April 12, 2004

The April Governing Magazine has a highly favorable profile of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. Under the title — How to Win Friends and Repair a City — Franklin gets high marks for tackling some of Atlanta's massive infrastructure problems and reaching out to state legislative and elected officials for critical support in achieving her goals in tackling the city's problems head on.

Franklin, incoming Chair of the Women Mayors Caucus of the United States Conference of Mayors, has an extensive record of public service before being elected in January 2002.

Franklin honed her skills as chief executive of the city of 423,000 (and the State Capitol) as Commissioner of cultural affairs for Atlanta under former mayor Maynard Jackson in the 1970's, then was chief administrator for the late Mayor Jackson and his successor Andrew Young in the 1980's. Later, the article notes, she spent five years helping to organize Atlanta's 1996 Olympic Games. Continues the profile: "In each job, she managed to maintain credibility among widely disparate interests and factions" and she also benefited from a tendency of those in power to underestimate her.