A closer look at Buckhead cityhood’s claims of public safety consulting and business deals
By John Ruch, Saporta Report
Bolstering the case for Buckhead cityhood are its advocacy group’s detailed claims of consulting public safety experts and cutting deals to attract new businesses contingent on the secession. But some of those alleged contacts — including a national law firm and the famous former head of the New York and L.A. police departments — say they have had no such talks, and most other claims could not be verified.
Bill White, the Buckhead City Committee’s (BCC) chairman and CEO, made the claims at a Nov. 4 hearing of the Georgia Senate’s Committee on State and Local Government Operations. White said he would answer questions about them on the condition that SaportaReport identifies who was sponsoring this story and claimed that anti-cityhood groups had sponsored or received promotion in all previous SaportaReport stories on the subject. When informed that no such sponsorship or promotion exists, White did not respond.
As debate heats up over the BCC’s attempt to get a cityhood question on the November 2022 ballot, much controversy focuses on the lack of detail on such unanswered questions as impacts on Atlanta Public Schools (APS), municipal bond ratings and Atlanta City Council districts. Less noticed is the BCC’s advance work on city operations and policies down to such details as a pledge that every Buckhead City police officer on its 200-person force would be allowed to take their cruiser home.
With crime the political driver of cityhood politics, White offered many such details in the Senate committee hearing. State Sen. Michelle Au (D-Johns Creek) questioned him about the root causes of crime in Buckhead. White referred to advice from former Detroit Police Chief James Craig, now a Republican candidate for Michigan governor, and former New York City Police Commissioner and Los Angeles Police Chief Bill Bratton, a nationally known crime consultant who recently published a memoir called “The Profession.”
Responding to Au, White said: “So, in talking to our many police chiefs and advisors — you know, I don’t know if a lot of folks know the names here, but Chief Craig, who was the chief of Detroit, [and] Bill Bratton, who was the man who cleaned up New York from being pretty bad to being one of the safest large cities, the safest large city in America.” He was then interrupted by someone handing him a bottle of water and did not continue his explanation before going into cityhood advocate’s general crackdown approach to crime.
Bill Bratton, former head of the New York City and Los Angeles police departments, denies involvement in the Buckhead cityhood movement.
Craig did not respond to a comment request, but Bratton did. “I have no involvement with the Buckhead initiative,” Bratton said in an email.