Over the last two years, members of the Atlanta City Council have awarded at least 100 proclamations at full council meetings. The process is being changed next month to conform to time restraints. Here is a look at how often each council member does it.
Councilmember 2015 2016 Total
C. T. Martin 15 4 19
Kwanza Hall 10 3 13
Michael Julian Bond 3 10 13
Ceasar Mitchell 7 5 12
Ivory Lee Young Jr. 6 2 8
Cleta Winslow 3 4 7
Felicia A. Moore 2 4 6
Carla Smith 4 1 5
Joyce Sheperd 3 2 5
Keisha Lance Bottoms 2 3 5
Natalyn Mosby Archibong 1 0 1
Alex Wan 1 0 1
Howard Shook 0 1 1
Mary Norwood 0 1 1
Yolanda Adrean 0 0 0
Andre Dickens 0 0 0
Every other Monday Atlanta City Hall is buzzing with church groups, youth teams and, on occasion, a bygone funk star, lining up to be honored for doing something special.
It’s the city council’s proclamation process, where members of the council honor citizens — and score political points — by staging a sometimes two-hour slog of speeches, glad handing and political theater at the start of every council meeting before any piece of actual legislation is read.
In an effort to reign it in a bit, Atlanta City Council President Ceasar Mitchell sent a letter to council members last month, announcing that starting Oct. 3, there will only be three proclamations per meeting with each running no more than 15 minutes. No council member can perform more than two per meeting.
“We are a public body and part of our tradition is to honor individuals and organizations who are doing great work in the city. It is a part of our public engagement process and I respect and embrace that,” Mitchell said. “But what has happened over time is we have had proclamations last longer and longer and longer and it has generated some concern from members of council, as well as the public.”
Mitchell, as well as proponents of the change — including citizens who often sit through the sometimes five-hour meetings — say it is a welcome change that could shrink a two-hour show to 45 minutes.
After a recent long meeting, where four proclamations took up nearly two hours at the start of the meeting, people waiting for other business complained, noting that during many of the ceremonies, most councilmembers are not even in their seats.
“Take consideration of the people you represent, who can’t afford to take two hours out of their day and wait for you to finish the proclamations,” Molly Read Woo said.
However, others think the move to limit the process is heavy-handed by the president and challenges what civic engagement is supposed to represent.
“I am ambivalent about the recommendations,” said Councilman Michael Julian Bond. “I am of the mindset that the public’s business takes as long as it takes. That shouldn’t happen under a clock. It would be sad for the meetings to devolve into sessions where we just pass contracts.”
Two sides of a coin
C.T. Martin, the dean of the council, who has been handing out proclamations for 25 years, said he uses them to uplift the community, “particularly African-Americans who have made valuable contributions. People who paid their dues.”
“But it is getting to where it is out of hand and taking up too much time,” Martin said. “It needs some discipline.”
But at the same time, the proclamation process can also play a key role in securing favor among constituents, especially during election season. At least two of the four councilmembers who have presided over the most proclamations over the last two years are seeking higher office and the other two are thinking about it.
“There is clearly an appetite to want to thank people while they are still around,” said Howard Shook. “But it is occasionally used as a campaign tactic. I am not afraid to say that.”
In a review of all of the council meetings from the beginning of 2015 until Aug. 15, 2016, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found 100 “Proclamations, Commendations and other Special Awards,” that were presented at full council meetings.
Of the 100, Martin accounted for nearly 20 percent, with 19 over the last year and a half.
Bond and Kwanza Hall each had 13, and Mitchell had a dozen.
“You never err when you highlight those who have contributed well to our city. There are many people who have and they are all worth recognizing,” said Bond, who over the past two years has honored figures as diverse as former Clark Atlanta University President Carlton Brown to soul and funk legends Millie Jackson and the S.O.S. Band. “I like to honor people. It certainly is a lot cheaper than changing the name of a street. And a lot less controversial.”
On the other end of the spectrum Mary Norwood, Natalyn Mosby Archibong, Alex Wan and Shook each only had one. Neither Yolanda Adrean nor Andre Dickens had any over that time.
Shook honored Pine Hills resident Ronnie Frostig this past April for finishing marathons in every state and every continent. It was only the second proclamation he has done in council chambers during his 15 years in office, although he has occasionally presented them in his Buckhead district.
“A lot of the proclamations we have now, take an inordinate amount of time to commemorate less than heroic achievement,” Shook said. “It is getting on the nerves of the public.”
When Shook started on council, he said the process was cut and dry. The councilmember would call up the honoree, read the proclamation, give brief remarks, pose for a photo and wrap it up.
“Now they are spectacles where there might be 60 people on stage and 15 of them feel like they need to speak,” Shook said.
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A perfect example of that and the straw that might have broken the camel’s back was the July 5 meeting, which was awash with pink and green.
Later that week, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., one of the largest black sororities, would bring 22,000 members to Atlanta for their annual convention. They would pump millions of dollars into the city, donate $50,000 and perform 23 service projects.
The 1 p.m.-scheduled meeting started at 1:08 p.m., a clever nod to the sorority’s founding in 1908.
Felicia Moore, who is a member of the sorority, read the proclamation that she co-sponsored with Martin. They were followed by the sorority’s international president and then the national secretary, who works for the city.
Then three high-ranking city officials, plus the mayor’s wife Sarah-Elizabeth Reed, all AKAs, spoke.
Cleta Winslow and Keisha Lance Bottoms, both members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, spoke to make that fact known. Sheperd spoke to note that she wasn’t in a sorority.
Councilmen Young and Dickens spoke on behalf of their respective fraternities.
Bond spoke, although he said the women made him speechless.
Norwood thanked the sorority for being one of her first clients in her robocall business of the 1990s.
Some 30 minutes and 15 speakers later, Mitchell closed it out with a speech mentioning his wife is an AKA and then gathered the women — about 60 — for a photograph.
The council then went on with proclamations to honor the Nigerian soccer team, Save a Home Month, The Conservation Fund and Park Pride, and National Caribbean American Heritage Month.
“It is still gonna require some level of self-governance,” Mitchell said.
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