Racial divisions came to the surface Wednesday as mayors and county commissioners met to build unity for a transportation initiative.
The panel of officials is trying to choose a transportation project list this summer to submit to voters in the 10-county Atlanta region next year. Voters would weigh a 1 percent sales tax to fund the projects.
After four white men newly hired as consultants introduced the strategy for the referendum’s communications campaign, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said he was “stunned” that there was no woman or nonwhite person among them.
“The four people that presented do not represent the 10-county area at all,” Reed said. “I want to be very clear and go on the record that this is a huge problem. And if they want to go down this road ... then they’re going to lose.”
Advocates echoed Reed’s statement that the issue endangered the referendum.
“I think what you saw was an obvious problem,” said Nathaniel Smith, a founder of the Partnership for Southern Equity, which works for fairness in growth issues. “If they don’t find ways to include various aspects of our region and create a process that includes authentic engagement from the bottom up, this whole referendum is going to crash and burn, and to be frank with you, it deserves to.”
An official with the Metro Atlanta Chamber, Che Watkins, assured Reed that it was only the team’s “top tier” that was all-male and all-white, and that they would be assisted by a more diverse group of people. Watkins is African-American.
The consultants will help the government officials -- called the region's "roundtable" -- but they don't work for them. They were hired by a coalition of civic and business groups that are advocating for the referendum. The chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission, Tad Leithead, said that there were two African-American women on the committee that selected them.
The issue was an echo of the formation of the roundtable’s executive committee, the small group that will get the first cut at writing the project list. A faction on the roundtable first managed a surprise maneuver, electing an all-white executive committee with no members from Atlanta or Fulton County. Only after the intervention of House Speaker David Ralston did Reed join the executive committee.
Henry County Chairwoman B.J. Mathis, the lone woman on the executive committee, said she wasn’t concerned by the consultants’ makeup, and that it was only important to choose the best people for the job.
The 21-member roundtable, which has final approval over the project list this fall, contains three white women, six African-American men, and 12 white men.
Glenn Totten, one of the four consultants, said he and his colleagues would do their work inclusively, and that they had to in order to succeed.
"We don’t pretend to come in with stone tablets and tell people what to do," Totten said. "Our job is to listen to the community, and the community is very diverse."
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