https://www.reddit.com/r/Andy_for_Georgia/comments/1vqa0du/campaign_announcement/

• Jonathan Hunt, MARTA’s chief legal officer, who has been serving as interim since last August.
• Cleveland Ferguson III, executive vice president and chief administrative officer of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA).
• Leroy Jones, chief operations officer of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).

To reach the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) Board of Directors, send an email to marta.board@itsmarta.com

According to records obtained by The Buckhead Paper, Bridge Brothers worked as a subcontractor for the project’s primary construction manager at risk, Reeves Young. While Bridge Brothers is responsible for engineering and constructing the bridge, Reeves Young bears contractual accountability to ABI for the subcontractor’s flaws.

When crews broke ground in fall 2024, Segment 1 was expected to open by summer 2026. Instead, this month brings a second round of demolition, and residents along Peachtree Creek are now looking at mid-2028 — nearly four years from groundbreaking to a working bridge, two of them spent building the same structure twice.

Fulton County’s data center resolution

The Fulton County Commission unanimously voted Wednesday to adopt a resolution formally opposing efforts by development authorities to reduce property taxes as a data center recruitment tool. It’s a message the commission is sending to all development authorities operating with Fulton, including the Development Authority of Fulton County, Invest Atlanta and ones chartered by the county’s cities.

The resolution comes as Fulton reassesses data center values for tax purposes, trying to find out if it’s leaving millions of dollars in potential tax revenue on the table by undervaluing these expensive projects.

Some recent data center projects in Fulton have been awarded multimillion-dollar tax breaks by development authorities, namely the Development Authority of Fulton County.

Since 2023, it approved a $32 million tax break for Edged Atlanta’s data center campus at Tilford Yard and a $10 million tax break for Elon Musk’s social media platform X to place new servers in an existing Atlanta data center. It also considered a $45 million tax break for a QTS data center expansion that was already underway, but the request was withdrawn amid public outcry.

Union City’s development authority also approved its own tax break for a $1.8B data center by Microsoft, an inducement initially estimated to be worth $75 million.

A College Park resident has obtained a wealth of public records that she says point to a conflict of interest involving the city, a public official and a vendor paid more than $1 million by College Park over two fiscal years.

The vendor is RSW Services, which is owned by Subrenia Willis, chairwoman of College Park’s Business and Industrial Development Authority. Willis’s husband, Rex Willis, who leads the company, said there is no conflict of interest and that RSW Services has not benefited from his wife’s role with the authority, known as BIDA.

College Park development authority chair, husband reject conflict of interest questions

- Bickers is one of almost a dozen former Atlanta officials and contractors sentenced to prison in a sprawling City Hall corruption investigation that included pay-for-play contracting. Hers is the longest prison sentence.

- Jim Beard, the city's former finance chief, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2024 after pleading guilty to federal program theft and obstructing IRS laws. He also asked for clemency in 2024, which Trump denied July 10. Beard's attorneys did not comment Monday.

- MARTA began construction on the new faregates in November, with the agency requiring payment at the new faregates in May. All new tap-to-pay faregates at all 38 stations are set to be fully installed by October.

- The first of MARTA’s new CQ400 trains was originally scheduled to enter service June 4. That timeline has been delayed while the state completes safety testing. Testing should be completed within the next two to four weeks.

- New customer surveys show MARTA riders gave the system’s cleanliness a 5.38 out of 10. Only 6.53 out of 10 riders said they feel safe on trains. Both scores fall below MARTA’s stated goal of 8 out of 10, according to a report presented during Thursday’s committee meetings.

- On Thursday, Interim CEO Jonathan Hunt confirmed for the first time that he is applying for the permanent CEO position. Last week, Board Vice Chair J. Al Pond said the board plans to interview finalists for the position in early August.

After a lengthy discussion about the effectiveness of the TADs and their potential burden on Fulton's tax base, commissioners voted 4-1 not to take part. Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. voted against the measure and Commissioner Dana Barrett abstained after both argued the vote should be delayed.

The county's choice to opt out will increase pressure on Atlanta's school board members, who have not yet decided whether to take part. Without the participation of Atlanta Public Schools, Atlanta's existing TADs would be allowed to expire.

Atlanta school board members seem skeptical of mayor's tax extension plan.

Summary from Center for Civic Innovation:

The Commission also set conditions for the County's participation in any new, extended, or recreated TAD.

1. The base property tax value is reset based on the date the TAD is extended, not the date the TAD was originally created.

City of Atlanta argues that its TAD extension does not reset the baselines. For instance, the baseline tax value agreed upon for the Westside TAD in 1998 would stay in place until 2056. Meaning, any increase in property taxes from 1998 to 2056 would go into the TAD.

2. The total taxable value of property inside a TAD does not exceed 10% of the city's total taxable property value.

This aligns with current State law, which says additional TADs cannot be created if more than 10% of a city's tax base is in a TAD. Currently, 17% of Atlanta's tax base is within a TAD.

It is an open legal question whether this applies to TAD extensions, with the State and the City presenting competing legal opinions on if the Atlanta's TAD extensions are legal.

3. Project-specific, measurable, and time-bound redevelopment plans are adopted for each extended TAD.

The legislation approved by Atlanta City Council in June does not include these plans, and instead requires submission of the first project-specific redevelopment plan (of six total plans) to the Council for review and approval no later than March 31, 2027.

However, the Fulton county legislation calls for the baseline to be reset at the time of extension like it's a new TAD - decreasing each participating government's potential contribution by millions of dollars.

4. Fulton County's annual contribution to extended TADs is capped.

The County's new resolution does not put a value on cap.

5. Fulton County is given independent audit rights over all TADs they participate in.

The legislation also requires Fulton County's participation in any extended or new TADs to be approved by a supermajority (at least five of the seven Commissioners) rather than the four votes typically required.