Revenue Rank: 25
Form of Government: Mayor-Council
Mayor: Bill Campbell (took office 1994)
Elected City Council President: Robb Pitts
City Council: 15 members (12 elected by district, 3 at large)
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT: B-
An antique ordinance forces Atlanta to estimate revenues at 99 percent of the previous year’s level, which can lead to a major disconnect between budget and reality. Even with this conservative system, Atlanta still overspent revenues by about 4.5 percent in 1997 and 3.2 percent in 1998. Although balances stayed at acceptable levels, the trend was dangerous, and last year, with pressure from the rating agencies, the city tightened its belt and revenues once again exceeded expenditures. Moody’s Investors Service called it “a positive step for the city in achieving long-term budget stability.”
Atlanta’s investment and cash management practices have improved since 1996, and there are comprehensive policies in place, with good reporting and validation. The city also has modernized its approach to debt, giving it additional flexibility without sacrificing safety. On the pension front, however, Atlanta faces $217 million in unfunded liabilities for its general employees’ pension fund, and $296 million for its police pensions.
HUMAN RESOURCES: B-
Atlanta’s ability to gather data about HR has been slowed by an information technology system that didn’t move speedily. It is, however, implementing a new system that should get information to managers far more quickly.
Meanwhile, the city has been engaged in work force planning. The process includes a systematic review of the city’s departments, aimed at finding out what work force needs are going to change, and what new resources that will require.
Generally, testing in the city isn’t an onerous process. And hiring has been speeding up. The acceleration has been helped by the fact that all new positions are unclassified, as well as vacated old positions that pay more than $35,000 a year or so. That helps the city avoid the usual time-consuming elements of the civil service system.
The city does administer performance evaluations. But the overwhelming majority of eligible employees receive satisfactory ratings and annual merit raises. What’s more, about a quarter of the work force isn’t eligible. They’re already receiving the maximum allowable pay for their jobs, and can’t get a raise without a promotion.
Like many cities, Atlanta has had challenges in recruiting and retaining people in a variety of areas. The HR department is proposing an innovation to help combat this: a pool of money to be used for bonuses for new hires or to hang on to hard-to-replace current employees.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: D+
A project manager was brought in to prepare the city for Y2K, then left in a storm of controversy in July 1999. Much work was lost. So it was a mad scramble through year’s end, and other projects were ignored in the confusion. Now, Atlanta plans to address them.
There are quite are few serious ones to work on. To start with, says Tom Cullen, director of management and information services, “there aren’t standards for anything. There are independent contractors working all over the place...It’s a miracle that we’re not crashing more than we are.”
Atlanta’s Web site gives almost no financial information, very little about major government agencies, has no current capacity to apply for licenses or permits, and offers few clues about doing business with the city.
On the positive side, the city is reasonably strong in training IT specialists. Procurement policies are somewhat more flexible than in many other cities. And new enterprise-wide systems will help a great deal once they’re properly implemented and staff is sufficiently trained.
CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: C
Atlanta has a 15-year capital improvement plan — the longest stretch of any of the 35 evaluated cities. Not surprisingly, the last 10 years of the plan tend to be iffy at best, and city leaders focus most of their attention on the first five.
Infrastructure maintenance is a problem, though. In fact, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, no city has been hit with Clean Water Act penalties on the scale of Atlanta — totaling $3.2 million since September 1998. The price tag to the city for putting things right is around $1 billion.
The public works department assesses street condition based on traffic carried and type and severity of defects observed. A new emphasis has been placed on maintenance in recent years, and city leaders insist that “care is taken to ensure that all operating and maintenance costs are fully funded annually.” But the latest capital improvement plan document includes a warning that “streets, bridges and viaducts are reaching replacement or refurbishing age on a large scale.”
MANAGING FOR RESULTS: B-
Individual departments in Atlanta are involved in strategic planning, with oversight from the Mayor’s Office of Program and Performance Evaluation. Their efforts are all linked to one of three city priorities: creating a safer city; delivering quality customer service or enhancing social/environmental infrastructure and economic quality of life. The plans are merged and published in the budget document.
All the city’s major agencies report performance measures quarterly and are held accountable to targets, according to city officials. Atlanta needs to use more outcome measures, though. And while measures sometimes are used in budgetary decision making, links haven’t been strong in areas such as social services and recreation.
Performance audits are performed on an “as assigned” basis by the Office of Program and Performance Evaluation. Since 1994, the city has talked about forming an Office of the City Auditor, which should take on performance auditing responsibility.
AVERAGE GRADE: C+
Copyright © 2000, Congressional Quarterly, Inc. Reproduction in any form without the written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Governing, City & State and Governing.com are trademarks of Congressional Quarterly, Inc.
