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ATI's funding challenged

• Albany Tomorrow Inc. faces a possible loss of funding from the Albany City Commission.

Carlton Fletcher

ALBANY — Discussion of problems associated with the completion of the Ray Charles Plaza during an Albany City Commission work session Tuesday morning led one commissioner to suggest that the city reconsider $150,000 in funding it has included in its fiscal year 2009 budget for Albany Tomorrow Inc.

Ward 5 Commissioner Bob Langstaff said the city should discontinue funding it approved during last year’s budget process before ATI names another executive director.

“One of the reasons I voted against approving the budget last year was that I didn’t think (funding ATI) was a valid expenditure,” Langstaff said during a break at the meeting. “That doesn’t mean that I think there is no role for ATI in the development of downtown Albany. I just think coordination of redevelopment should come from one person.

“Rather than using that $150,000 to essentially pay for bureaucracy we don’t need, let’s take it and fix the things that they did not accomplish ... like the Ray Charles Plaza.”

Albany Tomorrow Treasurer Mike Marz, who is the CEO/president of SunTrust Banks South Georgia, said Langstaff’s comments may signal the need for some “unique ideas” from the development group’s board.

“This is really a critical time in the life of ATI,” Marz said Tuesday evening. “Most of the low-lying fruit downtown has been picked ... all the government stuff. Downtown Albany is in dire need of additional retail and light commerce, but we need — as a community — to get out of the mode of government-funded projects.

“We’ve got to get private funding, and that’s where ATI could really be important. There’s a lot of benefit to having an ATI when you’re negotiating with a developer. It would be, I think, a crying shame to put all that responsibility on the city only.”

Messages left for ATI Chairman C.W. Grant, Vice Chair Mary Helen Dykes and Executive Committee member Surendra Pandey Tuesday were not returned by press time.

During a discussion of the Albany Recreation & Parks Department’s fiscal year 2009 budget requests, City Manager Alfred Lott noted that the department would soon be responsible for upkeep of the special-purpose local-option sales tax-funded North Trail and Ray Charles Plaza once they were turned over to the city by ATI.

“Things are fine with the trail pretty much, but there are considerable issues with the Ray Charles park,” Lott said. “It may be best for us to take that over. There are serious landscaping issues that are going to call for additional dollars.

“Rather than give that money to another entity, I think we should do it ourselves. I’d rather take charge of that project.”

That prompted Langstaff’s suggestion that the city remove the second installment of the $300,000 it had earmarked for ATI through FY ’09.

“We justified keeping the money for ATI in the budget last year by setting up a contract that calls for deliverables from them,” he said. “I don’t think they met the terms of the contract; we didn’t get the deliverables.

“Frankly, I’m concerned about the other projects (the Thronateeska Science Discovery Center and the Albany Civil Rights Institute). I’d rather see engineering take those over and make sure they’re done right. The city manager expressed confidence that these projects would be completed, but I really think he was being diplomatic. He once had confidence in the Ray Charles project.”

Langstaff said the commission should take action quickly.

“I don’t want them to hire another executive director when we’re not going to fund them,” he said. “I think we should take the funds we had planned to give to them and let (Downtown Manager) Mr. (Don) Buie use it to continue the work he’s doing downtown.

“The ATI board has some very accomplished business people with valuable economic development skills. They have the ability to keep ATI actively involved in redevelopment without the $150,000 from the city.”

Marz said it’s time for the ATI board to use those skills.

“Whether it’s ATI, ADICA (the Albany-Dougherty Inner City Authority) or XYZ, the community needs to stay involved with downtown development,” he said. “A developer’s going to have a hard time negotiating the land mines of bureaucracy at city hall as opposed to dealing with people actively involved in the community.

“I can guarantee you this will be discussed at our next meeting, and I hope some of those unique and even off-the-wall ideas emerge. Because we need to stay involved; it just may not be ATI as it currently exists.”

ATI’s board of directors is scheduled to meet at the RiverFront Resource Center’s Candy Room today at 11 a.m.

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