In the midst of serving his sixth term on Atlanta City Council, longtime member Howard Shook announced last week that he won’t see reelection in 2025. That means his seat, which represents some of the northernmost Atlanta neighborhoods, will be up for grabs.
Shook first ran for office in 2001 and has served on the body for more than 20 years. In a statement announcing his retirement, the council member said that by the end of the current term, he will have cast around 60,000 votes on legislation that shaped the lives of Atlantans over the years.
“Without a doubt, one of the very best things to happen to me was the privilege of being elected by my friends and neighbors to represent them as a member of this legislative body,” Shook said.
“It was my good fortune to take office with a built-in dislike of elected officials eager to appear as all things to all people,” he said. “In support of you I have striven to be plain-spoken, ethical, independent, fact-driven, bottom line-oriented, eager to work with others and, when required, ready and able to fight.”
To his colleagues, Shook is seen as a mentor and steady hand that helped guide the council through things like managing the city’s budget, making pension plan changes and preserving and expanding the city’s green space.
Within his district, Shook said some of his proudest accomplishments were advocating up for community-driven zoning changes, voting against property tax increases, helping redevelop Buckhead Village into a vibrant community hub and working to eliminate sewer spills into Nancy Creek.
“Notwithstanding the above, I am acutely aware of the many challenges our successor will face,” Shook said in his farewell letter to constituents.
“This job has produced some tough stretches, but I want you to know how sure I am that my worst day downtown would have beaten ever coming in second,” he said. “I always felt that we had each other’s back, and I can’t thank you enough for your support.”
Shook’s term expires at the end of 2025.
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Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and elected leaders recently celebrated a big milestone for city employees. The city released its first compensation study in more than a decade, in an effort to keep government jobs competitive with the private sector.
City Council approved the study which included an increase in city employee minimum wage to $17.50 an hour and realignment of positions into new pay scales to keep positions at or near market rates. Atlanta’s police and fire workers will see changes to their roles based on a public safety-specific review done in tandem with the sweeping study.
Dickens said that the city of Atlanta is one of the largest employers in the city, currently supporting more than 9,000 employees. He called the compensation study long overdue.
“When I came into office, I had a goal of making us a model employer,” the mayor said. “I wanted to make sure that we were paying people a quality wage for providing us quality work — but we had to get real about what it takes for us to recruit and retain top tier talent.”
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Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
The city of Atlanta currently has more than 136 boards and commissions created to tackle specific issues from public safety to tree conservation. But according to legislation passed last week by council, some of those boards haven’t met or had enough members to meet a quorum for years.
City Council members gave the go ahead last week to implement a process to terminate boards, authorities and commissions after two years of inactivity.
“There is a need to implement additional processes to clean up the list of (boards, authorities and commissions) and ensure that the boards are meeting and running efficiently,” the legislation says.
An AJC review of the city’s boards and commissions done in 2022 found that nearly 500 positions on such bodies were unfilled — or over one third of the city committee positions.
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