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Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed On “Meet The Press” [VIDEO]

Mark Allwood — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 21:00:23 +0000

This past Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the rest of the country got a chance to see why Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed is considered an emerging leader in America.

Mayor Reed was part of a panel that included former White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, Tea Party-backed Illinois Republican Congressman Bobby Schilling, MSNBC Political Analyst Mark Halperin, and New York Times Columnist David Brooks.

Mayor Reed said given the country’s budget deficit and cities strapped for cash, cities like Atlanta need to make tough decisions — like cutting pensions — and make them faster than in the past. He said it’s about doing the right thing and trying to be a model for other cities and governments.

Reed said comunication is key. The mayor said he had a conversation with President Obama more than six weeks ago and was told federal funding and federal support won’t be as plentiful in the years to come. He said it’s now up to the City of Atlanta to adjust to that reality.

Asked about the 2012 presidential election, Mayor Reed said if unemployment reached eight percent by then, President Obama stood a better chance of re-election.

Check out our mayor’s appearance on “Meet the Press” below!

SOURCE

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed on “Meet the Press” – Part 1

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed on “Meet the Press” – Part 2

Kasim Reed: “Make Sure We’re Not A City Too Busy To Love”

Darlene McCoy — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:25:01 +0000

VIA: AJC.com

Kasim Reed took office Monday as Atlanta’s 59th mayor, vowing to help small business owners and young people and provide better customer service for citizens.

“We cannot face our future if we are facing off with each other,” Reed said.

The new mayor added later: “We need to make sure we aren’t a city that isn’t too busy to love.”

Reed, a 40-year-old Atlanta native, was sworn in to office at 1:21 p.m. at the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center with his parents at his side.

The new mayor said during a 25-minute speech that he would immediately work to open all of the city’s recreation centers closed by budget cuts and announced that Turner Broadcasting System pledged to help.

In addition to Reed, Ceasar Mitchell was sworn in as the new City Council president. The 15 district council members were sworn in as were the city’s municipal court judges. Two of the judges, Crystal Gaines and Gary E. Jackson, accidentally fell from their chairs and off the stage toward the close of the ceremonies. City officials said they were not injured.

Monday’s inauguration activities were modest in comparison to the 2002 celebration for Shirley Franklin, the city’s first female mayor. Franklin’s inauguration included a ball. Reed said he didn’t want a ball, sensitive to the economic plight of many of its residents as the Atlanta region slogs through the recession. About one-quarter of Atlanta residents live below the poverty rate, U.S. Census figures show.

Even so, there was pomp at the swearing-in ceremony pleaded for the city’s new leadership to help the less fortunate. They spoke of the city’s many challenges, but as Massell noted, “it was considered the most difficult of times” when he took office in 1970.

Later, several hundred people waited in line at City Hall at an evening reception to meet the new mayor.

“We’re going to get through these times together,” Reed told the crowd.

The new mayor began his day with an interfaith prayer service at Ben Hill United Methodist Church in southwest Atlanta.

Reed won one of the closest elections in the city’s history. The former state lawmaker won a runoff against Mary Norwood by 714 votes out of more than 83,000 ballots cast. In September, one leading pollster showed support for Reed was jus 9 percent.

He campaigned on an ambitious, some said unrealistic, plan of increasing Atlanta’s police force by 750 officers in his first term. Reed, an attorney, vowed to tackle street gangs, violent crime and offer more programs for young people. Reed also said he would reduce the amount of money the city spent on pensions. Atlanta’s pension spending has nearly tripled since 2002, when the city doled out $36.4 million. Reed touched on all of those challenges in his speech.

The new mayor also promised to be tough on panhandling and to increase pay for police officers.

It was apparent that the honeymoon could be short for the new mayor and council. The council met at 4 p.m. Monday and frequent critic Dave Walker called Reed’s recent remarks on panhandling “irresponsible.”

“(Reed) needs to worry about getting these criminals off the streets,” Walker said.

Others said after the swearing-in that they were looking forward to working with Atlanta’s new leadership. DeKalb County Chief Executive Officer Burrell Ellis said he’s talked with Reed and Mitchell about working on longstanding regional problems such as water, transportation, funding for Grady Memorial Hospital and MARTA.

“We’re going to have to collaborate,” Ellis said.

Jesse Jackson said the new mayor is about to enter a period of “glory and agony.”

“There is glory of achievement and ceremony, but agony in a diminished tax base, and the demands of urban and rural reconstruction,” the civil rights leader said. “There has to be a plan to bail out cities.”

Reed challenged the crowd of about 4,000 people at the civic center to help him help the city over the next four years. He also said the city will assist its youth, but “we will demand more of you.”

The mayor said he will reform the city’s permitting department to make it easier to use.

“I will be known as the mayor of the small business person,” he said.

Reed ended his speech by saying he will work to make Atlanta “the city on a hill.”

“Come with me,” he said. “We will win. Our journey has just begun.”

Kasim Reed Sworn In As Atlanta’s 59th Mayor

Denise Dunbar — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:46:14 +0000

VIA: AJC.com

Kasim Reed became Atlanta’s mayor today at a ceremony at The Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center. Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol W. Hunstein conducted the swearing-in at the event that began with a song from the Howard University choir, Reed’s alma mater.

Reed’s first day as mayor began at Ben Hill United Methodist Church in southwest Atlanta with the choir singing the civil right’s anthem, “We Shall Overcome.”

But unlike the maudlin, slow version we have come to know, this one was loud and rollicking. Cheerful and optimistic. Hopeful for at least four good years out of Reed as the city’s next mayor.

“We are here to pray for Kasim Reed,” said Morehouse College President Robert M. Franklin. “And we are here to speak truth to power to remind him that we will hold him and all elected officials accountable.”

The Inaugural Prayer Service kicked off a day’s worth of inauguration activities for Reed as he marks his first official day in office.

After the mid-day swearing-in, Reed will host a Citizens’ Reception  at City Hall at 5:30 p.m. At the reception, citizens will be able to meet Reed and tour the executive suite.

Reed, who was never shy about his faith on the campaign trail, grew up in the church with his mother and three brothers. His voice broke when he talked about his time in the church. When he was baptized. The first time he spoke in public, he said, was in Ben Hill United Methodist Church. Four minutes away from the house he was raised in.

Quoting Scripture, Reed asked if four little boys could succeed in 2010.

“If our children cannot rise to the highest levels of this city, what have we become?” Reed said. “We’ve got to look in the mirror Atlanta. I am going to work today and focus on making sure that mothers and fathers have a job to make sure they can look in their children in the eyes.”

Throughout the campaign, Reed spoke tough on crime and promised to re-open every closed community center in the city.

“I carry the hopes and aspiration for the people in Atlanta in my heart,” Reed said.

At the prayer services, several members of the clergy, representing different faiths, offered a series of prayers for Reed. But there were also specific prayers for the city, communities, families, the city council, and the city council president, among others.

There was also singing at the church Reed grew up in. Minister T. Renee Crutcher strolled through the church’s aisle singing, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” before stopping in front of Reed to serenade the new mayor.

“Kasim Reed has a purpose in his life, upon his life,” said the Rev. Walter Kimbrough. “The purpose of his life is God given and God inspired. It is God’s purpose for K.R. to be our mayor.”

Kimbrough noted that Reed had persistence and lauded him for not quitting the mayor’s race when he trailed desperately in the polls.

“We are God’s provision for him, don’t expect our mayor to be all things for all people at all times,” Kimbrough said. “We have to help him be all things that God will have him to be. He is ready to give us the leadership we need in this time.”

Reed called on the city council, judiciary and the community to work with him to improve the city.

“The challenges Atlanta face are too big for one individual,” Reed said.

Mayor-Elect Kasim Reed Discusses His Vision For Atlanta

Darlene McCoy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:46:18 +0000

VIA: Creative Loafing

Last Wednesday, a few hours after a vote recount had sealed his status as Atlanta’s mayor-elect, Kasim Reed dropped into a local bar. But he wasn’t there to celebrate his victory.

Reed was making a personal appearance at a small fundraiser for an Atlanta police officer who’d suffered spinal injuries in a car crash while on duty. As he mingled with the cops in a private room at Manuel’s, Reed’s cell phone rang, but no number popped up, so he didn’t answer.

Within minutes, Reed was informed by excited aides that he’d accidentally blown off a congratulatory call from President Barack Obama.

“I guess you gotta know that when it says ‘unknown caller,’ it could be the White House,” he says a little sheepishly as he recalls the oversight.

But Atlanta’s next mayor has no time to dwell on lost opportunities. Save for a few more minutes of sleep here and there, Reed’s post-election schedule nearly matches the breakneck pace of his come-from-behind campaign. Since the night of the Dec. 1 runoff, his days have been a blur of community meetings, business breakfasts, press conferences and interviews with the private-sector achievers Reed aims to lure into joining his administration – one he promises will be staffed by the best and brightest.

Some of those conversations have been successful: His choice for the city’s chief operating officer is Peter Aman, managing partner of the Atlanta office of Bain & Co., a global consulting firm that specializes in advising Fortune 500 companies. Others, not so much: After serving for months as a punching bag for the Mary Norwood campaign, Jim Glass, the city’s highly regarded chief financial officer, politely opted to retire rather than accept Reed’s invitation to stay.

By the time you read this story, Reed may have announced his pick for “pension czar,” a top-notch financial wizard who will – fingers crossed – prevent the city from being swallowed in red ink, GM-like. That appointment will be one of many new hires that Reed believes will convince doubters he’s serious about improving the management culture in City Hall.

“I’m going to bring in people who never would’ve considered working for government,” Reed says. “I want to be judged on the quality of my selections and my performance.”

Reed also hasn’t afforded himself the luxury of holding grudges.

Although he and City Council President Lisa Borders were often at odds during mayoral debates, he says he grew to appreciate her intelligence, communication skills and dedication to public service.

“Lisa can have her pick of opportunities within the administration,” he says.

Reed says he also plans to offer Norwood a “high-profile role” in the city, despite their bruising runoff battle that had its share of nasty moments.

Keeping former rivals so close would worry some politicians, because it increases the difficulty of getting away with anything unscrupulous. But Reed says that’s the idea.

“My administration is going to have so much openness and transparency, it’ll be frightening.”

A serious man

These days, Reed is doing a lot of smiling, and it’s not simply because of the election results.

During his 11 years as a state lawmaker, Reed was widely considered to be accessible, fair-minded and forthright, but you’d hardly say he was jolly. Where some politicians win over a room with glad-handing and friendly asides, Reed strives to reach people through the strength of his argument. Even in private conversation, he seldom strays from the formal, deliberate phrasing that’s served him well as a corporate attorney.

Midway through his campaign, Reed’s advisers delivered the bad news: Focus groups found him to be too sober-sided, even angry. To some, he seemed arrogant. In other words, he was the guy nobody wanted to have a beer with.

Reed, who turned 40 in June, realized he needed not simply to project a different image, but to consciously change an aspect of his personality.

“When you’ve done the stuff I do at the pace I do it, it tends to harden you,” he says. “But people don’t give a damn about what you know if they don’t think you care.”

Borders, for one, noticed his subtle transformation.

“In this environment, you need to be able to feel people’s pain, and at first I thought Kasim wasn’t empathetic,” she recalls. “But as we spent more time together on the campaign trail, I saw his warmth. It really kicks in when he’s dealing with young people. He cares about making sure they have the opportunities to reach their potential.”

Reed, as you may have heard, is a bachelor with no children. But this bachelor is careful that no article describes him as “available.”

“If that showed up in print, I’d be in a world of hurt,” he says, referring to his girlfriend of two years whose name he’s scrupulous about keeping private. Still, he opens the door to the possibility that he could get married before the end of his first term.

Addressing an early-morning gathering of downtown business leaders, Reed opens with an admission that’s become a dependable laugh line: “I realize I’m not cuddly.”

But then he quickly gets down to business, hitting the high points in his plans as mayor: He’ll step up enforcement of anti-panhandling ordinances to protect the city’s valuable convention business. He’ll try to win a $300 million federal stimulus grant for the Peachtree Streetcar project in an effort to create local construction jobs. He’ll deal with a crushing pension burden that now claims one of every five dollars of the city’s budget. He’ll lobby his former colleagues in the Legislature to pass a referendum for a regional transportation tax to help save MARTA. And within his first year in office, he’ll fix Atlanta’s much-maligned permitting department – permanently, he adds.

Hearing that last assertion, developer Jerome Russell smiles animatedly from the back of the room.

Reed has one more pledge: that he will make Atlanta a safer city by expanding the police force and hiring a chief who leads by example.

“I’m going to bet my first term on public safety,” he says

Difference in style

One of Reed’s pet sayings is, “At the end of the day, I’m a legislator at heart.” It’s a subtle nod to his skills as a deal-broker, a practiced hand at the art of political compromise. It’s also, he acknowledges, one of the differences between his style and Mayor Shirley Franklin’s more executive-minded approach.

By all accounts, Franklin doesn’t suffer fools gladly. As mayor, she rarely engaged with councilmembers who hadn’t earned her respect and she largely left the task of consensus-building to Borders.

Reed, however, says his administration will be more collaborative. It’s not simply that he needs the support of Council for his initiatives; he genuinely enjoys the horse-trading involved in passing legislation.

Another difference between himself and Franklin, Reed says, is that the outgoing mayor felt too much personal loyalty toward her hires. It’s a weakness that led her to keep a police chief who’d lost the confidence of his cops, a finance chief who blamed her underlings for screwing up the city’s books, and a media-relations officer who despised reporters.

“I’m not afraid to fire people,” Reed promises. “If people do not meet the expectations I set and the citizens of Atlanta deserve, they will be fired.”

And that bar is set high, not because candidate Reed made extravagant campaign promises, but because of the challenges the city faces. Apart from untangling the pension mess, Reed will be forced to deal with the approaching collapse of commercial real-estate values, a slump he predicts will likely cost Atlanta an additional $20 million in tax revenue. He believes much of that money can be recouped by more vigorous collection of fees and fines, from business licenses to parking tickets.

He’s also determined to address an environment in which calling one’s district councilmember is considered the only way for a resident to get anything done. If that means replacing City Hall employees with better trained, more qualified workers, so be it.

“We’re going to radically change the culture of customer service,” Reed says. “Everyone in city government needs to work harder. I know I will.”

Whiz kid

Mohammed Kasim Reed grew up the youngest of four boys in the upper-middle-class Cascade-Utoy neighborhood just outside I-285, a stone’s throw from Atlanta city limits. His father, Junius, now retired, had a long business career, at one time serving as a vice president at H.J. Russell, the politically connected construction firm. His mother, Sylvia, worked at Morris Brown College before taking her current job at the United Negro College Fund, whose president is former Fulton County Commission Chairman Michael Lomax.

Reed’s friends and colleagues have known for years that his life was leading up to an eventual run for Atlanta mayor. As with Borders, that bug bit early, when he was still attending Utoy Springs Elementary School. Assigned a book report, the 11-year-old decided to read about one of his father’s heroes, Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American to serve as a Supreme Court justice.

Although Marshall didn’t engage in marches or sit-ins, he greatly advanced the cause of civil rights in America through his work as legal counsel to the NAACP, Reed learned.

“That book report in sixth grade is what got me seriously interested in public service,” he recalls.

When it came time to choose a college, Howard University, the nation’s pre-eminent historically black college, in Washington, D.C., was a no-brainer – it was Marshall’s alma mater.

At Howard, Reed didn’t simply excel academically. He paid all his college expenses, including tuition, with a jewelry-selling business he’d started in high school. He worked as a Capitol Hill intern for Massachusetts Congressman Joseph Kennedy II. He was elected as the student representative to the school’s board of trustees. And, as a senior in 1991, he proposed adding a small fee to students’ bills to create a fund to be used for financial aid for low-income students and to improve academic programs.

Reed campaigned hard for his initiative, which was approved in a vote of his fellow students. To date, the fund has raised more than $12 million. By the time he graduated, Reed had been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post and Black Enterprise magazine.

It was at Howard that Reed made many of the relationships he now credits with his career success, as well as his slim victory in the mayor’s race. As an undergraduate member on the Howard board of trustees, he first met Andrew Young, who encouraged the 20-year-old political science major to return to Atlanta and go into politics. Other fellow trustees included the late New York Congressman and one-time presidential nominee Jack Kemp; Time-Warner CEO Richard Parsons; ex-Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder, the first black governor in U.S. history; and D.C. super-lawyer and Clinton confidant Vernon Jordan.

In 2002, Reed rejoined the board as a permanent trustee, the youngest in the history of the university.

Among his classmates, he befriended future big names in music and entertainment, including Sean “Diddy” Combs; Ryan Glover, now a consultant with Turner Entertainment in Atlanta; and others who went on to become successful record executives, agents and producers.

After Reed earned his law degree at Howard, he returned to Atlanta, where he was able to draw upon his personal connections to attract high-profile entertainment clients to his eventual employer, Holland & Knight, a national firm that specializes in business and government law.

Those connections came in handy again when Reed was raising money for his mayoral campaign. He shocked his opponents by out-fundraising them, thanks in part to the willingness of West Coast music moguls to write hefty checks to support someone they like.

“These people don’t care where you are in the polls,” he says.

Role model

During this fall’s rough-and-tumble campaign season, Reed’s critics tried to paint him as another Shirley Franklin and, far worse, as the second coming of Bill Campbell.

But Reed will be satisfied if his performance draws comparisons to Andy Young.

During his two terms and the years that followed, Young was renowned for being a friend to business in Atlanta – and not just minority businesses. Reed describes with admiration how Young would help developer John Portman close a major lease deal by visiting with the prospective client, then catch a plane to Singapore to drum up more trade business for the city. The former U.N. ambassador’s coup de grace, of course, was in helping Atlanta win the 1996 Centennial Olympics, a watershed event that is still paying dividends to the city’s business community.

Reed’s approach has already been noticed. After he left last week’s police benefit, retired Deputy Chief Lou Arcangeli was visibly energized.

“I’m thrilled that, with all the things that Kasim must have to do, that he found time to attend our small gathering,” he says, recounting a story from years back about how then-Mayor Young attended a public fundraiser for two officers who’d been shot.

“Andy even climbed into the dunk tank to help us raise money,” Arcangeli says. “Here was the mayor, soaking wet with snot running down his face. As far as cops were concerned, he could do no wrong.”

One of Reed’s first tests in office to win the admiration of police will be to meet his campaign promise of restoring the annual pay raises that Franklin abandoned six years ago. The move will cost the city another $5 million, but Reed believes it’s necessary for repairing morale in the department.

He pledges to meet daily with whoever is selected as the permanent replacement for embattled Chief Richard Pennington, and to be responsive to citizen concerns about public safety. Reed still defends his campaign promise of adding 750 officers over the next four years by pointing to federal grants that can be used to build up the force and the predicted effect of pay raises to stem attrition.

“Crime should be personal to the mayor of Atlanta,” he says. “Once the police tell me what they need to do their job, I’m going to find the resources and expect results. My administration will make this city palpably safer; you’ll never wonder if this person cares.”

Overcoming doubters

Despite all the endorsements candidate Reed collected from fellow politicians, civic leaders and rappers, Mayor Reed will take charge of a city that’s divided in many ways. His margin of victory was a mere 714 votes in a race where the result was determined largely along racial lines.

Reed understands that he’s still viewed with suspicion by the Atlanta business establishment, Buckhead power brokers and the naysayers who view him as the latest product of Maynard Jackson-era machine politics. Anyone who reads comments on blogs and websites already knows that there’s widespread concern, justified or not, that Reed will open the doors of City Hall for cronyism, corruption and, yes, “business as usual.”

“I’m not going to go crazy trying to prove that I’m not Bill Campbell,” he says. “This is a new day for Atlanta. I’m determined that Atlanta will become one of the best fiscally managed cities in the country.”

Longtime Reed-watchers acknowledge that at least part of his agenda as mayor is driven by his political ambitions. While a state legislator, Reed had mentioned possible runs for Congress, the U.S. Senate, perhaps even governor. If he’s got his next office in mind, he certainly isn’t talking about it.

Right now, he says, he’s focused on being a mayor who’s able to unite all parts of the city while addressing the gap between the haves and the have-nots through his plans for Atlanta’s neighborhood rec centers. He plans to use connections in Washington to lobby for federal transportation grants, a resolution of Georgia’s water wars and other big-picture endeavors, but he also says he’ll make sure the streets are clean, “because that’s personal to me.”

“Atlanta will be a well-run city by objective standards,” he promises. “I think a lot of people will be surprised.”

Kasim Reed Prevails In Mayoral Recount, Mary Norwood Concedes

Denise Dunbar — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:30:05 +0000

VIA: AJC.com

Kasim Reed won the Atlanta mayor’s race by 714 votes, a recount of the Dec. 1 runoff results showed Wednesday.

Reed won 42,549 votes while Mary Norwood won 41,835 votes, Fulton County officials said Wednesday.

At 2:30 p.m. Norwood conceded. “Here we are at the end of a very very long two years,” she said. “The recount results are final and now it is time to accept it. “

Norwood requested a recount Tuesday. State law allows a candidate who finished within 1 percent of the winning candidate to request a recount. The initial results showed Norwood finished within 0.84 percent of Reed.

Norwood is scheduled to discuss the results with reporters later Wednesday. Reed officials are scheduled to talk about the results afterward.

Slim Win For Atlanta Mayor Reveals Weakened Black Electorate

Atlanta Mayoral Hopeful Mary Norwood Files Request For Recount

Denise Dunbar — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:26:47 +0000

VIA: AJC.com

It’s official.

Atlanta mayoral hopeful Mary Norwood has filed a request with the Fulton County Registrations and Elections office calling for a recount of the Dec.1 vote that presumably saw Kasim Reed elected mayor.

Norwood lost the election by only 715 votes and under state law, she had until 5 p.m. today to call for a recount.

“She wants to make sure that we follow the process. She wants to make sure her supporters and all of the voters were handled correctly,” said Norwood’s campaign manager Roman Levit.

The recount will begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Levit said Norwood would likely comment about the outcome Wednesday night.

“As soon as she is satisfied that all legitimate votes are counted, she will give the appropriate speech,” Levit said.

Kasim Reed Certified As Winner Of Mayoral Race, Norwood To Seek Recount

Darlene McCoy — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:14:43 +0000

VIA: CNN.com

An elections board certified Kasim Reed on Saturday as the winner of the Atlanta mayoral runoff election by a margin of 620 votes.

Barry Garner, director of Fulton County’s elections board, told CNN on Saturday that former state senator Reed was declared the winner of last Tuesday’s runoff election against City Councilwoman Mary Norwood.

Garner said Reed received 42,348 votes compared with Norwood’s 41,728.

Norwood has until 5 p.m. Tuesday to request a recount, Garner said. He said if a recount is requested, it will begin Wednesday morning.

In the initial vote among eight contenders, Norwood received 45 percent of the votes to Kasim Reed’s 37 percent. Lisa Borders came in a distant third with 14 percent of the vote, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

A candidate needs 50 percent plus one vote to avert a runoff.

Kasim Reed’s Lead Over Mary Norwood Grows

Darlene McCoy — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:48:48 +0000

VIA: AJC.com

Kasim Reed maintained his close lead over Mary Norwood in the Atlanta mayor’s race after a count of provisional ballots by Fulton County officials Thursday evening.

Reed now leads Norwood by 0.84 percent or 715 votes out of the 84,383 ballots cast in the election. The initial Tuesday tally found Reed led Norwood by 0.74 percent of the vote — a slim 620 votes.

Fulton County officials counted 299 ballots Thursday evening. They found 197 people voted for Reed and 102 voted for Norwood, said Barry Garner, the county’s elections supervisor. Of that count, the candidates gained two votes each from DeKalb provisional ballots.

Provisional ballots are given to people whose voter registration status is in dispute.

Norwood campaign officials had hoped Reed’s lead would narrow after counting the provisional ballots, strengthening their case for a recount. Still, Norwood will request a recount Monday after the votes are officially certified Saturday.

“This is why we go through the process,” said Norwood campaign manager Roman Levit. “Mary will be asking for a recount. We will ask for a recount at the earliest time that makes sense.”

Under state law, a candidate who loses by less than 1 percent of the votes cast has the right to request a recount.

Reed campaign manager Tharon Johnson said he was satisfied with the latest count.

“We’re very pleased with the very fair and organized process conducted by Fulton County, and we are delighted Mayor-elect Reed has gained 95 more votes to his lead,” Johnson said. “We are going to continue the transition to unite our city and move our city forward.”

Kasim Reed Claims Victory In Atlanta Mayor’s Race, Norwood Calls For Recount

Denise Dunbar — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:00:35 +0000

VIA: AJC.com

As Kasim Reed began making plans Wednesday for his first term as Atlanta’s mayor, opponent Mary Norwood still had not conceded defeat and said she will seek a recount.

“If I didn’t think there’s a possibility things mights change, that would be different,” said Norwood, who trails Reed by 750 votes. Mark Henderson with the Fulton County Elections Office told the AJC Wednesday all but about 700 provisional ballots had been counted. Those ballots cannot be tabulated until Thursday, the deadline for those voters to provide verification they were eligible.

“I think a recount, when you’re this close is appropriate, absolutely appropriate,” Norwood said during a Wednesday morning press conference at her headquarters.

“We came within a razor thin margin of not being able to say we’re the front runner today.”

Norwood said she has not heard from Kasim Reed, who declared victory shortly after midnight. In an interview on WAGA-TV, Reed said that if he is indeed the mayor-elect he “would like to have Mrs. Norwood involved in an important way if she would like to continue to be involved in municipal government.”

“I think that she has an important voice and I think that it’s vital that we work together to unify the city that we both love,” Reed said.

Norwood said Wednesday she would be open to working with Reed. “Any way I can help this city I would definitely consider it. “.

Reed said his first priority will be finding a new police chief.

“I’m looking for two things,” Reed said in a 6 a.m. interview on WSB-TV. “First of all, I want to find the best chief that we can possibly find in America, but I want a chief with specific expertise in dealing with organized gang activity. I believe that Atlanta has a growing gang problem that we’re not confronting enough in an aggressive enough way.”

Reed said he is also looking for a chief who “enjoys being among the citizens of Atlanta. I want a person that likes being on the ground, someone who is very present, active and involved in our local community … a chief that will be in neighborhoods, that will be at crime scenes directly.”

His campaign platform included hiring 750 police officers in his first term, fixing the pension crisis and providing more after-school activities by opening all of the city’s recreation centers.

The 40-year-old attorney said he would “respect the process” of a recount, though he sounded confident his lead would hold up.

“The fact of the matter is, Fulton County has counted all of the available ballots, including all of the absentee ballots and early vote ballots, and I have more than a 750-vote lead,” he said. “There are about 600 provisional ballots outstanding. If all of those provisional ballots went in favor of Mrs. Norwood, which is not likely, then she still would not have enough votes to become mayor.”

Reed, who was in single digits in the polls just three months ago, greeted an ebullient crowd at the Hyatt Regency Hotel downtown after midnight, announcing the razor-thin election results and adding, “And guess who’s going to be the 59th mayor of Atlanta?”

Reed led Norwood by 758 votes out of a total of more than 83,000 cast – a margin of 0.92 percent. It is a sign of how hotly contested this race was that nearly 11,000 more voters turned out for the runoff than for the general election in November.

“It is my hope tonight that we will unite this city and make Atlanta the city shining on a hill,” Reed told about 300 supporters at the Hyatt. “Tomorrow we have hard work to do to make Atlanta the best city in America.”

Under state law, a candidate who loses by less than 1 percent of the votes cast has the right to request a recount. Norwood has two days to do so after the vote is certified, which is expected on Saturday. As it became clear that she and Reed would nearly tie Tuesday night, Norwood said she would seek a recount if the count remained close and she came in second.

“We are not going to know for hours,” Norwood told supporters at her chosen election-night venue, The Varsity. “This is not something we will know in the next 15 minutes. . . . Tomorrow, we will see how this all turns out.”

Immediately after those remarks, Norwood got into her car and went home.

Reed’s declaration of victory early this morning drew no reaction from the Norwood camp. He announced it from a podium crowded with supporters and family, including council President Lisa Borders, who finished a distant third in the general election and endorsed Reed in the runoff.

The provisional ballots – those cast by voters who did not have proper identification at the polls and who have two days to provide ID to the county to make their votes count — will be certified Thursday. “By law we have 48 hours to certify those votes,” Garner said. “That time is spent researching those voters and verifying that they are eligible to vote.”

Mayor Shirley Franklin To Teach At Spelman College

Rhodell Lewis — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:19:18 +0000

VIA: AJC.com

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin will begin a one-year professorship at Spelman College starting in January, college officials announced Monday.

Franklin will serve as a Cosby Chair, an endowed professorship program started by the comedian and activist Bill Cosby and his wife, Camille. The program supports professorships in humanities, fine arts and social sciences, according to the college.

“We draw on leaders in the community to come to campus for a year and share their expertise,” Spelman spokeswoman Angela Johnson told the AJC. “It’s a way to provide an out-of-the-box education for our students.”

Franklin, 63, was elected Atlanta’s mayor in 2001. She was the city’s first female mayor and the first African-American woman to serve as mayor of a major Southern city.

Franklin earned her bachelor of arts degree in sociology from Howard University and a masters of arts degree in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.