In three weeks, the Atlanta City Council’s Public Safety Committee is slated to receive the Justice Policy Board’s Fulton jail study on Nov. 28.
Hundreds of inmates are resting in makeshift beds throughout the floors of the jail’s shared space — picture folks resting on mattresses in between active checker games. The city plans to lease 700 city detention center beds to the county for four years after receiving the jail study.
The lease agreement effectively postponed plans to repurpose the mostly empty building into a center supporting people enduring poverty and mental illness. The city council is torn over this matter.
We hope the study data provides more context on trends within the jail’s bookings, including length of time behind bars and whether folks are detained amid pending misdemeanors or felonies.
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Credit: robert.andres@ajc.com
Credit: robert.andres@ajc.com
Mary Norwood — the two-time mayoral candidate who returned to City Council this year — is funding some of the candidates supporting the Buckhead secession movement.
Norwood gave $2,000 each to candidates Fred Glass, state Sen. Burt Jones, and Sam Lenaeus last month, according to disclosures on Georgia’s ethics website. Lenaeus presides over the Buckhead City Committee and is running for the state representative seat in District 55.
Lieutenant governor candidate Jones introduced a bill this year that would have put a Buckhead referendum on Tuesday’s ballot. State senate candidate Glass also supports a cityhood vote.
Norwood has stayed neutral on the secession topic since taking office. However, she publicly criticized and accused city officials of neglecting Buckhead in September, upsetting the administration.
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Credit: robert.andres@ajc.com
Credit: robert.andres@ajc.com
Here are some measures on the City Council’s agenda that we expect lawmakers to pass Monday: for starters, legislation authorizing Dickens to use $1.48 million from the E-911 budget to improve critical emergency response equipment and systems.
The council will also likely pass an ordinance to rezone land on Howell Mill Road NW, Edgehill Avenue NW, and Eleventh Street NW to develop 775 family units and space for office, commercial, and hotel uses. Likewise, the council will likely let Dickens give Invest Atlanta an opportunity to pay $1 for city-owned land at 184 Forsyth Avenue SW for redevelopment.
We also expect the council to authorize Dickens to apply for a $2 million federal grant to remediate contamination at the Chattahoochee Brick Company Site.
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In case you missed it: Jabari Simama, a former Atlanta councilman and DeKalb chief of staff, wrote an opinion piece for Governing magazine that states Dickens might be Atlanta’s last Black mayor due to gentrification. Simama goes on to explain how Black politicians can maintain their seats in major cities despite declines in the Black population in those municipalities.
Send us tips and feedback at Wilborn.Nobles@ajc.com.
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