At an October 24th vote of the District 3 caucus to elect the person to serve as the representative from District 3 to the ATL Board, Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts failed in his bid to win a seat for Fulton County Government on the new 16 member ATL Board.HB 930, which was approved by the Georgia General Assembly earlier this year, required the establishment of a 16 member Board of Directors which will be responsible for transit projects throughout the 13 county metro area. All major MARTA assets will be branded with ATL by 2023.
The District 3 Caucus voted to elect Dr. Steve Dickerson, a retired, 78-year-old professor emeritus from Georgia Tech. The District 3 Caucus was made up of 32 Republicans and 9 Democrats.
Chairman Pitts said of the election, “I knew, given the makeup of the caucus, it would be very difficult for me to win a seat for Fulton County Government on the new ATL Board. But because HB 930 did not designate seats on the ATL Board for the Chair of the Fulton County Commission, Mayor of Atlanta nor the DEO of DeKalb County, I felt compelled to run for the position in order to give the one million plus people of Fulton County a voice in how the billions of transportation dollars will be spent over the next 30 to 40 years.”
“For forty years, it has been the good people of Fulton County, DeKalb County and the City of Atlanta who have funded public transit in our area — investing approximately $10.4 billion — so, in my opinion, it is only fair, just and equitable for these three governments to be represented,” added Pitts.
In addition to Dickerson and Pitts, Sally Riker, a partner with Lowe Engineers, and Rusty Paul, Mayor of Sandy Springs, were candidates for the position. Just before the voting was to begin Mayor Paul, to the surprise of some present, withdrew his name.
Five other appointments had already been made by state leaders as provided for in HB 930. Governor Nathan Deal appointed Charlie Sutlive to serve as Board Chair. Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle appointed Teddy Russell and Mark Toro. Speaker David Ralston appointed Gwinnett County Chair Charlotte Nash and outgoing State Representative Earl Earhart. The Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Transportation will serve as an ex-officio member of the ATL Board.
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