Councilwoman Felicia Moore said Mayor Kasim Reed is mostly right to say she’s making a “naked power grab” in her request for direct access to the city’s financial records.
“I will say to the mayor, perhaps with my clothes on, I am seeking some power, because information is power,” she said during a rare press conference Wednesday.
Earlier this week, Reed’s administration hand-delivered to Moore and the Atlanta City Council a scathing letter in which he denied her request for direct access to the city’s accounts payable database. According to Reed, such “unilateral access,” in the form of a log-in created for Moore, would pose a “breach of the separation of governmental powers.”
The mayor slammed the 17-year-veteran of the council, one who has earned herself a reputation as his loudest critic, as employing “Washington-style politics” in her repeated public requests for direct access.
Reed said the councilwoman is entitled to public records, but can have them in the same way as other citizens: through an open records request.
For Moore, that isn’t good enough. She said Wednesday that she has received requested information late, incomplete, and sometimes not at all. She notes the mayor, who oversees the city’s departments, has easy access to the council’s financial records, documents and emails, and wants the same in return.
She’s prepared to take her fight to the picket line — and even a courtroom — to see what funds are leaving the city’s coffers, she said.
“I’m putting the public on notice, and I’m also putting the administration on notice that I will not stop until I get the access that I have requested,” she said. “And I won’t stop until ultimately, if it gets to that point, a higher authority, higher than the mayor tells me no.”
Reed and Moore haven’t met to discuss the conflict, she said.
Reed, for his part, thinks that as head of the city’s executive branch, the city’s charter is clear that all executive and administrative powers, such as city operations and management, are within his purview.
What’s more, Reed contends that no councilmember has ever received the level of access she’s requesting, and “we are not going to start now.”
But Moore counters that the city’s finance department reports to both the mayor’s office and council. Furthermore, she said that modern technology and online databases make access and review of public information easier than ever before.
“Now that we’re in the computer age, (a log-in) is no different than me walking up there and rummaging through the files and seeing what I want to see,” she said.
Despite Moore’s argument, Adrian Kwiatkowski, president of the California-based Strong Mayor-Council Institute, thinks Reed’s view is sound under a typical strong-mayor form of government. Kwiatkowski’s organization provides consulting services to local governments.
“The proper forum for her to address her questions about the city’s finances is through the city council as an institution,” Kwiatkowski said. “If she can’t get her colleagues to go along with that, then she has a bigger problem. Because not only is she fighting with the mayor, but not being supported by her councilmembers who should be interested in the finances of the city.”
Post 2 At-Large Councilwoman Mary Norwood spoke at Wednesday’s press conference in support of Moore, saying the District 9 councilwoman isn’t after a “power grab” but about “doing the best job she can for her constituents.”
But save for a few supporting comments from others in recent months, Moore is largely alone in her fight.
District 10 Councilman C.T. Martin, a Reed ally, points out that Moore is the only councilmember asking for a password to the city’s financial database. He thinks the issue is better decided in a court of law, and not the court of public opinion.
“This (squabble) is taking up council time and the people’s time, for an ‘I’ issue. It’s not a ‘we’ issue,” he said.
Kwiatkowski believes if Moore is dissatisfied with the quality of responses to her open records requests, she should seek a remedy through a charter amendment or lodge a complaint with Georgia Attorney General. The courtroom, he said, is also an option.
“There’s no law that prevents (elected officials) from pursuing the court system to remedy their complaint,” he said. “This is the United States. Anyone can sue anyone for anything.”
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