Council Member
Carla Smith
Council District 1
|
E-Mail Address: csmith@atlantaga.gov |
Office Location:
Staff Contacts:
When Carla Smith landed in Atlanta she immediately got involved in her community, which at the time was slowly transitioning from a community of vacant and abandoned homes, drugs and other criminal activity to a very diverse community of families, singles, homeowners and renters. This grass roots activist currently continues to resides in the Woodland Hills community located in District One along with her husband Scott and their son Carl. An organizer of her community’s Neighborhood Watch, Carla utilized this as an opportunity to welcome new neighbors and invite others to become active in SAND (South Atlanta Neighborhood Development). As Public safety chair of SAND Carla worked with Zone 6 police department to support their efforts to fight crime within the area. She made a commitment to training others by sharing information that her neighbors could utilize to deter crime and by encouraging the organization of additional Neighborhood Watches. Carla has also served on several other committees and boards before coming to City Hall, including; Chair of the SAND Welcoming Committee, Chair of St. Paul Golden Age Center and as a board member of the SAND Credit Union, The Atlanta Project Public Safety Committee, Cluster 5 and NPU-W. Currently, Carla is a board member of the Atlanta Community ToolBank , Atlanta Streetcar, Inc. and Southstar CDC. As Councilmember of District One, Carla has served on the following committees: Public Safety and Legal Administration, City Utilities, Transportation, and Zoning. Carla Smith has also served as Chairperson of the Committee on Council for two years. During the year 2005 Carla will serve on Public Safety and Legal Administration, City Utilities and the Zoning Committees. Upon taking office Carla was not happy about all the Street Name changes that had occurred in recent years. She was later quoted stating “not only are we losing our history, we are inconveniencing the residents by having to change addresses on licenses, signage for businesses and more”. She re-wrote the section of the code to make it more difficult to change the name of parks, streets and other public spaces. It also takes into account the expense to tax payers when this occurs. Now it requires neighborhood input, signatures of residents and business stakeholders, and public hearings. It is still doable and sometimes needed for various reasons. But it now takes forethought work and historical reasoning. Sometimes called the Solid Waste Councilperson or “Garbage Queen“Carla’s interest in recycling and the handling of waste in the city was utilized as Co-Chair of the Solid Waste Facilities Task Force, which was brought about due to the State mandated closing of Live Oak Landfill in December 2004. The Task Force’s job was to review “best practices” in the Solid Waste Handling industry and to make policy recommendations to the Mayor’s Office, the City Council and the Department of Public Works. Other committees Carla has served on are; Mayor Franklin’s Sales Tax Referendum Steering Committee, Underground Atlanta's Entertainment District Task Force, and Chaired the Committee to Honor the late Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr.
|
