As term ends, Atlanta Council President Doug Shipman praised for his leadership

Scribbled in red dry erase marker on the white board in Atlanta City Council President Doug Shipman’s office, a note from his daughters remains untouched since 2022.

“Keep going Dad.”

The words of encouragement have withstood three years while Shipman helped navigate the city out of the COVID-19 pandemic, through grueling debate over the public safety training center and against an effort to splinter Atlanta by making Buckhead a separate city.

The myriad unprecedented conflicts would have been a lot to face for even the most experienced politician, let alone someone like Shipman who had never before held elected office before entering the role.

Founding CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and former head of Woodruff Arts Center, Shipman won the 2021 council president runoff over a longtime councilwoman and secured the second-highest political ranking in Atlanta — behind only the mayor himself.

But in February, Shipman announced he would not seek reelection. It was news that came as a surprise to many of his colleagues inside City Hall.

And as Atlanta gears up for another election season, Shipman’s decision means an open race for the coveted position responsible for refereeing debate during city council meetings, being an intermediatory between the council and the mayor’s office, and is next in line to lead the city should the sitting mayor leave office.

Shipman said he loves the job, but family medical issues have surfaced and those have taken precedence over politics.

“It’s an easy decision in a tough situation — I’ve got a very tough family health situation that is going to take a lot of my time to deal with, and so it’s really just a reorienting of priorities,” Shipman said. “I enjoy the role of City Council president, and I enjoy politics, but it is an emotional job.”

“For me, it was really trying to take stock of can I really do that?” he said.

Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC

Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution sat down with Shipman for a lengthy interview about legislation that has shaped Atlanta over the past four years. Shipman said he is particularly proud of the city’s response to the end of the pandemic.

“At the end of the day, I think that what people wanted — especially coming out of COVID — is some level of connectivity back to their city,” he said. “And I think that you’ve seen a lot of the political leadership this term try to address that.”

For longtime advocates who frequent City Hall, a change in atmosphere was welcome.

“The whole dynamic changed from one that was more a level of distrust and fighting things out in dueling quotes, to really coming together in a couple of key areas,” said Michael Halicki, president and CEO of Park Pride. “Doug was one of those folks who I think really took a different tone and asked, ‘What can we do together?‘”

Atlanta city government had a new council president, six new council members and a first-term mayor in 2022, when the body worked to transition out of virtual meetings and back into the chamber at City Hall.

Shipman wasn’t just worried about fending off any unwanted COVID-19 outbreaks, but also how best to handle brewing controversy over the city’s public safety training facility — an issue approved by the previous council but which was the subject of a funding vote along with hour upon hour of negative and often angry public comment during meetings under his watch.

Behind the scenes, Shipman said it wasn’t so much a question of whether Atlanta City Council members would side with the project — the funding package passed by an 11-4 vote — but whether lawmakers and hundreds of residents who flocked to City Hall would make it home safely. During a meeting that ran all night before ending with a vote about 5:30 a.m. the next day, Opponents promised to do whatever it took to stop the center from being built.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Hundreds of people funneled through the council chamber that June 5, 2023, totaling more than 14 hours of public comment — the vast majority of which was against the project. Council members were booed, jeered and even jumped at over the dais by enraged residents.

Rohit Malhotra, founder and executive director for the Civic Center for Innovation, said the council president position should be “a bridge between the public and City Hall.”

“(Shipman) created a space where people felt comfortable enough to come to City Hall and feel like they could they could speak,” Malhotra said. “I think that’s important.”

During the tense training center debate, Shipman sat highest, at the council president podium, fielding texts from media and project opponents while trying to keep disruptions at a minimum so every resident had a chance at the podium.

“People have a lot of frustration that they want to get out, and public comment is one of the safer, better ways for them to get it out,” Shipman said. “There are other ways to get out frustration that are much more negative than just yelling at me or yelling at council.”

Atlanta City Council member Matt Westmoreland said keeping council meetings orderly and on track is a leadership trait at which not every politician succeeds.

“People who come to address us are often coming because they are heartbroken by something that’s happened in the city, or they’re very angry about something that has happened,” he said. “Managing really tense meetings with hundreds of very passionate people on a variety of topics, that’s a hard job.”

The training center funding vote capped a debate that roiled the city’s politics for the better part of two years. Online death threats flooded council members’ inboxes, and police vehicles were stationed outside of their homes.

“My sense was that the threats were not coming from folks in Atlanta — they were not coming from folks that I knew who were in the movement, even the ones who I knew were very upset about what was happening,” Shipman said.

The presence of the patrol car piqued the curiosity of Shipman’s two young daughters, who usually don’t think twice about their father’s politics. He told them the police were there to keep them “super safe.”

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

Aside from managing the often tumultuous relationship between City Council and the public, Shipman said he and first-term Mayor Andre Dickens also worked to strengthen the bond between the executive and legislative branches of city government.

“Having served on council for eight years, I know how tough that job can be at times,” Dickens said in a statement. “I deeply value my relationship with City Council and the Council President.”

When Dickens and Shipman were elected, the pair decided to return to the rules former Mayor Shirley Franklin and former City Council President Cathy Woolard had put in place: The two leaders meet every two weeks to discuss what’s on their minds with no agenda and no staff.

“There are some things that people can see that we don’t necessarily agree on — there are more things that people don’t ever see,” Shipman said of the relationship. “But I’m pleased that it hasn’t ever spilled out into us calling each other names on the radio. I think that’s the stuff people didn’t want.”

Despite knowing each other for the better part of a decade, Shipman described the pair forming a new alliance that was essential to taking on outsiders — even powerful Republican state lawmakers who regularly champion bills that go against city interests.

The city usually hires a lobbyist during the Georgia General Assembly’s session to help prevent legislation that targets Atlanta, like state takeover of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport or penalizing cities for homeless populations.

But the mayor and council devised a different plan to oppose a Republican-fueled effort to make Buckhead its own city — a proposal that would have stripped the city and Atlanta Public Schools of tens of millions in tax revenue every year.

The mayor worked to sway Gov. Brian Kemp, House Speaker Jon Burns and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, while Shipman worked the podium in the Senate committee rooms under the Gold Dome, testifying against the proposal.

“Everybody was trying to take a different piece of the puzzle to show why this was going to be a bad idea,” Shipman said. “It was very strategic.”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

When he first took office, Shipman promised a “fresh” approach to city government. He regularly pops in to council committee meetings and is often seen questioning city agencies like MARTA or Mayor Andre Dickens’ department heads.

His colleagues regard him as one of the city’s most active council presidents, while others have stuck solely to their primary duty of overseeing council meetings — gavel in hand.

The council president votes on legislation only in the event of a tie, but is second in line to the mayor and would assume that office if the mayor were to leave unexpectedly.

And that is a function of the role Shipman said he could not fulfill for another four years.

“I really felt like ... there was the potential that I would not be able to fulfill that commitment,” he said. “I didn’t want to ask voters to take that risk knowing the reality of my situation.”

Halicki, who has been with Park Pride and worked with the city for more than a decade, said Shipman’s style of leadership will be missed, but his decision speaks to his character.

“There has been a marked difference in the leadership within the city,” he said. “I think that Doug Shipman did a great job with rallying folks together around what we can do together, as opposed to this idea of what we can take credit for doing things in isolation.”