The race for Atlanta City Council president

If, in the semi-furor over this fall’s City Hall elections, the Atlanta City Council president’s race seems something of an afterthought, there’s a reason for that.

The mayor has the job of running city operations — overseeing public safety, trash pickup, building permits and all the many, more mundane functions a municipality performs — while your district Council person is who you call when city workers begin jack-hammering outside your bedroom window at 7 a.m.

But the president’s job is nebulous. You know his name — or, in recent years, her name — and, if you’re among the handful of insomniacs who watch the city’s public-access TV channel, you’ve seen her preside over Council meetings. Still, the broader duties of the president’s job remain, for most people, a mystery. And if you don’t know what the Council president does, how can you know whom to vote for?

In years past, successful candidates for president were battle-hardened Council veterans, such as Marvin Arrington and Robb Pitts, who provided much-needed pushback against mayoral overreaching, a la Bill Campbell. But Cathy Woolard began breaking that mold by getting along famously with Shirley Franklin, and Lisa Borders finished the job by winning the post with no Council background.

Now, with Borders running for mayor, Atlanta will elect a new Council president. And, although the two leading candidates both currently serve on Council, they’ll be tasked with reminding voters who they are, explaining why they’re right for the job — and defining what the job is.

“While little is written about the job, it’s about providing leadership on how legislation is enacted,” says Clair Muller, who has spent nearly 20 years on Council.

And there’s the rub: Most of the president’s activities take place behind the scenes and involve horse-trading, consensus-building and ego-soothing interactions with the various Council members and, on rare occasions, acting as a go-between with the Council and mayor. The only other legally defined duty of the president is to assign Council members to committees and name the chairpersons of those committees.

While the president doesn’t submit legislation under her own name, she can introduce policy initiatives. The best-known example of recent years was Woolard’s forceful advocacy for the Beltline, a proposed $2.8 billion redevelopment and transit project, shortly before she left office.

Councilman Ceasar Mitchell, the other major candidate for the president’s seat, says he’ll come equipped with a number of initiatives he’d like to undertake, including additional reforms to the city’s financial practices. He’d push to reopen Fire Station No. 7, the West End station Franklin ordered closed last year as an alternative to costly renovations. And, Mitchell says, he’d like to revisit the Council’s 2003 decision to roll back drinking hours at Atlanta bars from 4 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. — or at least allow bar owners the option of paying a higher fee for the privilege of staying open later.

“It seems to me that we may be missing an opportunity to expand the city’s economy,” explains Mitchell, who’s one of Council’s three at-large reps.

As for Muller, her presidential initiatives would likely revolve around issues of transportation and infrastructure. She began her civic career two decades ago as an activist in Buckhead, fighting the Georgia 400 extension between I-85 and I-285 as the president of a large neighborhood association, and has always been involved with transportation policy — as a Maynard Jackson appointee to an early MARTA study committee, as a 14-year member of the Atlanta Regional Commission, and as chairperson of the Council’s transportation committee.

Since first winning her seat in 1989, Muller has served on every Council committee and has chaired one or another for 17 of her nearly 20 years in office. It was as the long-standing chairperson of the Council’s utility committee in 2002 that Muller was able to help persuade Franklin to undertake her ambitious sewer rehab program and take on the mantle of “sewer mayor.” Muller is also the primary architect of the city’s recycling and yard waste programs.

If elected president, she says, she’d push for opening up a civic discussion of the proposed Peachtree Road streetcar, as well as other transit options.

Mitchell was part of the large Council class of 2002, coming into office at the same time as Franklin. Since then, he’s chaired both the Council’s public safety and economic development committees and served as acting Council president in 2004 after Woolard resigned to run for Congress.

He’s been active in civic affairs, having served as board chairman for Hands On Atlanta, and, as a senior partner with the law firm of Epstein, Becker & Green, as president of the Gate City Bar Association.
Mitchell says he’s prepared to provide leadership on the Council and intends to work toward making Atlanta a “clean, green, safe and thriving” city.

Both candidates acknowledge the criticism that’s sometimes aimed their way. Muller is painted as a stolid technocrat, well-versed in details about sewer treatment processes and traffic light synchronization, but a dry communicator who lacks the ability to sell policy to the public. Mitchell is portrayed as plodding, taking longer than most to make up his mind over controversial issues.

For her part, Muller points out that the nature of the president’s job is well matched to her talents as a mediator and policy wonk who has managed to maintain good relationships with her fellow Council members.

Mitchell, on the other hand, likes to think of himself as “quiet yet steady,” someone who takes a little extra time to consider all the facts. But, he says, he hasn’t been shy about taking stands, such as asking the mayor to deliver the Council a written argument justifying the stated need for the recent tax increase.

Mitchell provided what most Council members considered the swing vote to pass the 3-mill property tax hike; Muller, as she always has with tax issues, voted against the measure. While the “no” vote on higher taxes plays well in Buckhead, it’s uncertain which of those opposing votes can be parlayed to an advantage with voters citywide.

Politically, Muller has two decades of municipal experience on her side, combined with her knowledge of infrastructure issues. Mitchell, on the other hand, has broader name recognition, having been twice elected citywide. He also has a larger campaign war chest; at the end of the June reporting period, he had nearly $88,000 in cash on hand, compared to $40,000 for Muller.

The only other declared candidate for the Nov. 3 election is City Hall hanger-on Dave Walker, best known as the guy wearing hospital scrubs who’s often heard shouting during Franklin’s press conferences.

Qualifying will be held the first week of September.