Inside City Hall: Thousands of local leaders flock to Atlanta
Thousands of local elected officials from across the country will make their way to Atlanta this week for the National League of Cities 2023 summit. Three days of back-to-back events will be held at the Omni Atlanta Hotel and Georgia World Congress Center in the heart of downtown.
The mass annual gathering brings together elected officials and staff to talk leadership, policy, local funding and share ideas. The National League of Cities is a powerful, national organization that advocates on behalf of local governments especially at the federal level.
The event will be a great opportunity for Atlanta leaders to rub elbows with their counterparts from other states and team up to press the White House for more support. Not to mention encourage more national businesses to set up shop in the South.
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A sneak peek at construction progress of Atlanta’s planned public safety training center gave residents a look at how work is moving forward despite pushback, protests and a pending court battle. A video posted by the Atlanta Police Department shows work that’s being done on the facility’s various components like the emergency vehicle operation course.
One big thing to note, the narrator says in the report the entire training center — that will be home to both the city’s police and firefighters — is scheduled to be completely done by Dec. 2024.
That’s one year after a court in Atlanta will hear oral arguments in the case that will play a big role in the effort to get the center on the ballot for voters to decide. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has a hearing on Dec. 14 after the city appealed a decision by a federal court judge to allow non-Atlanta residents to help gather petition signatures.
We can’t help but wonder, what happens to the fully-constructed facility if the petition is successful in court and in front of voters? Will the $90-million project be left empty on the plot of land in unincorporated DeKalb county? It’s a big hypothetical but one that can’t be ruled out. Let us know what you think!
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A new commission established by City Council last week will explore the city’s historical role in the legal discrimination of Black residents and make recommendations for appropriate reparations. The passage of legislation to create the commission adds Atlanta to the list of more than two dozen local governments across the country that have done the same — including Fulton County.
“As a result of historic discrimination and often ongoing unequal treatment, African Americans continue to lag behind in economic, educational, social mobility and in critical health outcomes,” the resolution reads.
The mayor and City Council have the power to appoint members of the 14-person committee that will include representatives from Clark Atlanta University, Georgia State University, Morehouse College, Morris Brown College, Spelman College and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority’s Atlanta chapter.
The reparations committee will present quarterly reports to the Community Development/Human Services committee through December 2025.
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Got tips, tricks or just want to say hello? Email me at riley.bunch@ajc.com.
About the Author
Riley Bunch is a reporter on the local government team at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution covering Atlanta City Hall. She covers the mayor and Atlanta City Council while also keeping an eye on the city’s diverse neighborhoods.
