Atlanta Weather

| Traffic

Political Insider

Badges for lobbyists at Atlanta City Hall?

2:00 pm October 2, 2009, by Jim Galloway

One day soon, there could be a new fashion accessory at Atlanta City Hall: lobbyist badges.

Mayoral candidate Kasim Reed proposed the idea at a candidate forum this week as a way to bring more transparency to who’s asking city leaders for support on legislation or city contracts.

“The people of Atlanta can see who they’re lobbying, who they’re representing, what they’re lobbying for,” Reed told a debate crowd. My AJC colleague Eric Stirgus was there.

Lobbyists already wear badges at state Capitol, where Reed served for 11 years as a state representative and senator. Several other candidates say the idea has merit.

All four candidates – City Council President Lisa Borders, City Councilwoman Mary Norwood, Reed and attorney Jesse Spikes – said at a Thursday night forum that they’d tweak Common Cause Georgia’s idea that would bar anyone who has made a campaign contribution greater than $250 from bidding on city contracts for a full year.

Ethics at City Hall have been a big deal. You may remember Atlanta’s last mayor, Bill Campbell, served prison time for a conviction on tax evasion charges.

On Thursday, there were also sharp debate over Borders’ proposal that the city take control of sales tax collection from the state. Norwood and Reed criticized the idea. They questioned how much more money Atlanta would get it if they collected the money themselves and said it will be difficult for the city to administer the program.

Borders stood by her support for the plan, saying the state has a “poor track record” of collecting the money.

“I don’t care if it’s $1 or $1 billion, it is our money,” she said.

For instant updates, follow me on Twitter.

  • Print

19 comments Add your comment

Gold Hat

October 2nd, 2009
2:07 pm

Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ badges!

Chloe

October 2nd, 2009
2:21 pm

Borders knows something about lobbying while City Counsel Pres and ethics complaints.

Sammy

October 2nd, 2009
2:23 pm

I’m sure Lisa Borders is against any kind of restraints on lobbying. How else could she repay Tom Bell and Cousins?

VHighlands

October 2nd, 2009
2:26 pm

@Sammy you make a good point. http://atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0523.html

Silent Majority

October 2nd, 2009
2:28 pm

At least someone is serious about ethics. We’ve got to clean this city up.

Lobbyist Who Knows the Rules

October 2nd, 2009
2:31 pm

I am a registered lobbyist with the State of Georgia. The State Ethics Commission already oversees this type of behavior. I am registered as a State Lobbyist and a Local lobbyist. If you lobby local governments, you are already required by law to wear your State-issued lobbyist badge. Whether I am in DeKalb County or Lowndes County, I wear my badge when I’m lobbying local officials, especially during a public meeting. Anybody who doesn’t do this is already breaking the law.

While I understand Kasim Reed’s ploy to get votes based on maligning special interests, this simply isn’t necessary. The only thing the City of Atlanta needs to do is start asking people to wear their State-issued badges. Running a separate ethics commission to oversee lobbying at Atlanta City Hall is completely unnecessary, and is exactly the kind of thing that wastes tax revenue in the first place.

Matilda

October 2nd, 2009
2:32 pm

How about a big scarlet “L” on each of their chests? Or better yet, on their foreheads.

NewA

October 2nd, 2009
2:36 pm

Kasim is the only candidate who has had to pay fines to the Ethics Committee so this is a surprise to me that he would be behind this.

NewA

October 2nd, 2009
2:42 pm

Oh yeah, and Lisa’s idea for new revenue for the city is brilliant! Even cities in Alabama have the same model and collect handsomely. Another example of the type of thinking I want in my next mayor. Again since Kasim has served in the State Leg. for years I am surprised he did not have the vision that Lisa had.

Lucky Luciano

October 2nd, 2009
2:47 pm

Hey, this proposal by Kasim ain’t a good look for us mobsters. Now we gotta pay off legislatures including Reed evenmore.

RV

October 2nd, 2009
2:49 pm

I’ve come to expect this type of mindless, hollow pandering from Kasim. Grow a backbone, buddy. And how about those ethics fines. Irony anyone?

billy bob from cobb

October 2nd, 2009
3:12 pm

if they had badges could the planet of the apes read them?

Steve

October 2nd, 2009
3:33 pm

Issue them badges with bulls-eyes on them, but you’ve got to give them 3 steps before firing.

newA

October 2nd, 2009
3:45 pm

I think Reed’ idea is a good one. Seeing what happened in New Jersey and Detroit, tighter oversight over municipal lobbying is necessary to mitigate corruption.

Reed is thinking out of the box, which is the starting point for a new direction.

Shin Jasher

October 2nd, 2009
4:09 pm

Anyone who keeps referencing the yellow journalism of Atlanta Progressive News doesn’t have too solid of a grip on what’s real and what’s fake (or what’s just trumped up bull).

Small business owner

October 2nd, 2009
10:45 pm

If Lisa Borders gets her way on the City collecting sales tax we’re leaving the City limit, taking our employees and two-million-dollar revenues with us.
We regret severely the day we allowed an employee to move back to Mobile AL and work remotely – we’ve been screwed on taxes in every town in Ala, even tho’ our employee isn’t there.
It will give them the excuse to audit us regularly, levy more taxes, etc.
It’s nuts we’re paying 8% (whilst everyone else is 7% or even 6%) for a no-accountability school board.
THe City is about as incompetent as they get, and corrupt. We went on an art crawl tonight and I marveled at all the funky architecture, and my husband and i agreed that the only way they got thru Building Code with their building plans (after the hoops we had to shimmey thru week after week) is they paid bribes. Which was the worst kept secret in Atl. amongst all the big builders.
Lisa’s getting all her $$ from outlying counties’ republican axe grinders.
Screw Lisa and her brilliant tax ideas – let her subsidize all those OTP’ers some other way.
The only Mayoral candidate with most of her support $$ coming from INSIDE the CITY is my favorite bubble-headed nitwit Norwood.
I don’t like her, but i despise the rest.

A Political Demographer

October 3rd, 2009
11:02 am

Lisa Borders’ ethics problem Herring claims that Borders used her position as Atlanta City Council president to secretly lobby state legislators on behalf of her then-employer, Cousins Properties. http://www.sundaypaper.com/More/Archives/tabid/98/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/4525/Lisa-Borders-ethics-problem.aspx
… that Borders used her position as Atlanta City Council president as a cover in order to secretly lobby state legislators on behalf of her employer, Cousins Properties. … At the heart of the matter is Borders’ then-position as a senior vice president with Cousins Properties, and Cousins’ support of state legislation aimed at making taxpayers financially responsible for private developments. The measure was nicknamed the “private cities bill.” 
 … In answer to the complaint, Borders and her attorney claimed she was not paid by Cousins to lobby. Borders further stated she wasn’t there on behalf of Cousins: “It was in my capacity as President of the Atlanta City Council performing the official duties of my public office.” 
 Yet, the City of Atlanta took no position on the private cities measure. … There was no reason why the City of Atlanta would have taken a position on it. If it had, the city would have sent its own paid lobbyists; after all, the City employs 14. 
 So was Borders really there in her official capacity as Atlanta City Council president, or was she lobbying on behalf of Cousins Properties? Lobbying can be a hard thing for the unpracticed eye to spot, especially when Borders’ duties at Cousins, according to her own affidavit, seemed to be not much more than those of a lobbyist. Borders told the ethics commission that her duties—for which Cousins paid her a salary of about $195,000—included answering solicitations for charitable contributions, writing some company communications, and “establishing positive relationships with elected and appointed officials in the jurisdictions in which the company does business and coordinating political contributions made by the company.” … do Atlantans want yet another slippery, professional schmoozer in the mayor’s office? Is that really what this city needs? … To view a video of Borders at the Capitol on the day cited by Herring, visit YouTube.com and search for “Lisa Borders: Atlanta City Council President … Lobbyist.”

newA

October 4th, 2009
1:54 am

Borders… Bought and SOLD by Cousins Properties!

Borders watcher

October 4th, 2009
10:43 pm

If Borders thinks she can squeeze more out of businesses in Atlanta, why doesn’t she just propose another tax increase on them instead of creating yet another incompetent city bureaucracy for taxpayers to fund. Either way, taxes go up.

Add your comment