SEE WHAT CANDIDATES SAY ABOUT POTENTIAL CHANGES IN ATLANTA INSIDE….
Channel 2 Action News and WSB Radio partnered with the League of Women Voters to host an open forum for the candidates in the up and coming mayoral election at Emory University. Eleven candidates participated in order to voice their agenda and view of different topics concerning the success of Atlanta; in the process explaining to voters why they would be the best to elect.
Lots of civilians are concerned about Atlanta’s public school systems and want to know what the next mayor plans to do in order to improve; privatization and partnership were two popular topics discussed at the formum this is what the candidates had to say about each:
How will partner with Atlanta schools to make sure they are improved city wide?
Hall said he doesn’t support privatization, and then quips unless Amazon wants to bring a new pilot program here. Hall echoes call for more of the contracting material to be available and searchable online. Hall said there might be a place to privatize some portion of services, but generally opposes.
Mitchell said he’d evaluate privatization on a “case-by-case basis.” He called for a full audit of procurement. Mitchell also is calling for an independent ethics czar. Mitchell said he created a portal for council to put expenses online and he wants the procurement department to have all their contracting done online.
Woolard said: “Everything starts with ethics.” She said she wants a full review of the department and the process to figure out what went wrong. She also wants to look at every aspect of contracting from writing the requests for proposals through the award process. Woolard said she would look at limited privatization but by and large isn’t in favor of it.
Let me focus on ethics first. If the citizens of a government don’t’ trust it to spend money, there’s nothing else we can do. Aman said he had procurements investigated when he saw red flags. Aman said contracts need to be linked to payments and people who own businesses need to be linked to their companies so people know where citizens’ money is going.
Bottoms said privatization of procurement is not in the city’s best interest. She calls for an online contract bidding process and putting contracts online. Bottoms also called for an audit of procurement department. She also wants procurement department employees taxes be placed online along with ethical disclosures.
Eaves said he’s open to privatizing some city services. Given the corruption probe he said there needs to be arms length between politicians and contracting. “I’m certainly open to it. It’s a noble idea,” Eaves said.
Fort for one he does not approve of privatization. “Philosophically I’m not in support of privatization of city services.” Fort said that citizens can hold city officials accountable, and hard to do that through a third party. As it relates to ethical contracting, Fort renewed his calls for an inspector general at City Hall to investigate when needed and refer for prosecution. “What is going on there is not working,” Fort said.
Aman said the city will see up to $14 billion for the next city council and mayor. That’s from MARTA (with federal match), $6 billion from the airport, $300 million for roads and sidewalks. The city needs another infrastructure bond, Aman said. The city also needs new revenue sources for infrastructure, pitching a parking tax to shift some of the burden on commuters entering the city from elsewhere.
Bottoms said the city along can’t handle all the needs. Other states take a portion of a property’s purchase price that goes into a trust fund that buys land for a land bank. She said such a thing should be explored in Atlanta for properties costing more than $1 million.
Eaves said the 8.9 percent local sales tax is too much. People in Atlanta support Fulton County, the city and the city schools. “There’s an opportunity to consolidate our efforts,” Eaves said. Eaves said the city could use existing dollars to address the capital needs of the city.
Fort said the city is “leveraged to the hilt.” But people don’t see the impact of the bonds, the transportation SPLOST… if people don’t perceive that their money isn’t being spent wisely or fairly, they’re not going to buy into future T-SPLOSTs.” He called public trust critical.
Sterling said the city is leverage, echoing Woolard. Sterling said the city has to come up with creative financing. The city passed a local bond referendum, but it is three-quarters of a billion dollars behind. That doesn’t include sidewalks, he said. “We’ve got to find new sources of revenue.”
STREETZ 945 encourages you to get more education on these candidates before its too late and of course go and vote; your voice matters
Keep it locked, and let us know what you think in the comments!
No comments