Atlanta's next mayor can’t do 
it alone

By Greg Streib and Katherine Willoughby


For a generation, Atlanta has constantly been looking ahead to a brighter future, but our prospects seem a bit grim now. There had been misplaced hope that Tuesday's election would reveal someone with amazing hidden talents who can set everything right.

Unfortunately, the next Atlanta mayor will not arrive with any magical solutions. We must rebuild this city one employee, one task and one decision at a time.

A newly elected mayor can bring great energy and ideas, but we need innovative management and smart decisions at all levels to provide the proper foundation for progress.

Cities around the country have rallied in the face of difficult challenges before, finding ways to cut costs and generate new initiatives. Atlanta city employees have certainly shown some flexibility and resilience in their efforts to cope with some difficult changes.

Many other cities are also rethinking traditional personnel relationships to remain nimble — collaborating with local colleges and universities, for example, to support internships and fellowships for students to avoid the long-term costs associated with new hires.

Governing well is tough, but cutting-edge governments do exist. Frank Fairbanks served as city manager of Phoenix for decades where he began “Renewing Phoenix,” an effort that brought greater transparency and better analysis to that city’s management.

Phoenix is now better able to assess future needs and identify possibilities for innovation. Working in cooperation with the mayor, the City Council and the community, this effort identified ways to prioritize services and develop more creative service delivery strategies. Atlanta has certainly taken action on these types of issues.

Efforts to improve this city must accelerate, though. The bar keeps getting higher and the challenges are ever greater.

Next steps for us begin with the election of a new mayor. Further transformation will require political support, community connections, business partnerships, citizen engagement and a concerted effort to rebuild from the inside out.

Successful cities are tightly networked with their communities — department by department and even service by service. We cannot pin our hopes on a single individual to solve all our city’s problems.

We need to find ways to reward innovation and foster professionalism. Many cities with a strong mayor form of government (like we have in Atlanta) rely on a chief administrative officer to help organize and implement management improvement efforts.

The Atlanta charter provides for a chief operating officer “to exercise supervision over all activities of city departments and the boards and commissions connected with such departments and be the contact officer between the mayor and such departments, boards, and commissions.”

Does effective management require a chief administrator with more authority? In addition, what sort of person is needed to do this job? Many successful cities recruit from a national pool of experienced local government managers. This is not something that our current charter requires.

Electing a mayor is an exciting event, but the completion of this election just begins a process of change. One dynamic individual with vision is not the answer. Real change will require building a city that functions effectively at all levels. City management must have the power and initiative to make changes throughout the government hierarchy.

We should have high hopes for our new mayor, but we must also press hard for real, meaningful and lasting change that will create a city eager for success.

Greg Streib and Katherine Willoughby are professors in public management and policy at Georgia State University.