Recession prompts MARTA to spend on image

By Ariel Hart

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In the midst of long-running financial problems, fare hikes, service cuts and the worst economic downturn in a generation, MARTA is doing some high-level hiring to beef up its image.

Money-starved MARTA may spend up to $592,000 on outside help in lobbying and public relations, according to agency documents and officials. The money would come from MARTA’s operating budget, which is particularly pinched.

The idea is to spend money to make money. The jobs on order would convince the public and elected officials that MARTA is important to the economy and needs more funds.

“I might say if we’d spent a little more to get our message out better than we have in the past and touch more bases, we might not be in the place we are,” said MARTA board chairman Michael Walls. He said that at the end of the last legislative session, where some financial legislation MARTA fought for died, “everybody we talked to ... the consensus we were getting was, ‘You all needed more people down here.’ ”

MARTA already has in-house lobbyists and a public relations staff. But those staffers are swamped just dealing with the agency’s day-to-day workload, MARTA officials said, and the agency needs more people who could do a lot of higher-level strategizing — quickly — and comprehensive lobbying.

On Tuesday, MARTA is planning a conference for lobbyists interested in learning about the job, and bids are due by Sept. 23. That contract would pay an estimated $393,600 to $492,000 over three years.

In a separate job, MARTA has tried to hire a public relations firm to convince the public and elected officials of “the value of MARTA as the transit backbone in the metro Atlanta area and the state,” and the need for more funding, according to MARTA documents. That job is called an “initial phase” not to exceed $100,000, said MARTA spokeswoman Cara Hodgson.

Rep. Jill Chambers (R-Atlanta), who chairs a legislative committee that deals with MARTA issues, said she would only work with MARTA staff or board members, and “this is just to put a step between the committee [that she chairs] and the authority.”

She added that she was disturbed at the spending decision. “If they are so short of operating funds, it concerns me that the board will continuously vote to spend more on issues that are not transportation related,” Chambers said.

Sen. Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) also sits on that committee, and has sponsored some financial legislation MARTA wanted. He said other government agencies have hired outside lobbyists, and while he hoped MARTA would be financially prudent, getting its message across to hundreds of General Assembly members on a major initiative could take a lot of resources.

The public relations contract has already run into its own set of issues, as a large, well-known firm withdrew its proposal following an ethics challenge. The firm, Edelman, alerted MARTA that it employed the daughter of a MARTA board member, Barbara Babbit Kaufman, though the firm said that Kaufman’s daughter would not work on the account. The MARTA board’s ethics committee approved Edelman’s eligibility, in spite of a ruling by MARTA’s board of ethics that found it would conflict with MARTA’s code of ethics. The committee approval was first reported on atlantaunfiltered.com.

Walls said board members had second thoughts, and initiated the discussions that led to Edelman’s withdrawal. He added that it was possible there would be no public relations contract at all, but that was yet to be determined.

MARTA depends partly on a one-cent sales tax levied in Fulton and DeKalb counties, and those revenues have been in dire financial straits with the recession. The agency’s most recent forecast showed that it would receive $10.8 million less in sales tax revenues than expected in the current fiscal year. That’s on top of a $74.3 million expected decline in sales tax revenue that officials already knew about. If that trend continues and MARTA is forced to spend all its reserves, there are all kinds of potential consequences, including having to pay more to borrow money, Moody’s Investor Service said in a bond rating notice Wednesday.

In the meantime, MARTA has implemented service cuts and is about to raise fares from $1.75 to $2.

By The Numbers

MARTA’s latest estimated sales tax shortfall: $85.1 million

Estimated cost of three-year lobbying contract: $393,600 to $492,000

Estimated cost of public relations contract: Up to $100,000

How We Got The Story

MARTA decided that to raise badly needed funds, it needed to hire outside professional help. The agency sent potential lobbyists a document outlining what it was looking for. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained a copy of that and other documents, and interviewed officials involved in the decision.