Sunday, June 28, 2009
Opinion, Politics, Atlanta

A talk with Lisa Borders

Both Borders and Mayor Franklin have had an advantage in city politics: Enjoying positions in City Hall that have given them access to power without providing a paper trail of culpability.

By Stephanie Ramage

I incorrectly reported in my June 21 column, “Culpability,” that Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders voted in support of tax cuts for the fiscal year 2009 budget.

As council president, Borders doesn’t vote. Unless, of course, there’s a tie vote by the city’s 15-member council due to absences or abstentions.

That’s an important distinction. Last year’s property tax rollback, like those every year for six years before it, is blamed in large part for Atlanta’s present morass. As Chief Financial Officer Jim Glass told me earlier this month, Atlanta has a revenue problem.

I took Borders, who is running for mayor, to task for voting in favor of the tax cut. So, on Friday, June 19, when I realized my error, before the paper had even hit the streets, I published a correction on my blog. The headline read, in all caps, “I was wrong.” I called Borders’ campaign, apologized, and scheduled an interview with Borders to set the record straight.

But was I really wrong?

A reader who identifies himself as Bob posted the following comment on my correction: “Borders' unspoken word is just as loud as those who actually voted. If Borders had an opinion other than the unanimous one of her fellow council members, she easily 1) could have made her opinion known prior to the vote-count, 2) could issue a press release and explain her objections, or 3) can make her opinions know on the campaign trail.”

I asked Borders about that at her Walton Street offices on June 22.

“I would tell you for six consecutive years we passed balanced budgets and we held the line on taxes and actually rolled back taxes,” she replied. “I was looking at where there are areas that can be cut in City Hall, because we were all aware that many of the budgets for the different departments were, in fact, bloated and there were significant opportunities to strengthen those budgets by managing them more rigorously and making sure that we didn’t have more money in any place than we needed. There was significant room for cutting in the budget.”

Borders says she wanted to re-amortize the city’s pensions.

“That would have raised about $30 million,” she points out. But that didn’t happen.

Borders blames then-CFO Janice Davis

“I took it to the mayor first, and we both took it to the CFO and she recommended against. I didn’t issue a press release and go public with the fight with the CFO or the mayor,” she says. “The mayor, to her credit, went to investigate, as did I, and we found that we could not get a professional recommendation from the person who was closest to the problem and who had arguably the best credentials to tell us what could work, what should work, and what was our best strategy.”

Now, Borders says she will support the mayor’s proposed three-millage-point tax hike which the City Council is expected to vote on Monday, June 29 (or June 30 if debate drags on).

 “It is irresponsible, in the absence of any other option, not to support this tax increase,” she says.
“Irresponsible” because the city’s foundering budget has meant gutting public safety.

Borders says she suggested a dedicated revenue stream for public safety as one acceptable justification for having a casino in Atlanta. But there’s no documentation of her suggestion and now the casino may be a moot point.

 “We have a significant problem with property crime in the city of Atlanta and we have to fix it. We can’t deny it. And having been the victim of a home invasion—I was already committed—I am absolutely obsessed at this point with making sure we don’t have this problem in Atlanta,” she says. “Any crime is too much crime.”

I remind her of how the city has dangerously delayed or denied workers’ compensation claims for police officers disabled in the line of duty and I ask if she would appoint a board to review workers’ comp outcomes, as has been suggested by the police union.

“I don’t know that I would put a board in place,” she says, adding that she would instead consider the processes and the professionals now involved in the workers compensation cases.

As for the police department’s leadership, she says: “The police chief has already announced his retirement, so that [keeping him] is not an option. I am looking for a chief who will be visible and who will be engaged in what’s going on in Atlanta everyday. I want the police chief to know more than me about what’s going on.”

Both Borders and lame duck Mayor Franklin have had an advantage in city politics: Enjoying positions in City Hall that have given them access to power without providing a paper-trail of culpability. Franklin, as an appointed bureaucrat under former mayors before she herself was elected to that position, couldn’t be held accountable for any votes, but she did shape policy. Borders rarely votes but she has had influence on policy since being elected as council president in 2004. 

As Bob put it, “With mayoral candidate Lisa Borders, in particular, it is important to keep in mind that, remaining silent…significantly alters another person's capacity to make informed decisions." SP