| Leadership graduates practice regional problem-solving |
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Although the group’s transportation bill doesn’t have teeth, the process was an important exercise, says Civic League member Michael Halicki, who co-chaired the event planning committee. "It gets people to think about the different dimensions and how they play out over time," he said. And interestingly, the bill the group finally agreed upon closely mirrored the bills that came out of the state Senate two years ago.
Program participants spent the morning at the Georgia World Congress Center hearing from speakers representing a range of perspectives on regional transportation. Speakers included Ray Christman, executive director of the Livable Communities Coalition; Ross King, deputy director of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia; Dana Lemon, Georgia Department of Transportation board member; Terry Chastain, executive director of Keep Georgia Moving; Doug Hooker, vice president and east region director of PBS&J; and Sen. Doug Stoner, Georgia State Senate, District 6. After working on their draft bills in small groups, the mock legislators then moved to the Gold Dome and debated the hypothetical legislation. Though the region’s transportation problems were not really resolved, perhaps the pretend legislators left behind good karma for their real-life counterparts who will resume the transportation debate at the State Capitol in a few weeks.
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On November 4, regional leaders met at the State Capitol and passed ground-breaking legislation that could finally solve Metro Atlanta’s transportation woes. But don’t get too excited: Those regional leaders weren’t state legislators but rather participants in the Regional Leadership Day at the Capitol, an annual event which brings leadership classes from around the region together to learn about the issues and discover the transformative impact emerging leaders can have by working with their peers from across the region. 
Regional Leadership Day is jointly sponsored by The Civic League for Regional Atlanta and the Regional Business Coalition. This year the event was combined with The League’s Randolph W. Thrower Forum, an annual issue-driven leadership event established to honor the Atlanta tax attorney’s legacy and to promote the kind of civic engagement he exemplified. The event drew 135 participants from Leadership Atlanta, Leadership Clayton, Leadership DeKalb, Leadership Douglas, Leadership Fayette, Leadership Newnan/Coweta, Leadership North Fulton and Leadership Sandy Springs. Sponsors for the event were King & Spalding, JJG and PBS&J.
