ATLANTA

The New Face of

An Interview with the Honorable Shirley Franklin, Mayor, Atlanta

EDITORS’ NOTE After earning a and every year. We have also shows, lead people to commit more seri- B.A. in sociology at Howard frozen any nonessential ser- ous crimes. We are on our way to having a University and an M.A. in soci- vices, like cell-phone privileges major impact on crime, but we have to ology at the University of Penn- for departments that didn’t remain vigilant and aggressive. sylvania, Shirley Franklin need them. We’re sticklers What other quality-of-life im- entered public service in 1978, about the allocation of equip- provements have been made? serving as Atlanta’s commis- ment and other resources. Our Commission on Homelessness sioner of cultural affairs and, How have you brought has developed a blueprint for the reduc- later, as the nation’s first more transparency to At- tion of homelessness over the next 10 female chief administrative lanta’s government? years. We’re looking at the best programs officer/city manager under Today, Atlanta has the for the homeless around the country and Mayors and most stringent ethics and dis- retrofitting those programs to work for . She left city Hon. Shirley Franklin closure requirements of any Atlanta. government to serve as senior government in . I ap- I’ve also proposed to the city council vice president of the Atlanta Committee pointed an outside ethics panel to con- that we double the amount of park space for the Olympic Games. In 1997 she duct a line-by-line review of the city’s in Atlanta. We lose 50 acres of land every formed the management and consulting ethics ordinances. They recommended day to development in metro Atlanta. I’m firm Shirley Clarke Franklin & Associ- some significant changes in the city’s dis- in favor of new development, but we want ates, and in November 2001, she was closure policies, and we adopted them to preserve our green space, which con- elected Atlanta’s first female mayor. within the first six months of my term. tributes to the overall quality of life in the Franklin actively serves on more than 40 Also within that time, the city council city. boards and committees, and is the recipi- formed an independent board, whose How have you addressed issues ent of numerous awards and honors, members are appointed by independent of economic development in Atlanta? including the 1996 and 2002 Woman of legal, business, civic, and educational My administration has implemented the Year Awards from the YWCA and hon- organizations. That panel is empowered two initiatives that will dramatically impact orary doctor of laws degrees from her to review disclosure forms and investigate long-term economic development in alma mater, , and any charges of wrongdoing. These mea- Atlanta. First is the $3-billion upgrade of from Dillard University in New Orleans. sures established the Franklin administra- our water and sewer system, which will be tion and the city council as entities that completed in 2014. We need to serve the How has your administration re- would not cut corners in terms of ethics additional two million people who will stored financial stability to Atlanta? and conflicts of interest. move to Atlanta in the next 20 years, con- When my administration started, the How have you brought crime tinuing our transition from a quiet south- first order of business was to fully assess down so significantly? ern city to a major metropolitan area. the city’s previous annual budgets. We We hired Chief of Police Richard Pen- We’ve also gotten the expansion of worked very closely with Atlanta’s CFO nington, who has more than 30 years of the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Interna- and an outside consulting firm, Bain & law-enforcement experience, and asked tional Airport back on track. There is now Company, to conduct a full-scale assess- him to develop a 100-day plan for prevent- a fifth runway under construction that will ment of the budget over the 10-year ing and fighting crime. That plan called for alleviate some of the delays associated period prior to my term in office. Then we the formation of the Atlanta Police Foun- with air travel into and out of Atlanta. compared the cost of our services against dation, which conducted major research Have you had a productive rela- costs in eight other U.S. cities’ govern- on Atlanta’s crime statistics. This assess- tionship with the private sector? ments, and we concluded that we could ment led to very specific recommenda- I have reached out to business lead- reformat our departments in a number of tions regarding the staffing of the police ers in innumerable ways. They have areas to lower costs and raise efficiency. department and the need for increased donated more than $15 million in cash So I’ve sought out best practices from our compensation and additional training. and in-kind services. As such, we have a sister cities around the country and from We also implemented COBRA [Com- very extensive program related to public- businesses, and incorporated those prac- mand Operations Briefings to Revitalize private partnerships and improving gov- tices into our operations. Atlanta], an accountability system that has ernment. In addition to that, we have We have reorganized or restructured resulted in some astounding decreases in open lines of communication with the pri- every single city department, downsized crime. This year, overall crime is down 11 vate sector. Opening and maintaining personnel where we were clearly over- percent. Finally, we established a fugitive those lines of communication provides staffed, and consolidated services and oper- squad, and have vigorously enforced petty the stimulus to make Atlanta a best-in- ations across the city. We will do that each and quality-of-life crimes, which, research class city.• 64 LEADERS POSTED WITH PERMISSION. COPYRIGHT © LEADERS MAGAZINE, INC. VOLUME 27, NUMBER 3