I’m very distressed over the City of Atlanta.  It’s frightening to live in a city where the elected officials seem to have no concern about their constituents.  Never have I felt this more than in this city. This is shown way too often in the decisions they make and in how they continue to cutbudgets, layoff, and hit us in our pockets with obnoxious taxes and rate increases (yes, I’m still upset about my water bill).

If you are not on our NPU-T mailing list, you should be. I will try to update the information here on some of the ‘behind the scene’  important city decisions being executed that are very alarming.  However to fully understand how we will be affected you will need to be involved in the conversations and ask questions directly to those working/volunteering on our behalf within our NPU-T .  Our Chair -Kwabena Nkromo, Secretary -Scott Smith and Community Ambassador- Tacuma Brown, are doing an excellent job at keeping us informed, however WE need to all shift our support and available time in making sure our community does not feel some of the hard blows being thrown.

I urge you all to visit our Website:  www.nputatlanta.org , and come out to the NPU-T meeting on May 14.

Please see below, a letter from our Mayor., within the Commissioner message.  

Dear Stakeholder,

Today the Mayor is releasing her 2009 budget to Council. As a major stakeholder of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs I thought you might be interested in receiving an early copy of her budget letter. It is no secret that the city has a budget gap this year of $140 million. This is due primarily from a three fold increase in pension costs in the past three years, as well as skyrocketing health care costs. While many businesses are facing these increasing costs they are particularly impactful on a city budget. This administration has spent the last three months developing a thoughtful approach that dramatically reduces City spending while at the same time protecting public safety which the public tells us continues to be the significant issue facing Atlanta. Significant efficiencies are achieved in this budget which calls for General Fund employee workforce being cut by 788 positions. Under this budget the City’s employees per capita is at its lowest point in decades and is now in line with our peer cities across the nation. At DPRCA we have worked very hard to assure that our budget cuts still prioritize services that our residents are looking for. I believe when you review the actual budget you will see how successful we were at this.
A budget gap of this size cannot be filled by spending cuts alone. To maintain the current level of public safety will require a narrowly tailored tax increase. The Mayor believes that a tax increase to maintain public safety is the right response to the challenges we all face, and I hope you will read the Mayor’s message attached to understand the proposed budget. I have always valued your support and so I want to be sure as a key leader in Atlanta you are fully informed on this matter. You may open the Mayor’s letter by clicking here.

Regards,
Dianne Harnell Cohen
Commissioner
City of Atlanta Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs