Part of the duties of Atlanta City Council president is to hand out coveted committee assignments that are crucial to setting the legislative agenda. City Council has seven standing committees that meet bi-weekly and make decisions on anything from major transportation projects to the city’s massive budget.
President Doug Shipman kept council members waiting on decisions about who would sit on and chair key committees until last week when he announced his final picks for the new year.
Shipman said committees are important to the legislative process because it’s the first chance for council members to review bills, make changes and even quash legislation from moving forward.
“Legislation that’s introduced has to go through committee, and can be stopped at committee,” he said. “So that’s one important function of membership is who gets, in essence, the first crack at legislation.”
Chairing a committee also means in-depth interactions with different city department heads — like how the head of public safety is often in communication with the city’s police and fire chiefs. Some committee heads are even delegated duties outside of City Hall and sit on powerful planning boards like Invest Atlanta and the Beltline.
During the committee assigning process, the president picks new committees and chairs after lengthy discussions about council members preferences and legislative goals. Last year, Shipman reshuffled his decisions after receiving criticism over not assigning any Black women to oversee committees.
This year, two council members are holding chair positions for the first time: Council member Byron Amos will oversee transportation and Council member Antonio Lewis will run city utilities.
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Amos’ first chairperson assignment to the transportation committee is coming at a crucial time when MARTA is undergoing an extensive spending audit and issues at the airport often dominate council conversations.
“If there’s one thing people talk about when you talk to anyone in the city it’s transportation,” Amos told us when we asked him about his new position.
He sees the three main areas for the committee as street and sidewalk projects, MARTA enhancements and, of course, airport changes. Amos also hopes to open up more conversations about the city’s bus travel industry that creates issues for downtown communities.
With potholes and crumbling sidewalks still a common sight across metro Atlanta, Amos said that he’s set on catching up with paving projects that have been on the docket for years.
“The people need to be able to see what we’re doing,” he said.
You can view all of this year’s committee assignments here.
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Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Stormwater damage devastated many areas of the city in September when thunderstorms swamped streets, engulfed cars and even displaced some Clark Atlanta University students. Many of the worst hit areas were historic neighborhoods where buildings constructed before the 1980s have less stormwater protections.
Although the event was considered a once-every-50 years flash flood, experts say, both the frequency and intensity of storms have steadily increased over the past two decades.
Last week, City Council members called a special meeting to hear what city departments are doing to mitigate stormwater damage from expanding use of retention ponds in parks to maintaining the city’s more than 2,800 miles of stormwater and sewer systems that were built more than a century ago.
City officials said that green infrastructure and increased tree canopy can help mitigate the impacts of climate change, including flash floods.
“That’s what we’re up against, just trying to lessen the impact so you don’t have cars underwater,” said Department of Watershed Management Commissioner Mikita Browning.
The watershed department pitched the idea of establishing a stormwater and utility fee to generate dedicated funds for stormwater and sewer system updates.
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Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
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