With Hartsfield-Jackson's general manager among the city of Atlanta leaders submitting their resignations after the mayor asked all cabinet members to do so, the future for the leadership of the world's busiest airport remains in the balance.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms had already launched a search for the position of general manager of the Atlanta airport and several other cabinet positions shortly after taking office in January. After asking for all cabinet members' resignations Monday, she said she will later determine which resignations she will accept. The move comes after another indictment last week in a federal corruption probe into Atlanta City Hall.
Amid the unrest over news of the pending cabinet shakeup, Hartsfield-Jackson general manager Roosevelt Council continued with tasks of leading the world’s busiest airport.
Before speaking at an event held at the airport Wednesday for children with autism, Council indicated he is still weighing whether to enter the running for the position he currently holds.
“It’s something that I’m heavily contemplating,” Council said.
Amid what the mayor called an “uncomfortable time,” Hartsfield-Jackson is hosting visitors this week for an airport emergency preparedness seminar run by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research’s CIFAL Atlanta, for airport officials from developing countries from around the world.
Council took on the role as interim general manager of the world's busiest airport in mid-2016 after then-Mayor Kasim Reed fired airport head Miguel Southwell. Council, who has a background in finance and was previously the airport's chief financial officer, was nominated by Reed to the permanent general manager position in late 2016 and confirmed by the Atlanta City Council in January 2017.
At a press conference Tuesday, Bottoms said she received all of the resignations she expected Monday.
“There are some people in the administration who would like to move on,” Bottoms said.
She added: “Anytime you have an FBI investigation going on inside City Hall, it goes without saying that there’s a lack of confidence.”
“I think that it’s important for the public to know that the team going forward is a team that I selected, not inherited,” Bottoms said. “There will be people who will remain.... There may be people who have other opportunities in the city that is appropriate for their skill set.”
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