The Atlanta City Council erupted in a war of words Monday after District 9 Councilwoman Felicia Moore introduced legislation proposing limits on outgoing Councilmembers’ Aaron Watson and H. Lamar Willis’s expense accounts.
Moore’s legislation called for the councilmen, who both lost their city-wide seats in this month’s local elections, to maintain 50 percent of the funds allotted to their accounts before leaving office at the end of December.
Watson lost his Post 2 position to former councilmember and mayoral candidate Mary Norwood. Willis, who has long-held the Post 3 position, was unseated by political newcomer Andre Dickens.
The rest of the council balked at the resolution, including Willis, who said he was “insulted” by the paper. Several other councilmembers criticized Moore for the legislation.
Moore, for her part, said the bill was not personal and instead designed to ensure incoming councilmembers have sufficient funds for office operations.
The legislation failed by a 14 to 1 vote.
Each councilperson has broad discretion over how to spend money allotted to his or her office in a fiscal year. Therefore, a councilmember could spend the funds before leaving office and the incoming official could be cash-strapped until the budget is renewed in July. Each councilmember is given $175,000 for staffers’ salaries, $13,000 for postage and $30,000 for expenses.
Atlanta Chief Financial Officer Jim Beard said in the event a councilmember spends the balance of his or her expense account, the council could redirect money from the general fund or reserve to the incoming official until the next fiscal year.
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