Is Atlanta City Council too big?

By Eric Stirgus

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It takes at least eight votes by the Atlanta City Council to pass a law.

Eight -- as in council members -- are more than enough, says David Payne, an Atlanta native who’s familiar with the ins and outs of city government.

“If you have more than seven members, you can’t make a decision. You can’t move fast enough,” said Payne, 68, who served on a commission last year asked to determine how much money the next mayor, city council and school board should make.

Payne and others believe it takes the council too long to decide some big issues. They'd like to see a charter review commission created to reduce the size of the 15-member council and its $6.9 million budget. It's another contentious, yet critical issue awaiting the next mayor.

City leaders, community activists and homeowners have complained for years about how long it takes things to get done at City Hall.  It took more than four years for the council to set limits on

Veteran Councilwoman Felicia Moore, who leads a committee that oversees council operations, says its size is not the problem. It's the effectiveness of the council members. As for complaints the council is too slow on some important legislation, Moore says those issues "take the time that they take."

Moore, who joined the council in 1998, believes the real issue is that the city does not have clear guidelines defining the powers of the council and the mayor. She believes a charter review commission would help set those boundaries.

All 15 council seats and the council president are up for election on Nov. 3. Six of those seats are uncontested. Others, like District 11 in southwest Atlanta, have nine candidates.

Councilman Howard Shook has told candidates running for the three citywide council seats that he favors abolishing those positions. Shook believes the council could run better if it had 12 or 13 members. The council, he said, could use some of the savings from abolishing some seats to pay for policy analysts that can come up with ideas to make the city run better.

Mayor Shirley Franklin said the city should study other local governments before reducing the size of the council. Cobb and Fulton counties have more residents than the city and have smaller governing bodies, she noted.

"Clearly, the general public can be represented with a smaller body," the mayor said. "Some would say they're better run, but others may not."

Smaller council advocates note the nine-member Atlanta school board has fewer members than the city council.

“Fifteen is still, in my mind, an unwieldy number,” said Georgia State University political science professor Harvey Newman. “It’s just easier to get a consensus (with fewer members).”

Complaints about council bureaucracy are not unique to Atlanta. In Cleveland, Ohio, two prominent businessmen fed up with what they said was a bloated and slow-moving council campaigned to eliminate 10 of that city’s 21 council seats. The council agreed to cut two council seats. The new rules take effect in January.

In 1996, a charter review commission reduced the Atlanta council from 18 to 15 members to cut what some considered the bloated budget of its staff and to make it more efficient. Some African-American leaders unsuccessfully fought the move, believing it was an attempt to reduce the power of black council members.

The city’s 12 district council members represent an average of about 45,000 people and counting, which is less than most of the cities it compares itself to in studies. Atlanta is one of the nation’s fastest-growing big cities, which is part of the reason some say now is not the time to reduce the number of council seats.

Council members make $39,473 annually. The president's salary is $41,000. They meet about four to five times a month to vote or for committee meetings. Most council members have jobs, but many attend neighborhood meetings and get calls late at night about community issues.

Most legislation goes to one of the seven council committees. Some bills get passed within a few weeks. Others can get held up in committee for months or languish there permanently if council members have questions or don't like it.

Franklin, a longtime city administrator, successfully campaigned for mayor in 2001, in part on, improving city operations. The mayor said when she took office the city didn't keep track of how many vehicles it owned, how many potholes are fixed or how many police officers were on the force.

The city now has a Web site called “ATLStat,” which tracks the efficiency of its services. Franklin noted, among other things, that monthly financial reports are now done and the city consolidated has its court system, which reduced staffing from 480 to 132.

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Still, council members say they get flooded with calls and e-mails from citizens about problems like kudzu or rundown sidewalks when they say they can't get answers from the mayor's office.

"The council is the focus (of those calls) because they can come (to our meetings)," said Moore.

If the council had to be decreased, Moore suggests having 12 districts plus a president,  who’d have a vote on all matters. Currently, the council president votes only in the event of a tie, a rarity since there are 15 members.

Still, Moore warns decreasing the number of council members will not result in a perfectly-run City Hall.

“There’s no magic number (of council members) and there’s no magic form of government.”

How much is too much?

Here’s a look at how Atlanta compares to six other cities in the size of their legislative bodies.  The comparison focuses on council members who represent a district, not the entire city.

City        District members    Residents per district member

Charlotte        7                            98,208

Miami            5                            82,640

Kansas City   7                        64,510

Denver        11                           54,428

Atlanta        12                            44,830

Cleveland    21                            20,655

St. Louis        28                            12,656

Source: U.S. Census bureau and cities of Atlanta, Charlotte, Cleveland, Denver, Kansas City, Miami and St. Louis.