Dear Neighbors,

It's official. I am a candidate to work for you as your next Mayor. People all over the City have asked me to run for Mayor, and I am asking for your support and for your endorsement, too. I hope I can count on you. You can count on me.

You can count on me to work for your neighborhood and every neighborhood.

You can count on me to fight crime and drugs.

You can count on me to work for young and old alike.

You can count on me to bring all Atlantans into the discussion.

You can count on me to protect our greenspaces.

You can count on me to improve the City services you pay for with your taxes.

You can count on me to balance the City's books, openly and accurately.

You can count on me to listen.

That's accountability you can count on.

Perhaps we're old friends, or maybe you and I have worked together on an issue critical to your neighborhood, your family, or your business. If we haven't met yet, let me take a moment to introduce myself.

I am an Atlanta City Councilwoman. I'm one of only three Councilpersons elected Citywide. I've been elected twice, the first time by an overwhelming majority, the second time unanimously.

I serve on the Transportation Committee, on the Committee on Council, where I am the Vice Chair, and on the Community Development and Human Resources Committee. In prior years I also served on the Finance/Executive, Public Safety, Transportation, and Zoning Committees. I've been Vice Chair of Zoning, of Transportation, and of Community Development and Human Resources.

I have a track record, working on housing and neighborhood issues to ensure that we maintain the quality of life that is one of the key driving engines of our local economy. I also have a track record on transportation issues and public safety. From one end of this city to the other, I have been a hands-on advocate for our communities, intervening on your behalf, fighting for the things - big and little - that constitute neighborhood quality of life. My phone rings when your water bill is miscalculated, you can’t get a recycling bin, or there's trash on the street. My phone rings when code enforcement falls short or seniors are not safe on the sidewalk outside their homes. My phone rings after other lines go unanswered. We need to make our City work, and I've had my shoulder to the wheel, pushing and pushing again and pushing one more time to get things done.

• I initiated a review of Atlanta's drug strategies to address the presence of drugs and the accompanying crime in our neighborhoods: working with representatives of both the judicial system and our police, we have tackled the "Point System" working to correct the flaws in the reporting that have turned our juvenile justice system into a revolving door that is putting arrested youth back on the street. New Community Restorative Boards engage community leaders in determining appropriate punishment, with the goal of ensuring that our youth understand the consequences of their actions, both for them and for their community. I trust our elders to bring important insights to this task. I have participated in and promoted "Court Watch," notifying members of our communities about when repeat offenders in their neighborhoods are in court. I sponsored the "closing hour" legislation that lessened crime and eased noise and congestion in our neighborhoods. I also maintain a regular, on-going conversation with our "beat officers" to learn about logjams in the system and ways to support the important work they do. I support and work for adequate staffing in all our community police precincts.

• I've been a leader on a five-year effort to strike the right balance in our city's on-going redevelopment, taking into account legitimate property rights and the need to keep our local economy humming alongside the equally important need to protect the investment individual homeowners make when they commit to our city and invest their time, their money, and their "social capital" in the neighborhood life that is, after all, one of Atlanta's great attractions. A linchpin to our success in enacting nationally-acclaimed legislation was the formation of a consortium of professional organizations in the development industry - led by the American Institute of Architects-Atlanta Chapter - who worked with our city to formulate and propose changes to the City's Residential Zoning Code. This initiative received a State of Georgia Planning Award.

• I worked with our city departments and members of the community to overcome the blight in our neighborhoods. Our goals include overcome the obstacles in the present system of code compliance through a potential Code Enforcement Board and Owner Identification for Blighted Vacant Buildings. From the "Dirty Truth Campaign" to the "Mortgage Fraud Task Force," I have rolled up my sleeves and worked with our neighborhoods to improve their quality of life. As one of the first elected officials to recognize the effect of Mortgage Fraud and Abandoned Houses on the fabric of our neighborhoods, I have worked tirelessly for two years with our community representatives, financial institutions, and city departments to make our city the premiere place in the country that "knits the fabric of our communities back together again." The documentary "threads between us" (click here) showcases the viability of neighborhoods all across our city, showing how we have more in common than that which separates us. I am committed to our neighborhoods and our "Quality of Place."

• When the Administration recently acknowledged its $70 million budget shortfall that looms over our City and you, the taxpayer, I proposed a Technical Review Committee so that we can develop better fiscal policies and implement controls for preparing, managing, and overseeing future City budgets so that no future Administration will surprise us this way again. The City Council voted unanimously for my proposal. "We must have an independent technical review of all of the financial information," I said publicly. "We want outside experts to work with this Council and the city's audit committee and the chief financial officer so we can better understand our financial situation and get good information. I think it's important that we get specifics from professionals that have the technical expertise to do the evaluations and be of help to our audit committee." In addition, we approved a resolution requesting the city audit committee to authorize the city auditor to conduct a performance audit on the City of Atlanta 2008 General Fund Budget process. With this, we hope to determine if the budget were developed properly, using sound budget principles and if anticipated revenue projections were appropriate.

• In reviewing our City's Affordable Housing Study, I realized that our analysis of rise in housing prices was woefully out of date. Accordingly, I engaged realtors to assist with the task of determining the accurate number of dwellings that would be considered affordable in our city, and we found thousands of them. I immediately began a public outreach campaign, speaking on this issue in numerous settings. Partially as a result of this work, the City instituted a "Home Atlanta Program" offering down payment assistance and low interest mortgages. This program has had phenomenal success with new homeowners purchasing homes in neighborhoods and committing their time, money, and energy to building a better city. To date, the HOME Atlanta program has helped more than 134 individuals and families relocate to or within the city. With an average household income of $47,537, people from many sectors of the workforce have participated: police officers, educators, retail employees, government workers and business professionals, all of whom have decided to invest both money and "human capital" in our City.

• I have been an advocate for the City of Atlanta and other entities to employ homeless men and women to clean Atlanta's streets, beginning with the SUPERB Project, where I worked to raise over $600,000. Now City officials have embraced this concept and the City of Atlanta's Solid Waste Division employs homeless men and women from Samaritan House's Clean Street Teams to provide valuable city on-street and right-of-way de-littering. This program needs to be expanded - providing much need cleaning in our city while giving our unemployed citizens an opportunity to improve their lives.

• Knowing first hand the nightmare of near-gridlocked traffic many of us experience on a daily basis, I surveyed citizens across the city to identify the our worst traffic bottlenecks and have been working since that time to resolve them. The Top 10 Worst Bottlenecks List was included in the City’s submission to the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Transportation Improvement Plan – the only empirical data outside of the Department’s internal analysis. The results of my Transit Survey have been distributed to all agencies involved in transit: MARTA, Georgia DOT, ARC, and our own City Transportation Department. I have requested an analysis and accounting of all transportation impact fees required by City projects since 2002, so that we can get to work to bring real relief to our citizens’ traffic congestion. I am the only councilmember who has attended every public hearing on the streetcar. It’s an important project because of our transportation needs, our limited funds, and our levels of taxation, and I intend to watch it closely.

• Before being elected, I had volunteered my time on dozens of neighborhood issues, culminating in the Nancy Creek Tunnel. In that last endeavor before running to serve you in an elected capacity, I worked with the community to 1) form a grassroots organization to advocate for a better solution; 2) hired experts in engineering to evaluate and propose the best solution; 3) hired lobbyists to present our case to city government; and 4) raised the funds necessary to prevail. I am proud to say that today the Nancy Creek Tunnel is touted as one of the most significant projects in the $4.0 billion Clean Water Atlanta program. I have brought that same cost-consciousness and hands-on commonsense approach to my commitment on City Council to get the best possible break for our rate-payers. My willingness to stand up for you, the rate-payer, has kept your water and sewer bills from going through the ceiling

Atlantans know I'll work for them because I already have. But it's important to look forward, too. I envision an Atlanta that successfully balances the need to protect our beautiful neighborhoods and their tree-lined streets with the need to foster the economic growth that opens doors to prosperity and pays the bills. We must balance public safety, traffic, housing, infrastructure, and good value for our tax dollars. Delivery of city services must improve: reliability and efficiency matter.

I am committed to the issues that face all of our citizens:

• Keeping you safe
• Closing the revolving door of the juvenile justice "Points System"
• Utilizing technology to make our City work better
• Deploying our City's workforce strategically
• Delivering good city services efficiently and effectively - fixing the potholes, sweeping the streets, and collecting the garbage, all the things you need to work to support the quality of life you and your neighborhood deserve
• Enhancing our tax base and growing our City robustly
• Prying open our gridlocked traffic bottlenecks
• Balancing the needs of all citizens
• Preserving the best of Atlanta while accommodating its orderly redevelopment
• Giving code enforcement the teeth it needs
• Working with regional and state governments and all Georgians to foster better cooperation and attract more resources to our City

Atlantans also know I will be independent of machine politics, because that's the way I've served on Council. I've never hesitated to step on toes when good government demands it.

I stepped into public life when I saw the challenge: making City Hall work for us, delivering services commensurate to the taxes we pay, and actively fostering development suitable to the communities it serves. "Norwood for Neighborhoods" was my slogan in the 2001 race and "Accountability You Can Count On" in 2005. This combination, sensitivity to the needs of our communities and neighborhoods with a business-like focus on accountability and the bottom line, makes me unique at our City Hall.

No one who does business with the City or who wants to do business with the City will ever have to "play the game of go-along-to-get-along" or "pay to play" under a Mary Norwood administration.

My administration will be accountable because I will be beholden to no one but you. I will govern by putting the systems in place so that our employees have the tools they need to do a good job serving you, and we'll acknowledge and reward them for doing that. I'm the one who can put people first.

And I have the business acumen it takes to bring about real change at City Hall. Let me tell you about my days in the radio business. From executive secretary I worked my way up to Chief Operating Officer for Rounsaville Radio, founder of WQXI in Atlanta and owner of over 25 stations throughout the Southeast. I turned this business around from one that was losing money to one that was so successful that we were able to market and sell the stations for record-breaking prices. I know how to motivate a workforce.

What makes me think I will win? You do!

As a Citywide Councilwoman, I crisscrossed this city and listened to voices of every community, forging links that reach across Atlanta. I sat in living rooms in every part of this huge city and listened to voices of every community, the only Councilperson doing this. Real people - the ones who cast the ballots - know that I've been into their community. People say it all the time: Mary Norwood is EVERYWHERE.

Running for Mayor will be exactly the same: I will be EVERYWHERE as this campaign unfolds, listening, learning, advocating, activating. Won't you help? Let's meet, and together we can visit with your neighbors. Tell me about the issues that matter to you. Phone me at home. My home number is 404-237-3774. Or email me here. Join up. Together we're a great team!

I'm not just another politician. I listen. I hear. And I lead.

Thank you, and best wishes.

Sincerely,

Mary Norwood