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Maria Saporta’s column on LINK trip to Denver
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The recent trip to Denver by metro Atlanta leaders exposed several weaknesses that we face as a region.
On the 12th annual LINK (Leadership, Innovation, Networking, Knowledge) trip, about 110 Atlantans took an in depth look at how Denver has been able to progress in the past decade while metro Atlanta has lagged behind.
A number of the people on the trip reflected on our weaknesses upon their return. Incidentally, the metro Atlanta’s first LINK trip was to Denver in 1997, so this trip gave regional leaders an opportunity to contrast the two cities at two points in time.
What they found in Denver was a region undergoing an aggressive effort to build out a transit system in all directions; a region that has found ways to work together to support the arts, culture, sports facilities and transportation; a metro area with strong and dynamic leaders; and a place that had been confronting some of its toughest problems, such as indigent health care and water shortages, head on.
In every one of those cases, metro Atlanta leaders saw ways that we could improve our environment to become more like Denver.
In fact, the group was so motivated by the end of the trip that they had a lively closing session seeking ways to spark change in Georgia - particularly when it comes to transportation funding.
Sam Olens, chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission (which organizes the LINK trips), was most impressed with Denver’s ability to place local initiatives on the ballot without having to get permission from the state of Colorado.
By comparison, metro Atlanta leaders, working with a host of statewide organizations, tried to get the state legislative approval so regions could go to voters to consider a one-cent sales tax for transportation improvements.
The legislation did not pass. To put it in blunt terms, the state of Georgia wouldn’t even give the Atlanta region the right to ask its voters to pass a sales tax increase to pay for its own improvements.
Like Georgia, the governor of Colorado opposed the passage of a transit sales tax for the Denver region. But unlike Georgia, the Colorado governor could not veto a grassroots initiative with broad-based popular support.
“We have gone from fourth to second in having the worst traffic congestion in the country,” Olens said. “Clearly other communities such as Denver have come together with regional initiatives for self-funding.”
The Denver region also has the ability to go before voters with proposals for a fraction of a sales tax. For example, there’s a one-penny tax on every $10 to support the arts and cultural organizations. And there’s another four cents on every $10 to support building out a transit system that is dominated by light rail lines.
In Georgia, voters are asked to support a 1 percent sales tax, whether it be for transportation, education or water/sewer improvements. There does not seem to be a mechanism to split that one percent among several quality of life initiatives. Any change would require approval from the state legislature.
“What we don’t have is the legal ability to move initiatives forward with the consensus of our region,” Olens said. “This whole idea of letting their citizens vote is really the idea of home rule. The public would have to have a buy-in at the ballot box.”
The issue is sensitive because there’s a strong sentiment that the state of Georgia is not doing its share to help the region. County and city governments are having to come up with new funding to pay for improvements that the state should be supporting.
“We are inadequately funding our infrastructure such as transportation, water and education,” said Olens, who is also chairman of the Cobb Commission. “I support property tax reform, but I also support the state handling essential government services.”
Chick Krautler, the ARC’s executive director, put it this way when comparing Colorado to Georgia. “While their state leaders are not engaged (in the Denver region), they also are not a stumbling block,” he said. “They don’t have to get approval from the state to put a referendum before voters.”
The Denver and Atlanta regions also differ in terms of the level of regional cooperation. LINK participants came away from Denver with the feeling that their region has mastered close relationships between the urban governments.
Several gave credit to the mayor of Denver, John Hickenlooper. When he took office, he worked hard to build relationships with mayors from other cities in the metro area, including Aurora. Historically, the mayors of Denver and Aurora would hardly speak to each other.
Today there is a strong Mayors Caucus in Denver that can galvanize the region to affect change. When the LINK delegation members went to Chicago in 2002, the first year that Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin was in office, they saw a similar mayors caucus that was guided by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. When regional leaders returned home, they created the Metro Atlanta Mayors Association.
Because the Atlanta region is dominated more by county governments than cities (only 35 percent of the region’s population lives in cities, according to Krautler), MAMA hasn’t been as influential as its counterparts in Denver and Chicago.
Krautler also said that Mayor Hickenlooper not only believes that a healthy metro area needs a strong city center, but that a healthy city requires healthy suburbs.
“He’s looking for ways to co-sponsor activities with the suburbs,” Krautler said.
Tony Landers, the ARC director who organizes the LINK trips, put it another way.
“They think about how they can affect positive change in a different way than we do,” Landers said. “They are thinking about consultations and collaborations in a broader way than we do.”
LINK delegations have gone to Denver (1997), Seattle (1998), Dallas (1999), Cleveland (2000), San Diego (2001), Chicago (2002), San Francisco (2003), Boston (2004), Portland (2005), Miami (2006), Vancouver (2007) and back to Denver in 2008.
According to Olens, these trips have helped metro leaders operate better as a region.
“I think we probably have a clearer vision of where we want to go as a region,” said Olens, who said there’s more work to do statewide. “I’m still seeing way too much of this anti-Atlanta attitude across the state.”
And until that attitude changes, the Atlanta region will continue to lag behind.
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Comments from the Denver trip
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Comments from attendees Denver LINK trip - 2008
From John O’Callaghan, President and CEO of Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership
This was my second Link trip (last year also). I was struck by the strong consensus among the Atlanta group around the urgent need for regional transportation funding structures. There was unanimous support for moving forward with a regional funding transportation funding structure which included highways and transit. Denver’s housing programs are designed to sync with their transportation plans. There is an understanding that when homes are near work centers and transit opportunities, the need for additional road capacity is reduced.
Denver and Atlanta continue to borrow best practices from one another. Their airport eerily resembles Hartsfield-Jackson. Coors Field and Turner Field are stadium cousins. I (and most others on the trip) am convinced that Shirley Franklin and John Hickenlooper (in that order!) are America’s top two big-city Mayors.
Mayor Hickenlooper developed the first 10-year plan to end homelessness and outlined multiple successes in their housing first plan which recognized that dollars for jails, emergency health care and the criminal justice system can be saved if housing and critical supportive services are made available to the homeless.
While the City of Atlanta’s recently developed affordable and workforce housing programs (TAD Affordable Housing Requirements, Beltline’s 15% set aside for affordable and workforce housing, Housing Opportunity Fund) match Denver’s, its clear that our suburbs trail Denver’s in developing incentives to ensure that working families across income spectrums can live near local job centers and services.
Atlanta can learn from Denver’s clear best practices in regionalism. Transportation and Arts funding along with Economic Development Activities are coordinated at the regional level. Denver can learn from Atlanta’s rich diversity, and how that diversity is represented in our civic and business leadership.
From Craig Lesser, managing director of McKenna Long & Aldridge
This was an outstanding trip. Great program and of course great participants. While not perfect by any means, the coordinated effort of the local jurisdictions was particularly noticeable, especially as related to transportation and BRAC
From Tim Lowe CEO of Lowe Engineers
What Denver demonstrated was that an engaged business community could provide the leadership needed to make good things happen. Denver is a fairly young city, reminiscent of Atlanta 25 years ago. They do not have major Fortune 500 headquarters, but have many regional headquarters. It is obvious that these ‘regional CEO’s” have a civic pride and have their hometown as the focus.
From Randy Hayes President of Hayes Development Corp.
The Denver trip was one of the better ones. It was better in the sense that the speakers were very good. Especially the doctor who is in charge of Denver’s Public Hospital. She was exceptional. She seemed honest and open about the status of her hospital, and I believe she said it operated in the black.
From H. Jerome Russell President of H.J. Russell & Co.’s New Urban Development
It was the most relevant LINK trip I have attended. Denver had many issues that were similar to the Atlanta region and it left one with a much clearer perspective on how to solve the problem.
From Al Nash Chairman of the Regional Business Coaliton; executive with the Columns Group
This was one of the best Link’s trips ever. I felt like the Atlanta participants really came together, especially at the end. One thing that became evident to me during the trip is that we in Atlanta need to work on trust, as so many times we do not trust the people and the project, which leads to failure. If we are going to succeed as a great city and region, we must work on trust.
From Raymond King SunTrust’s senior vice president of community and government affairs
They have good regional cooperation with strong support from state and Federal government in many of their infrastructure and quality of life initiatives. Its been a stark reminder of the unfortunate results of our recent General Assembly session. We are falling behind rapidly in transportation efforts.
Once again, we came away from the LINK trip with some great examples of the power of working together regionally. As we have so many times before, we saw how a competing region is taking advantage of regional cooperation to solve difficult problems such as the transportation challenge we face here in metro Atlanta. I would hope that all the participants take that to heart and collectively garner the political will to lead regional cooperation here. Our future success depends upon it.
From Demming Bass Vice President if Marketing and Public Policy of Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce
1 - We are very fortunate to have such strong leadership throughout the metro Atlanta region and within ARC. Our goal needs to be to focus that leadership and bring them towards a shared vision. To achieve that, three things have to happen…
First, as the Denver Chamber President pointed out, every community needs to be able to answer this question, “Will my community be willing to give up something/a portion of revenue for the greater good of the region?” The catch is, this must be a two-way street - what would the suburban counties be willing to give up for the greater good of the city of Atlanta and Fulton County? What would the City of Atlanta and Fulton County be willing to give up for the greater good of the suburban counties surrounding it? We must find ways to promote regionalism to every participant and ensure complete buy-in and understanding. With the exception of the regional transportation funding plan and our efforts within Get Georgia Moving as well as the recently formed Innovation Crescent Regional Partnership, I don’t think we are there yet, but we are moving in the right direction and under Chairman Sam Olens’ leadership, it appears the region is working more closely than ever before. There were a couple of examples of this in recent months…during Gwinnett’s efforts to support Get Georgia Moving and the transportation funding bill that failed in the Senate by three votes, Gwinnett’s leadership was even prepared to take the risk of having the T-Splost ballot vote on the same ballot as our local SPLOST this November. Many believed this would jeopardize our local funds, but we knew traffic congestion was such a crisis, not just for us, but for the entire Atlanta region, we were willing to take that chance for the greater good of our peer counties. Get Georgia Moving is an example of our working together by bringing together so many organizations with different agendas but we all agreed to work together with each other and making sure that everyone got something while no one got everything. We need more of that attitude and leadership.
Second, we need to remember the old saying from President Truman, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” This is hard to do for leaders and elected officials, simply because, often times, it’s not in their nature. But I have seen it personally from my days with the Greater Raleigh Chamber in the Research Triangle of North Carolina, where my former boss stressed this thinking daily and sets the standard in promoting regional cooperation. It seems this was also the attitude in Denver.
Third, we need true leadership from the top down. As we heard from the mayor and the superintendent and the community leaders that helped turn visions into reality, many participants commented about what an impact a strong leader makes. Imagine leadership at the highest levels of state government that actually took our transportation crisis seriously…leadership that laid out a clear plan for cutting our commute times, passing meaningful legislation for all Georgians, actually funding that plan and selling that plan to their constituents. But as we saw, bad politics trumped good policy this past session. Thank goodness we have leaders like Rep Vance Smith, Sen. Jeff Mullis, Rep. Donna Sheldon and others that take this issue seriously, which should give us hope.
From Andrew Feiler President of Metro Developers
To me there were two especially significant findings. First, they have a multicounty regional transit board made up of 15 members elected from districts of equal population. This could transform the transportation debate in our region. It gets beyond the county structure, and, since folks would have to campaign for these positions, it would be a massive effort in citizen education and engagement on the issues.
Second, all employees of the City and the health system are on Denver Health’s health plan. This creates a virtuous circle of putting more people into the system who would be demanding of quality care which should in turn drive care quality. Also, Denver Health has been very proactive in creating new service streams which are positive cash flow.
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Atlantans come home with ideas from Denver
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Upon their return from three days understanding how Denver works, metro Atlanta leaders were motivated to change how we do business here.
For starters, the group of about 110 leaders on the annual LINK trip want to make sure the region is permitted to go to voters to ask for a one-cent sales tax increase. At the very least, they want to be sure that the 2009 General Assembly will not stand in the region’s way as they did this past session.
The Denver trip showed the contrast. Although the state of Colorado is not that supportive of the Denver metro area, it does not stand in the way of the region passing local initiatives to pay for improving the city’s quality of life - be it the development of transit or support for the arts and cultural institutions.
In each case, the metro counties in Denver have joined together to pass a sales tax (for transportation, it’s 4 cents on $10 and for the arts, it’s 1 cent on $10). Georgia has never permitted local governments to pass fractions of a sales tax.
Denver also showed metro Atlanta leaders how well regional cooperation can work - especially when the city and the suburbs realize how important they are to each other.
Do you have any thoughts on what the Atlanta region can do to get the state of Georgia to let the metro area have greater control of its own destiny?
More on the LINK trip:
• Read comments from some of those who were on the trip.
• See who went on the trip [PDF]
• The Atlanta Regional Commission also covered the trip.
• Read my whole column reflecting on the LINK trip.
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After 26 years, John Clendenin retires from Equifax’s board; fellow director Jackie Ward reflects on life, career
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
John Clendenin, BellSouth’s retired CEO, has served on Equifax’s board longer than he has on any other board. But, as of today’s annual meeting, Clendenin is stepping down after 26 years on the board of the information services company.
Clendenin, 73, already had agreed to stay on beyond the normal retirement age of 70, and his term was scheduled to retire two years from now.
But Clendenin felt it was time to leave.
“I’m way over the retirement age,” he said after the meeting before running to catch a plane.
When thanking him for his service to Equifax, CEO Rick Smith said Clendenin had mentored his fellow board members and “tolerated five different CEOs and chairmen.”
In three weeks, Clendenin said he will step down from Kroger’s board, where he’s been since 1986. According to the Equifax proxy, he continues to serve on the boards of Home Depot, Acuity Brands and Powerwave Technologies.
Before leaving, Clendenin said he was leaving the company in good hands.
“I think Rick is doing a terrific job,” Clendenin said. “And the company has a top-notched talent pool.”
The company currently is reviewing possible candidates to fill Clendenin’s spot on the board. Incidentally, the company has not had a black director since Louis Sullivan, former president of the Morehouse School of Medicine, stepped down several years ago.
Meanwhile, legendary woman executive Jackie Ward, who has been on Equifax’s board since 1999, told friends that she now has a great-granddaughter as of four weeks ago.
“She’s a real doll, but she’s mean as a snake,” Ward laughed. Asked how it felt to be a great-grandmother, Ward said: “There aren’t any differences except you have a new little life out there.”
Ward, retired CEO of Computer Generation, still spends most of her time traveling on business. She serves on the boards of Bank of America, Flowers Foods Inc., Sanmina-SCI Corp., SYSCO Corp. and WellPoint Inc.
When people ask her if she’s ever going to retire, Ward, 69, will answer: “I don’t know how.”
There’s some other news in her life. Her husband, Lee Davis, 41, became a professional race car driver six months ago. He is part of the KONI circuit and is with the Kinetic team.
Asked if she attends his races, Ward said: “I’ve been to one.”
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Equifax weathering economic storm….so far
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Equifax CEO Rick Smith first painted a bleak economic picture for his shareholders at today’s annual meeting.
And then he delivered a rather rosy outlook for Equifax in 2008, estimating revenue growth to be between 9 percent and 12 percent.
“These are unprecedented times,” Smith said before commending Equifax employees for “a great performance” during a difficult year.
Despite Equifax’s relatively strong financial results, two non-binding shareholder propsals opposed by the company passed with solid majorities.
The first, presented by the American Federation of State, County and Muncipal Empoyees Pension Plan, called for all of Equifax’s directors to be elected on an annual basis. Currently Equifax’s directors serve on staggered three-year terms.
That proposal passed by 66.5 percent of shares cast.
The second shareholder proposal, presented by the United Brotherhood of Carpenters Pension Fund, called for directors to be elected by a majority of votes cast. Currently, Equifax’s directors can be elected by a plurality of votes.
That proposal passed by 61.7 percent of shares cast.
Smith told shareholders that the “board of directors will, in due course, consider whether those two proposals are in the best interest” of the company and its shareholders.
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So the answer to Atlanta’s problems is to raise taxes? At a time when the Atlanta city government has shown itself unable to manage the tax money it already collects? Rather than raise taxes for the projects Ms. Saporta endorses, the city... read the full comment by Left to Right | Comment on Maria Saporta's column on LINK trip to Denver Read Maria Saporta's column on LINK trip to Denver
I’m disappointed with John O’Callaghan’s comments about the trip. He’s correct that we need regional funding sources for transportation. However, to put that money into highways would exacerbate both the traffic and affordable housing... read the full comment by Joeventures | Comment on Atlantans come home with ideas from Denver Read Atlantans come home with ideas from Denver
I went to Denver last summer with my son and was real impressed with the city. The 16th street mall is something Atlanta should have thought about. It is auto free with free bus rides on the street. The city felt safe with a lot of folks out on the streets... read the full comment by Stephen Smith | Comment on Maria Saporta's column on LINK trip to Denver Read Maria Saporta's column on LINK trip to Denver
What kind of a boondoggle is LINK? Tell me they aren’t using taxpayer money for these junkets. They should be visiting Detroit - that’s the future of Atlanta.... read the full comment by BillW | Comment on Maria Saporta's column on LINK trip to Denver Read Maria Saporta's column on LINK trip to Denver