Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon

4 days ago | atlantaciviccircle.org | Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon

Atlanta’s City Council unanimously adopted the city’s fiscal year 2026 budget on Monday, totaling $3 billion, and did so without raising city taxes. The budget passed “on consent” meaning council members made no amendments during the full council meeting —changes had already been finalized in committee. “This truly is a vote of confidence,” Mayor Andre Dickens told council members after the adoption.

5 days ago | atlantaciviccircle.org | Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon

The Atlanta Police Foundation (APF) must turn over records related to the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center — or “Cop City” — within 30 days, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jane Barwick ordered on Monday. Barwick’s decision follows a closely watched legal battle initiated by journalists and researchers seeking greater transparency about the polarizing project’s construction on city-owned land.

1 week ago | atlantaciviccircle.org | Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon

The Atlanta City Council will finalize its 2026 budget on Monday. With just a handful of hearings along the way, how accessible was the budget-planning process for everyday Atlantans? Atlanta Civic Circle examined how Boston and Chicago engage the public in budget planning. Though these cities and their budgets are larger than Atlanta’s, they have recently increased resident involvement in their spending decisions.

1 week ago | atlantaciviccircle.org | Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon

All candidates at Tuesday night’s Georgia Public Service Commission forum agreed: Georgia Power has too much power. Five of eight PSC candidates—a Republican and four Democrats—attended the forum to share their vision for the state’s utility regulator. Speaking to the few dozen Georgians who attended—and to hundreds more via live stream—all five roundly criticized Georgia Power and other utilities’ influence over the body tasked with regulating them.

2 weeks ago | atlantaciviccircle.org | Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon

This story is part of Atlanta Civic Circle’s ongoing reporting from our Community Impact Survey, which is gathering firsthand accounts from people across metro Atlanta on how federal actions are affecting them. When Jessica Johnson, executive director of The Scholarship Academy, received an email in late April from Georgia Serves, she didn’t expect to be told to immediately shut down her AmeriCorps program. But that’s exactly what happened.