Atlanta City Council member Marci Collier Overstreet has filed paperwork to launch a bid for council president after Doug Shipman’s surprising announcement that he won’t seek reelection in November.
Shipman shocked even some of his colleagues last month when he said on social media that medical issues in his family have forced him to reevaluate running for a second term, which he had originally planned.
That means the 2025 council president race won’t be dominated by an incumbent, opening the field for other political hopefuls such as Overstreet, who was first elected in 2018 to take Keisha Lance Bottoms’ seat on the council after she was elected mayor.
Overstreet told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she’s excited to run with support from her current council colleagues.
“They have trust in my consensus building,” she said and added that she’s a “straight shooter” when it comes to her policy stances.
“You’re not going to be confused about what I think,” Overstreet said. “I think that’s important in the (council president role and in public service period.”
The southwest Atlanta council member filed campaign finance paperwork with the state last week, meaning her district seat will also be open in November. The Overstreet decision makes three incumbent council members who are not seeking to retain their seats — Amir Farokhi (Districts 2), Howard Shook (District 7) and Overstreet.
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Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
When Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens was elected, he faced the daunting task of reducing the city’s crime rates that had spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As he enters the final year of his first term in office, he has a lot to celebrate. The mayor announced during his annual “State of the City” address on Feb. 25 that Atlanta’s homicide rate has dropped 26% since 2022.
And on the AJC’s “Politically Georgia” podcast last week, the mayor announced that throughout the month of February, the city only saw three homicides — that’s compared to 13 homicides in February 2024.
The mayor said the last time the city had only three homicides in one month was more than a decade ago.
“That means more people are alive,” he said. “We’re going to keep doing that — next year I want to be the safest major city in America.”
Dickens pointed to his administration’s efforts to bring down youth crime, the city’s public awareness campaign against domestic violence and law enforcement’s crackdown on drug operations and the city’s bolstered police force.
“These things are very real and critical,” he said.
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Credit: Ben Hendren for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Ben Hendren for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta has been locked in a lengthy consent decree with the federal government since 1998 to improve its wastewater systems that were found to have violated Clean Water Act standards. The legal agreement is set to expire in 2027.
But the overhaul of Atlanta’s sewer system is far from complete, and officials with the Department of Watershed Management said the city has already requested another extension after already being awarded 13 more years to get the job done.
Interim Watershed Commissioner Al Wiggins Jr. — who has served in the temporary role since March 2024 — told council members last week that the department is still waiting on a response from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. But they don’t expect good news.
“We’re moving forward as if the answer will be no,” he said. “If that extension is granted, it will help tremendously, but we have no concerns about being able to be in compliance.
“It will be a huge effort — pretty much no room for error,” he added.
DeKalb County informed federal and state regulators Dec. 31 that it needs a 10-year extension for the 2027 deadline for its sewer system consent decree. Attorneys for the regulators blasted the request in a court filing and said DeKalb could be subject to $10 million fines for each year the county misses.
In Atlanta, the city is not only still working to get its sewer system up to federal standards, but is also undergoing a major assessment of its water pipes after a series of severe main breaks caused a weeklong water outage in May.
In the wake of the crisis, Dickens enlisted the help of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is scheduled to spearhead a $1 million study of how best to revamp the outdated system.
“The federal government is critical for this because the size of the problem is in the billions,” Dickens said recently. “And we can’t expect local governments to repair billion-dollar infrastructure on our own, financially. It would cost us too much money.”
But even the status of the water system study is uncertain under the Trump administration. Atlanta’s mayor said that without help from Washington, D.C., the repairs may force the city to hike its water rates.
“We’re counting on some thoughtfulness and compassion because if the city doesn’t have good water, that means that a part of America, not just a part of Atlanta, doesn’t have good water distribution,” Dickens said. “I think the White House should care about America’s cities.”
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Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
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