Dozens of Metro Atlanta city and county leaders convened on June 26 for the Atlanta Regional Commission’s inaugural Regional Assembly of Public Officials in Cobb County to address key issues facing the area.
The day-long conference featured remarks from Atlanta Mayor and ARC Board Chair Andre Dickens, Executive Director & CEO Anna Roach and keynote speaker former Georgia State Representative Calvin Smyre. Then, participants split off for sessions on housing affordability, climate resilience and freight and logistics.
“None of us work in isolation,” Dickens said. “What happens in one part of the region affects the rest of the region, and our biggest challenges are regional in scope.”
It’s the first time leaders from the ARC’s 11-county and 76-city region have officially come together. Roach knew other regions had similar events, and locally the Association County Commissioners of Georgia and Georgia Municipal Association host their own conferences.
Roach didn’t want to replicate that. Instead, she opted to bring city and county leaders together to assess the region’s big issues. The ARC has several issue areas, though.
“We could have picked from a host of issues to have them talk about and focus on, but you know, these are the ones that are really bubbling up as the issues we have to talk about collectively and invest in collectively for the future of our region,” Roach said. “They are the burning platform right now in metro Atlanta.”
Some are less obvious than others. Roach admitted freight and logistics isn’t the “sexiest” topic facing Metro Atlanta residents, but it’s one that impacts their daily lives. She explained that the onset of COVID-19 in 2020 that forced people to remain home in quarantine “changed the way we consume.”
“We want things delivered directly to us,” Roach said. “Because our behavior has fundamentally changed, we have increased the amount of freight traffic that drives across the region.”
The freight session focused on how to bring heavy-load vehicles onto the road safely while making sure small-car commuters can still use the highways. Meanwhile, the housing affordability session focused on the national housing crisis and how local areas like the City of Atlanta have set goals to build thousands of units.
But other issues like climate resilience coincide with current events. Temperatures have soared across Atlanta this week, causing dangerous situations for those without air conditioning or shelter.
ARC Climate and Resilience Manager Jon Phillipsborn stressed the climate resilience and extreme weather session was planned months ago. It just happened to line up with scorching temperatures and severe thunderstorms.
But the recent memories helped “force them to engage” with the hands-on workshop. Phillipsborn split the elected officials and employees into small groups and handed them each an extreme weather event. Then, the group would decide on the major issues that come from the event — and the domino effect that follows.
One group had extreme heat. Another had floods. They pointed to lack of air conditioning, struggles commuting and other issues that could keep people from working or staying safe. It was exactly what Phillipsborn had hoped for.
“It sparks conversations, it makes you think about it differently,” Phillipsborn said.
He hopes the officials walked away understanding why a region should invest in disaster and weather preparedness through infrastructure and resources like drainage, retention ponds and more.
“As we strive for one great region, that region has to be more resilient to these extreme weather events so that we can fulfill the potential that we know we have,” Phillipsborn said.
As participants milled about the sessions and chatted about their respective communities, Roach said she was impressed by a conference that “exceeded expectations.” She pointed to the “high levels of engagement” from attendees as they participated in workshops and listened to sessions.
Roach was particularly impressed by the response to Smyre’s keynote on public policy, where they pulled from decades of experience in public office to advise the crowd.
“Public policy determines how people live every single day, our families, our quality of life,” Smyre said.
As he spoke, participants scribbled down notes. The room erupted into a standing ovation at the conclusion. Roach said it was “fantastic” to see so many people show out and stay engaged.
“We got about a third of our elected officials across the region; just to get that number at an event we had planned that is the first of its kind is very impressive to me.”
The executive director said future versions of the event will likely be held every other year during the second year of the ARC Chair’s two-year term.
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