Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category

By Bob Irvin

Last month, the Georgia House of Representatives passed the most significant ethics reform bill in 20 years. It prohibits gifts to legislators from lobbyists (a “zero cap”), but with some significant exceptions — such as travel “in connection with official business.” Unfortunately, that could be interpreted to be almost anything. Now the whole state waits to see what the Senate does.
In the House, my old friend Rep. Rich Golick wondered aloud why Common Cause Georgia is supporting a $100 cap on lobbyist gifts, “which would lead to more lobbyist spending,” instead of the House bill’s zero cap. It’s a question that deserves a serious answer. Here it is.
First, we are simply trying to get the will of the voters implemented. Last summer, more than 1.2 million Georgians (83 percent of all those voting in both the Democratic and Republican primaries) voted for imposing a limit on lobbyist gifts, with Republicans voting specifically for a $100 cap. At …

Continue reading Perfecting a sizable start on ethics reform »

Moderated by Tom Sabulis

Under sequester guidelines, the Federal Aviation Administration plans to eliminate contracted payments for control tower workers at smaller airports — those with under 150,000 operations (takeoffs and landings) per year. That could jeopardize efficiency and safety and reduce business at local facilities. Leaders at Cobb and Fulton county airports talk about the impact on their facilities and on Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Commenting is open below.

Wholesale cuts risk safety, efficiency

By Carter Chapman

The FAA has chosen to close control towers with less than 150,000 total operations and 10,000 commercial (airline) operations to meet its required sequestration budget cuts. The Cobb, Gwinnett and Fulton county airport control towers are scheduled to close April 7. The duration is unknown at this time. These are contract towers manned by unionized contractors rather than FAA employees, providing air traffic control services at a lower …

Continue reading Local airports hit by sequester plans »

Moderated by Rick Badie

One in four Georgia children live in “food-insecure” households. Translation: They often have no clue where their next meal will come from. Georgia’s legal community plans to address that grim statistic. Today, the president of the State Bar of Georgia writes about its campaign to help stock food banks across the state. And a food bank executive outlines the region’s growing need for food assistance.

Children can’t learn without food

By Robin Frazer Clark

If I told you about a place where 17.4 percent of the total population and 28.3 percent of its children are struggling with hunger, you would most likely think I was referring to an impoverished country on the other side of the globe.

Those statistics apply to the state of Georgia, where 640,000 children live in food-insecure households, meaning they have been hungry and without access to food. Nearly 40 percent of those children live in households above 185 percent of the poverty level. …

Continue reading Georgia Legal Food Frenzy »

It is a tragedy and a disservice to children that the public drama and self-serving maneuvering in, on and around the DeKalb County School  District board is focused on the antics of adults and not the district’s nearly 100,000 students.
The emphasis in DeKalb needs to be on the schoolhouse, not the courthouse.
The priority in the state’s third-largest school district needs to immediately return to the tall challenges of offering a better education to the children who fill its classrooms.
That can’t happen with a lame-duck school board that’s flailing about in a legal quicksand entirely of its own making. The remaining hanger-on members should go, voluntarily or otherwise.
Yes, constitutional issues around voting are important and will ultimately be decided by attorneys arguing about imperfect laws. But we cannot continue to fail the innocent children who have the most to lose by continued delays in rectifying the DeKalb district’s problems.
The foremost issue in …

Continue reading Make children the focus »

By Eugene Walker

I am dismayed but not deterred following our setback in federal court  on Monday. I respectfully but wholeheartedly disagree with the judge’s decision, and I plan to continue to seek justice through the court system until this matter with the governor is resolved. This is why:
I was born in Thomaston, a small town in Upson County.  The indignity of segregation and racism was the backdrop of my youth.
I swore that I would stand up for my rights no matter the cost. I have not swayed from this self commitment, and virtually all my adult life has been dedicated to service to my fellow man, with a special dedication to education.
I preface this to explain, again, why I am obligated to engage the governor in the court system. It is morally abhorrent to sit idly by and allow the usurping of the one man-one vote rights that have been bought and paid for with the blood, sweat and tears of my generation.
It is imperative that public servants preserve and protect the …

Continue reading Voting rights at stake in DeKalb »

By R.K. Sehgal

As a naturalized citizen, I came here believing in the superiority of U.S. public schools.  My father believed the United States would equip me with the educational and life skills that I would need to be a success. And it did.
That is why it saddens me to see the current crisis in DeKalb County, which is a glaring example of how low we’ve set the bar for education in Georgia.
When I was Georgia’s commissioner for industry, trade and tourism, and in my prior career leading a global engineering consulting firm, I had the good fortune to meet with business and political leaders across the world. I was proud to be an ambassador for my adopted country and state.
I recall a conversation with the prime minister of Japan. My job was to talk up Georgia’s world-class airport, ports and infrastructure, along with the many other benefits of doing business here. The prime minister sternly explained that Japan would expand its business footprint in places that could …

Continue reading Education makes the difference »

Moderated by Rick Badie

As the U.S. Supreme Court considers a challenge to the 1965 Voting Rights Act, we pose this question: Have Georgia and its sister states in the Deep South outgrown the need for the law, notably Section 5, which requires prior federal approval for any change that affects voting? Two congressmen from Georgia weigh the issue.

Voting Rights Act necessary

By Hank Johnson

The right to vote is the foundation of our democracy. The Supreme Court has upheld the Voting Rights Act four times. The law was recently reauthorized by anoverwhelming votes of 98-0 vote in the Senate and 390-33 in the House.

After listening to nearly 50 witnesses — federal and state officials, Republicans, Democrats, and civil rights leaders — at 12 hearings, compiling a record of more than 12,000 pages, the House concluded the Voting Rights Act and its Section 5 were still essential.

After an equally extensive set of hearings, the Senate documented the need for continued protections …

Continue reading Voting Rights Act »

Moderated by Tom Sabulis

One of our guest opinion columnists has an out-of-the-box idea for a transportation experiment in the city – a maglev line running from MARTA’s Arts Center station to the Atlantic Station area. What do you think?

Commenting is open below.

By Dave Henson

After the failure of the metro Atlanta transportation referendum last year, Gov. Nathan Deal said it “slams the door on further expansion of our rail network any time soon.” Despite this understandable sentiment, I think commuter rail can get back on track.

It’s important to remember that the governor supported the referendum to the end, nobly going down with the rickety ship he inherited. The business community was grateful for his support, but other pro-transit groups undercut him by loudly opposing the plan. I believe a business-backed rail initiative could still pique Deal’s interest.

In addition to benefiting the business community, new rail would have to serve a large number of potential …

Continue reading Maglev test line for Atlanta? »

Some degree of citizen trust in government is essential to a well-functioning free society.
Public officials and their agencies should always behave in a manner which earns and maintains that trust. When that’s not the case, the public good suffers and government eventually becomes hampered in its conduct of essential work.
This widely understood cornerstone of civic knowledge has not penetrated the walls of Fulton County Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand’s offices. As reporting last week by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows, the office’s practices around sales of tax liens raise troubling questions about whether the public’s best interest is being served.
Such concerns about the pursuit of a key governmental function — tax collection — should not be the case, especially in a county already riven with political strife. All of Fulton  deserves better.
The AJC’s reporting shows that Ferdinand’s office has run a brisk business in selling tax liens — in …

Continue reading Changes overdue in Fulton tax lien sales process »

By Arthur Ferdinand

If everyone paid their taxes timely, all would benefit. Unfortunately, about two percent of property owners do not. Lien transfers were a practice in Fulton County before I became tax commissioner.
Prior to 1997, my first year as tax commissioner, the collection rate was less than 89 percent with millage rates rising. At $204 million, the delinquent tax roll was more than the 20 percent of collectibles. That $204 million delinquent amount is on par with Detroit today, a city in decay with a collection rate of about 50 percent, where tax payment is voluntary and services are virtually nonexistent. In 1997, we boosted the collection rate to 96 percent and began an unprecedented run of no millage rate increases in Fulton County. The collection rate is now 99 percent, even during the economic downturn.
The scrutiny our office is under seems to be from critics of our work who have a personal agenda and not a public one. The perennial sponsor of bills to curtail …

Continue reading Everyone’s expected to pay taxes »