(APN) ATLANTA — Atlanta Progressive News has updated its Atlanta City Council Scorecard for 2013, adding recent as well as past votes, including: – Two votes taken last week, in March 2013, on whether to set a limit to restrict public comment time at all Atlanta City Council Committees. Only Keisha Lance Bottoms (District 11), Joyce Sheperd (District 12), Howard […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — Citizen activists defeated a proposal to limit public comment time at all Committee Meetings of the Atlanta City Council yesterday, after the Committee on Council voted six to one to file the ordinance, and the Full Council voted twice against approving it. Activists including Ben Howard, Brother Anthony Muhammad, and Ron Shakir, along with APN’s News Editor–the […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — Two candidates, Jon Jones and Todd Robinson, have announced their plans to challenge Kwanza Hall for the District 2 seat on the City Council of Atlanta. Kwanza Hall was elected in 2005 to the seat that was formerly held by Councilwoman Debi Starnes (District 2). In 2009, he faced no challenger. On the APN Atlanta City Council […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — Angela Green, a former City of Atlanta employee and member of the Board of Trustees of the City of Atlanta General Employees’ Pension Plan, has filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Atlanta Progressive News has learned. The complaint, filed on January 18, 2013, alleges that the investment consultant for the Pension Fund, Larry […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — Councilwoman Joyce Sheperd (District 12) and six other Councilmembers have set their sights on new public comment rules that would further limit the time allotted to citizens to speak at Council Committees, and would set other restrictions. Currently, each Committee Chair sets their own rules for public comment at each of the seven Committees of the Atlanta […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — In another major citizens’ victory for transparency, public participation, accountability, and democracy at the City Council of Atlanta, all seven Council Committees have opened their Committee Briefings to the public for 2013, and have moved the Committee Briefings to Committee Room 1, which is accessible to the public. The seven Council Committees–City Utilities, Committee on Council, […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shawn Ellen LaGrua has ruled in favor of street vendors in Atlanta who were negatively impacted by the City of Atlanta when the City entered into a contract with a private firm, U.K. – LaSalle, LLC, to manage the City’s street vendors. The case was Larry Miller and Stanley Hambrick v. City […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — With Municipal Elections in the City of Atlanta scheduled to take place next year, Atlanta Progressive News has added six more recent votes to the APN Atlanta City Council Scorecard. To APN’s knowledge, the Scorecard is the most comprehensive, data-driven, and transparent source of information available about the current incumbents on the City Council of Atlanta. The […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — Mayor Kasim Reed said that he was vetoing legislation that passed City Council concerning aggressive panhandling because it was cruel, harsh, and inhumane; however, Atlanta Progressive News has learned that the Mayor’s proposal in fact provides for the same maximum jail sentence–180 days in jail–for any offense of aggressive panhandling, and adds a minimum jail sentence for […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — The Committee Briefings of the City Utilities Cmte of the City Council of Atlanta are now open to the public, Atlanta Progressive News has confirmed. As previously reported by APN, for the past several years, all seven Council Committee Briefings have been closed to the public, until in June of this year, when Chairwoman Felicia Moore (District […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — In a five to two vote, the Public Safety/Legal Administration Cmte of the City Council of Atlanta, voted on Tuesday, June 12, 2012, to approve an ordinance regarding animal abuse that does not include protections for elephants from the use of bullhooks. Council Members CT Martin (District 10) and Joyce Sheperd (District 12) were the two nay […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — The City Council of Atlanta took an extraordinary vote Monday, October 17, 2011, on whether to grant an additional two minutes of public speaking time to NAME President, an advocate for People TV, the endangered public access station. Ms. President ran out of time while making her remarks at the Full Council meeting, where two minutes […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — On Monday, August 08, 2011, there will be a hearing before Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter in the case concerning the City Council of Atlanta’s practice of holding seven closed-door Committee Briefings every two weeks and not allowing in the public. The hearing will begin at 10am, and at Fulton County Superior Court, Courtroom 4D, Justice Center Tower, […]
Read moreAPN Issues 2011 Atlanta Council Member Scorecards By Matthew Cardinale (APN) ATLANTA — Following several important, split votes by the City Council of Atlanta in late 2010 and so far in 2011, Atlanta Progressive News has issued a revised Atlanta Council Member Scorecard for 2011. The Scorecard took into account a total of sixteen votes and other actions by […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — In an 11 to 3 vote, the City Council of Atlanta rejected a proposal by Kwanza Hall (District 2) to re-extend the City’s bar closing hours from 3am to 4am. Those voting nay on the motion to adverse the legislation–or, in support of 4am hours–were Council Members Kwanza Hall (District 2), Cleta Winslow (District 4), and […]
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