Shirley Franklin | |
---|---|
![]() Franklin in 2014 | |
58th Mayor of Atlanta | |
In office January 7, 2002 –January 3, 2010 | |
Preceded by | Bill Campbell |
Succeeded by | Kasim Reed |
Personal details | |
Born | Shirley Clarke Franklin May 10,1945 Philadelphia,Pennsylvania,U.S. |
Political party | Democratic |
Education | Howard University (BA) University of Pennsylvania (MA) |
Shirley Clarke Franklin (born May 10,1945) is an American politician,a member of the Democratic Party who served as the 58th mayor of Atlanta,Georgia,from 2002 to 2010. She currently serves as a member on the board of directors for both Delta Air Lines and Mueller Water Products. [1] [2]
The 58th mayor of Atlanta,she was the first woman to hold the post and the first black woman to be elected mayor of a major Southern city. [3] Franklin was Atlanta's fourth African-American mayor. In July 2009,Mayor Franklin (along with Frances Townsend and Judge William H. Webster) was appointed to an ad hoc Department of Homeland Security special task force for 60-day review of the Homeland Security Advisory System.
Originally from Philadelphia,Pennsylvania,she is a graduate of the Philadelphia High School for Girls. Franklin received her B.A. in sociology from Howard University and her M.A.,also in sociology,from the University of Pennsylvania. [4] She is an Honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. [5]
Franklin served as the Commissioner of Cultural Affairs under Mayor Maynard Jackson. Subsequently,she was named Chief Administrative Officer and City Manager under Mayor Andrew Young.
Her 2001 run for mayor was her first run for public office. She won,succeeding Mayor Bill Campbell after winning 50 percent of the vote,defeating several candidates including Democrat Rob Pitts (33 percent). Facing a massive and unexpected budget deficit,Franklin slashed the number of government employees and increased taxes to balance the budget as quickly as possible. [6]
Franklin made repairing the Atlanta sewer system a main focus of her office. Prior to Franklin's term,Atlanta's combined sewer system violated the federal Clean Water Act and burdened the city government with fines from the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2002,Franklin announced an initiative called "Clean Water Atlanta" to address the problem and begin improving the city's sewer system. [7]
She has been lauded for efforts to make the City of Atlanta "green." Under Franklin's leadership Atlanta has gone from having one of the lowest percentages of LEED certified buildings to one of the highest.
In 2005, Time named Franklin one of the five best big-city American mayors. [6] In October of that same year,she was included in the U.S. News &World Report "Best Leaders of 2005" issue. [8]
With solid popular support and strong backing from the business sector,Franklin was reelected Atlanta Mayor in 2005,garnering more than 90 percent of the vote. [9] Her popularity led to increased speculation that she may be a viable contender for a future Georgia governor's race. [10]
In February 2006,The White House Project named Shirley Franklin one of its "8 in '08",a group of eight female politicians who could possibly run and/or be elected president in 2008. [11] She was the only person on the list to not be a governor,senator or presidential cabinet member,and one of two African-American women on the list;the other was United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. [11]
In 2006,Shirley Franklin led the effort to have the papers of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. given to his alma mater,Morehouse College,instead of being sold at auction:"I never imagined I could contribute to the continuation of Dr. King's legacy in as a significant way. And I'm really humbled I was able to do anything to continue his legacy." [12]
Franklin was a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, [13] an organization formed in 2006 and co-chaired by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston mayor Thomas Menino. She was 2007/08 President of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors.
In 2008,facing a major deficit,Mayor Franklin asked the Atlanta City Council to approve a property tax increase,to avoid public safety cuts. The Atlanta City Council unanimously shot down the measure,which would have caused the average city homeowner to pay an estimated extra $30 in property taxes under Franklin's plan. As Mayor Franklin warned,without the tax increase,layoffs and pay cuts of Atlanta public safety officials would be imminent.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ,in December 2008 Franklin announced that 222 city workers would lose their jobs to help fill a projected $50 million to $60 million budget shortfall. Most remaining city workers,including firefighters,will work fewer hours and suffer a pay cut as part of the budget cuts.
Mayor Shirley Franklin has said that the deficits in the city of Atlanta are not because of excess city spending. In fact,according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle city spending actually ran slightly below budgeted amounts through the first quarter of the fiscal year that began in July. According to Mayor Shirley Franklin,city tax collections are down by more than 12 percent because of the economic downturn. However,basic accounting mistakes in the city budget also played a significant role in the budget crisis.
Franklin,along with Philadelphia's Michael Nutter and Phil Gordon of Phoenix,lobbied Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in a joint letter asking for a share of the proposed $700 billion bailout.
Mayor Franklin was the recipient of Profile in Courage Award in 2005,issued by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. The foundation praised her management of the city of Atlanta during the critical period of enormous deficit and loss of public confidence in government following the corrupt administration of Mayor Bill Campbell. [14] In 2007,she received an honorary degree in Doctor of Humane Letters from Oglethorpe University. [15]
In 2022,she was inducted as a Georgia Trustee,an honor given by the Georgia Historical Society in conjunction with the Governor of Georgia to individuals whose accomplishments and community service reflect the ideals of the founding body of Trustees,which governed the Georgia colony from 1732 to 1752. [16]
Franklin has a daughter,Kai Franklin Graham,whose former husband,Tremayne "Kiki" Graham,was sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in a drug dealing operation. [17] Kai herself pled guilty to helping to launder money for him. [17] Shirley Franklin had a son named Cabral. [18] He died in 2015. [19]
According to a DNA analysis,Franklin is descended,mainly,from people of Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone. [20] [21]
Fulton County is a county in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 United States census,the population was 1,066,710,making it the state's most populous county and its only one with over one million inhabitants. Its county seat and largest city is Atlanta,the state capital. About 90% of the City of Atlanta is within Fulton County;the other 10% is in DeKalb County. Fulton County is part of the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Roswell,GA Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The history of Atlanta dates back to 1836,when Georgia decided to build a railroad to the U.S. Midwest and a location was chosen to be the line's terminus. The stake marking the founding of "Terminus" was driven into the ground in 1837. In 1839,homes and a store were built there and the settlement grew. Between 1845 and 1854,rail lines arrived from four different directions,and the rapidly growing town quickly became the rail hub for the entire Southern United States. During the American Civil War,Atlanta,as a distribution hub,became the target of a major Union campaign,and in 1864,Union William Sherman's troops set on fire and destroyed the city's assets and buildings,save churches and hospitals. After the war,the population grew rapidly,as did manufacturing,while the city retained its role as a rail hub. Coca-Cola was launched here in 1886 and grew into an Atlanta-based world empire. Electric streetcars arrived in 1889,and the city added new "streetcar suburbs".
Jennifer P. Dougherty was elected Frederick,Maryland's first female mayor in 2001. Dougherty defeated 2-term incumbent Republican Mayor James S. Grimes.
William Craig Campbell is an American politician,who served as the 57th Mayor of Atlanta,Georgia from January 1994–January 2002. He was the third African-American mayor in the city's history. Accused of corruption during his time in office,he was convicted for tax evasion in 2006 and spent 16 months in federal prison.
Samuel A. Massell Jr. was an American businessman and politician who served from 1970 to 1974 as the 53rd mayor of Atlanta,Georgia. He was the first Jewish mayor in the city's history and the most recent non-black mayor of Atlanta.
Cicero C. Hammock was the 22nd and 24th Mayor of Atlanta,Georgia,during the Reconstruction era.
Massachusetts shares with the five other New England states a governmental structure known as the New England town. Only the southeastern third of the state has functioning county governments;in western,central,and northeastern Massachusetts,traditional county-level government was eliminated in the late 1990s. Generally speaking,there are four kinds of public school districts in Massachusetts:local schools,regional schools,vocational/technical schools,and charter schools.
Brookhaven is a city in the northeastern suburbs of Atlanta that is located in western DeKalb County,Georgia,United States,directly northeast of Atlanta. On July 31,2012,Brookhaven was approved in a referendum to become DeKalb County's 11th city. Incorporation officially took place on December 17,2012,on which date municipal operations commenced. With a population of around 55,366 as of 2021,it is the largest city in DeKalb County. The new city stretches over 12 square miles (31 km2).
Brookhaven/Oglethorpe is a train station in Brookhaven,Georgia,on the Gold Line of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) rail system. An elevated station,it is located one mile south of Oglethorpe University. The station provides connecting bus service to North Druid Hills,Toco Hills,North DeKalb Mall,the Peachtree Boulevard business district,and the Georgia Department of Labor.
Richard Pennington served as Superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department in New Orleans,Louisiana from 1994 to 2002 and Chief of the Atlanta Police Department in Atlanta,Georgia from 2002 to 2010.
Mohammed Kasim Reed is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 59th mayor of Atlanta,Georgia's state capital and largest city,from 2010 to 2018. A Democrat,Reed was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives from 1998 to 2002 and represented the 35th District in the Georgia State Senate from 2003 to 2009. He served as campaign manager for Shirley Franklin's successful Atlanta mayoral campaign in 2001. After Franklin was term limited from the mayor's office,Reed successfully ran for the position in 2009. Inaugurated on January 4,2010,Reed was elected to a second term in 2013.
Mary Norwood is an American businesswoman and politician who is a member of the Atlanta City Council. She was a candidate for mayor of Atlanta in 2009 and 2017. In both campaigns she advanced to the runoff,but respectively lost to Kasim Reed and Keisha Lance Bottoms by narrow margins. In addition to her mayoral runs,she represented city-wide posts on the Atlanta City Council from 2002 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2018. She resides in the Tuxedo Park neighborhood of Atlanta's Buckhead community.
Teresa Pike Tomlinson is an American politician and attorney. A member of the Democratic Party,she was elected and served as the 69th Mayor of Columbus,Georgia in 2010. On January 3rd,2011,she was sworn in as the city's first female mayor.
The 2014 United States Senate election in Georgia was held on November 4,2014,to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Georgia,concurrently with the election of the Governor of Georgia,as well as elections to the United States Senate in other states,to the United States House of Representatives,and to various other state and local offices.
The Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America,or simply the Georgia Trustees,was a body organized by James Edward Oglethorpe and associates following parliamentary investigations into prison conditions in Britain. After being granted a royal charter in 1732,Oglethorpe led the first group of colonists to the new colony,arriving there in February,1733. The trustees governed Georgia,one of the Thirteen Colonies,from its founding until 1752,a period known as Trustee Georgia.
Cathy Woolard is an American politician who served as a member of the Atlanta City Council for District 6 from November 1998 to 2002,and as President of the Council from 2002 to 2004. When she began her term in 1997,she was the first openly-gay elected official in Georgia history,and she was the first woman to be President of the Council.
Mueller Water Products,Inc. (MWP) is a publicly traded company headquartered in Atlanta,Georgia. It is one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of fire hydrants,gate valves,and other water infrastructure products in North America. MWP is made up of two business units—Mueller Co. and Mueller Technologies—that oversee more than a dozen brands and affiliates,including Echologics and Mueller Systems.
The 2017 Atlanta mayoral election occurred on November 7,2017,with a runoff election held on December 5,2017. Incumbent mayor Kasim Reed,a member of the Democratic Party who had been in office since 2010,was ineligible to run for reelection due to term limits.
William Burton Jones is an American politician and businessman who currently serves as the 13th lieutenant governor of Georgia. A member of the Republican Party,he previously served as a member of the Georgia State Senate from January 2013 to January 2023,representing the 25th District.
Ruth Blair was an American librarian and archivist in the U.S. state of Georgia. She was the first woman state historian of Georgia and the first executive secretary of the Atlanta Historical Society. She helped organize the Society of American Archivists in 1936. Named Atlanta's Woman of the Year in 1955,she has been called "one of the most distinguished archivists in America".