re doing.”
The ACP meeting convened at 8 a.m. at the new Invesco headquarters in Midtown. It was the morning after Mayor Dickens’ birthday party splash, where he stayed till about midnight. The mayor’s actual birthday is June 17, when he turned 50 years old.
“Yeah, party was great,” Dickens said. Then he jokingly added: “I woke up this morning and still made it to this meeting.”
