CCI Policy Updates: Week of July 13 – July 17

The Center for Civic Innovation's mission is to inspire people to take action, invest in promising homegrown ideas, and advocate for policy change. These are challenging times. CCI believes that informed and civically engaged residents are the key to making Atlanta the city we all know it can be.

This is why we started this blog series, to provide our community with important and relevant policy updates. Each post recaps the past week and provides a look ahead at what's on the agenda next week, including opportunities for everyone to engage within the community.

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Week of July 13 – July 17 Policy Updates:

  • Civil Rights leaders John Lewis and C.T. Vivian passed away. Flags were ordered to half-staff by federal, state, and city leaders.

  • Georgia Governor Brian Kemp sued Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and all members of the Atlanta City Council to block the City’s mask mandate and return to Phase I of the COVID reopening. (news) 

  • Mayor Bottoms vetoed the 8 Can’t Wait ordinance (20-O-1449) approved unanimously by the Atlanta City Council the previous week. The mayor wrote that she’s supportive of changing the Atlanta Police Department’s standard operating procedures and has already issued administrative orders to make those changes, but she found council’s legislation to be potentially unconstitutional. (press release) Council will have the opportunity to override the mayor’s veto at their next meeting.

  • Mayor Bottoms announced the One Atlanta: Economic Mobility, Recovery and Resiliency Plan.

  • The Atlanta Board of Education gave a first vote of approval to delaying the start of school from August 10th to August 24th (reducing the school calendar from 180 to 170 days) and having classes taught virtually for at least the first 9 weeks. (blog)

  • The Fulton County Magistrate Court announced that it wouldn’t hear in-person eviction cases until at least November. (news)

  • The Atlanta City Council met in committees prior to recessing the remainder of July. Highlights include:

    • Public Safety & Legal Administration Committee (marked agenda and video)

      • Office of Public Defender Update (presentation)

      • Municipal Court Quarterly Report (presentation)

      • Mayor’s Use of Force Advisory Council Update (presentation)

      • an ordinance to make the Atlanta Citizens Review Board a charter-mandated board (20-O-1477) received a favorable recommendation

      • an ordinance requiring the Atlanta Police Department to work with the Fulton County District Attorney’s office on investigations of officer-involved shootings, incidents of serious bodily injury, and accusations of sexual misconduct (20-O-1486) was held in committee

      • an ordinance to conduct a study on expanding the Atlanta Police Department to include a crisis intervention division or other specialized unit as a social service component (20-O-1487) was held in committee

      • a resolution requesting the Atlanta Police Department explore alternative non-lethal methods of crowd control (20-R-4122) received a favorable recommendation

    • City Utilities Committee (marked agenda and video)

    • Community Development & Human Services Committee (marked agenda and video)

      • Atlanta Housing Authority Update (postponed until August)

      • Invest Atlanta Economic Mobility Full Plan (presentation)

      • an ordinance to Atlanta Beltline Subarea 9 and 10 Master Plans incorporating portions of NPUs G, J, K, L, and T (20-O-1501) was introduced

      • an ordinance to contract with the Fulton County Board of Health for COVID-19 testing and tracing (20-O-1481) was substituted and received a favorable recommendation

    • Transportation Committee (marked agenda and video)

      • an ordinance to dedicate transit-only lanes within the North Avenue, Summerhill, and Campbellton corridors for projects related to More MARTA, Atlanta’s Transportation Plan, the One Atlanta Strategic Transportation Plan, and the Atlanta City Design (20-O-1471) was substituted and received a favorable recommendation

    • Finance & Executive Committee (marked agenda and video)

      • Department of Customer Service (ATL311) Update (presentation)

      • an ordinance to transfer $73 million from various departments to a trust fund account until the council receives a report on recommendations for police reform (20-O-1492) also known as the “Rayshard Brooks Bill” was filed (“killed”) by the committee (op-ed)

  • The Invest Atlanta Board of Directors held their monthly meeting. (summary)

  • The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners met. (summary)

Opportunities for Engagement Next Week:

  • Monday, July 20

  • Tuesday, July 21

  • Wednesday, July 22

    • 10:30am – Fulton County Board of Health (agenda)

    • 4:00pm – Fulton County System Library Board of Trustees (notice)

    • 7:30pm – NPU W

  • Thursday, July 23

Other Opportunities for Engagement:

What We’re Reading/Watching/Hearing:

To make these updates better, we need your input. What was most informative or helpful? What did we miss? Please email us at policy@civicatlanta.org.

policy updatesTeam CCIpolicy