Atlanta City Council Holds Budget Retreat

From the Atlanta City Council

Atlanta City Council President Ceasar C. Mitchell convened the members of the Atlanta City Council for the Fiscal Year 2015 Budget Retreat on Tuesday, June 3 in the Old Council Chamber at City Hall.

The retreat focused on the Eastside Tax Allocation District, compression, demolition funding for code enforcement, benefits for and concerns regarding senior citizens, and in-house organizational matters.

President Mitchell spoke about his plan to assemble a working group of councilmembers to evaluate the council organization with regards to guidelines and policies on personnel, councilmember expenses, and other operational matters. The group will be comprised of the council president, four councilmembers, and the council director. The working group will be supported by the departments of law, human resources, and finance.

“Efficient operations of the city council is extremely important, as is transparency and accountability,” said Mitchell. “Citizens expect nothing less.”

A key issue discussed during the retreat was the proposal in the fiscal 2015 budget to eliminate the Eastside Tax Allocation District (Eastside TAD). Many councilmembers expressed concerns about the elimination of the TAD. Mitchell disagreed with the proposal to include such a significant policy issue in the budget and spoke strongly in favor of continuing the TAD.

“The Eastside TAD was formed not long before the on-set of the recession and it is only recently that the purpose and power of the TAD has been realized,” Mitchell said. “There is still a great deal of community and economic development to do before considering the elimination of the Eastside TAD.”

There was also ample discussion surrounding tax burdens on seniors, funding for municipal court, People TV, emerging issues with new construction, and other departmental expenditures.

Retreat attendees included the city attorney, the city auditor, the finance director, members of the mayor’s executive team, and various staff members from these departments.

The director of council staff, Tangela Williams, presented an update on guidelines concerning staff expenditures and council office budgeting. Councilmembers had several questions regarding the guiding principle on expense utilization and sought clarity on wording as it relates to policy and application of the code with respect to expenses.

The retreat, which lasted over four hours and included a working lunch, provided an excellent opportunity for councilmembers to examine and scrutinize items in the FY215 Budget. Councilmembers engaged in a very vigorous dialogue and received additional guidance and clarity on their concerns from the finance and law departments.

An important outcome from the retreat was that councilmembers agreed there should be a collective thought coming from the entire council body as they hone in on budget issues and that the budget should reflect council’s passions surrounding the budget.