By Maynard Eaton / Staff

As Kasim Reed prepares to take his oath of office on January 4th to become Atlanta’s 59th mayor, the 40-year-old former state senator is already aggressively addressing Atlanta’s top two problems – crime and the city’s out-of-control pension costs.

Reed has launched a nationwide search for a new police chief and has named a veteran Atlanta cop and Atlanta native Deputy Chief George Turner, as his acting chief.

Even more recently Reed empowered a panel headed by former AJC publisher John C. Mellott to tackle the “toughest challenge the City faces right now” – the costly pension system.

This panel will not endorse or push any single option, says Mellott, only deliver options to the city.

“If we don’t act the pension liability will absorb all the revenue that comes into the city of Atlanta,” said Reed. “So we will literally be operating a government to pay pensions. It is a must do. I do not have any choice. It is crippling our city.”

Shortly after this announcement Reed invited this reporter to his makeshift transition office in the old City Council chambers to reflect on his campaign and the tough job facing him.  Here is that interview.

Q: Ten years ago we did a story that you were a “young gun” politician who was likely headed to the Atlanta mayor’s office.  Well, you are here now.  What are your thoughts?

Reed: I got into politics and public service to do good, and I believe the office of Mayor gives you a unique opportunity to do good.  So I am just very happy and humbled by the opportunity to serve the city that I love.

Q: It took a lot to get here; it was no easy campaign.

Reed: Nothing has ever been easy for me.

Q: Almost a year ago – last January – you told me you were working out in the gym and getting in shape.  It really was a fight?

Reed: Yes, it was.  I knew that it would be tough having never run city-wide before; running against a well-known field of candidates that had run city-wide twice. I knew that it would require a lot of work.  I shared with you then that I knew how this movie was going to end, and it ended the way that I thought.

Q: It played out like you predicted?

Reed: It’s amazing – you have to dream and work, but work harder then you dream.

Q: Going from single digits in the polls to a narrow winning margin was in effect your game plan was it not?

Reed: It was and I think we implemented it reasonably well and got a good result. But when you haven’t run city-wide before, and you are running for Mayor of Atlanta – you know mayors are very personal – so it takes time and work for citizens to get to know you and become comfortable with you.  It is a process that has made me a better person.

Q: How did you grow and change during the grueling campaign?  You’ve been teased about not being warm and cuddly, for example.

Reed: I think I am warmer. I think that you reach a point in all campaigns where you are either going to change or you will lose.  I think that the fact that I’ve had a lot of responsibility early has probably hardened me and caused me to be more closed than you need to be to be Mayor of Atlanta.  So the process of meeting people from all over, I think, made me more open. It is not arrogance, which is what people perceive, it’s handling responsibilities at a relatively young age. It causes you to be a little more focused and a little more driven and that comes off as arrogance.

Q: We wrote a story recently suggesting that were it not for your newly annexed neighbors who voted at Bunche Middle School for the first time in a city election you would not be our 59th mayor.

Reed: That’s true. I think that it made a difference.  But the one thing about having a victory by 714 votes is that it all mattered.  But it all mattered with Mayor Franklin. Mayor Franklin avoided a runoff by 188 votes.  She won with 50.014 percent of the vote.  I won with 50.45 percent of the vote.  If you look at our electoral maps they are exactly the same.  I won every city council district except 4, 6, 7 and 8. She also won every council district except 4, 6, 7 and 8.

Q: Still the difference was the new city voters from subdivisions such as Guilford Forest, where you live, and others that added 2,400 votes to your total.

Reed: That’s right but Guilford Forest is in play now.  We won and that’s it.

Q: There’s been much talk of late of this so-called transfer of political power from the Moses generation to the Joshua generation since you are 40 years old and Council President Caesar Mitchell is 41.

Reed: I think President Obama framed it correctly. His conversation about the Moses generation passing on not just the mantle of leadership but responsibilities of leadership is appropriate.  We’re dealing with issues that have very real consequences for people’s lives day in and day out. I believe that Caesar Mitchell is ready for that.  I believe that I am ready. I believe that [Fulton County Commission Chairman] John Eaves is ready.  I think that [DeKalb County CEO] Burrell Ellis is ready, and the list goes on and on.

Q: There is a new leadership cadre in metro Atlanta you suggest?

Reed: There is no question about it.  You can’t argue that that is the fact.

Q: There were seemingly a cadre of  black voters who felt disconnected from the levers of power and influence that flocked to Mary Norwood’s campaign.  Is this a divided city?

Reed: We went through that in 2001.  It’s not new.  There was a cadre of individuals that supported Rob Pitts in 2001 and Gloria Tinubu.  She got 17 percent of the vote without spending any money. The reason I was at peace during the campaign is because I have been through this before. 

What I know is the gap between the haves and the have-nots is growing in Atlanta and it is threatening the vitality of our city and the Atlanta we know.  My focus everyday is to do a small number of things very well.  I don’t have a large agenda.   I want to create jobs for people and help retain the jobs that they have.  I want to keep people safe.  I want to invest in our children, and I want to restore fiscal stability to our city so we can stop raising people’s taxes.

At the end of the day if you are not working and can’t support yourself or your family you don’t feel good about the town.  If something or someone is harming you because you do not have adequate police protection, you don’t feel good about Atlanta.  If young people look across the street and see a recreation center that is closed and a pool that is empty, how do you think they feel about Atlanta?  So the Atlanta that you and I know and experience everyday isn’t the Atlanta that they are experiencing.

Q: Any particular vision as you head into your first 100 days in office?

Reed: I got elected Mayor because of my record. I had a record of accomplishment that was verifiable and that’s how I won.   I had an 11-year record of delivery.  And, I am going to do that as the Mayor of the city, I am going to deliver.  I’m going to deliver for the people of Atlanta again and again and again.

Q: That sounds like a theme for your inaugural speech?

Reed: I don’t know.  You are inspiring me.