Alieka Anderson-Henry, Chairwoman, Clayton County
Clayton County has seen a shift in leadership focus that now emphasizes communication, collaboration, consistency, and customer service. “Some of the shifts that we’ve given to our leaders in the county, that I think have impacted them in many ways, are changing their way of thinking. We’ve been focused on the three Cs, which are Communication, Collaboration, and Consistency,” said Dr. Alieka Anderson-Henry, Chairwoman of the County.
What changes or shifts over the past year have most impacted the county and in what ways?
Among the shifts has been a change in the way our leadership thinks. We’ve been focused on the three Cs: Communication, Collaboration, and Consistency. And as we communicate throughout the county, one of the things that I focus on is customer service. One of the shifts that we’ve made in customer service is ensuring that we are expedient in getting back to our customers, who are the citizens of Clayton County. We want to make sure that we are asking how they are doing, how we can help, and how we can serve them. It is imperative that we get back to our constituents within 24 hours, or no more than 48 hours. Another key element that we’ve focused on as I’ve transitioned into this role is building relationships. For example, we’ve built relationships with the airport, which is great because almost 90% of Clayton County sits right there at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. We’ve also built relationships with the city of Atlanta, with the Atlanta Regional Commission, Aerotropolis, and with MARTA. One of the great things with MARTA is that we’re looking at how we can leverage our one-cent sales tax so we can start moving into different modes of transportation, like bus rapid transit (BRT) or improving our rail service throughout Clayton County. We’re looking at different modes of transportation that are going to take us into the future. Delta, which is one of our biggest employers, is leveraging things with us as well. We are working with Delta on workforce and economic development. Delta wants to see us grow, and their foundation has given Clayton County $16.5 million. Those funds will go to our chamber of commerce and to our school system, but the bulk of it is going to go to our nonprofits in Clayton County.
What is your economic development approach to revenue and taxes?
In Clayton County, we are moving forward with economic development because it is time. We have to focus on bringing sales tax dollars in, rather than having our property owners having to bear the burden of high property taxes. We want to start looking at diversified streams of revenue that we can bring into Clayton County so we can move Clayton forward. Also, I have met with all seven of my mayors, and I’m challenging them as well. In essence, let’s look at the plots of land within your cities, and have a conversation about how we can develop those plots to bring in economic development so we can move Clayton forward.
What is your strategy with nonprofits?
One of the things I want to do is get a meeting place for our nonprofits. Our nonprofits are the heartbeat of our community. Clayton County needs to start using our nonprofits to help with our marginalized community, so we can make sure that the people in the county have the resources that they need to better their quality of life. Most of our nonprofits are doing the same thing. That means more or less housing and feeding. But how do we bring them all together so we can serve the needs of the community? We’ve created a website for our nonprofits where a constituent who needs help with paying their rent, for example, or with paying their light bill, can go on that particular website, type in their need, and it will steer them to a nonprofit that could service them and give them the things that they need to pay their bills or bring food into their house. We’re going to be leveraging our nonprofits through that website, especially with our homeless community, or others in need.
What is the county’s strategy to meet the workforce needs of its industries?
Delta has provided a lot of money for the chamber to work on workforce development throughout the county, and there is a three-part plan in place. We want to work with the school system to make sure that our students are work-ready. We want to create career paths as we work together. One thing we did this year is a seminar, where we took our students out to Atlanta Technical College and had them tour the campus. We also enrolled them in some customer service and communication classes that they can take over the summer. Also, we allowed them to look at some of the career paths that are available to them because these were students who had not decided or did not know what they were going to do with their life. Next, the chamber, the Board of Education, and the county government is going to come together to do a workforce development incubator for small businesses. We’re taking our old social security building, and we’re going to turn it into what we will call WorkSource Clayton. We’ve also announced that we will have a career pathway that’s going to start from high school and go all the way to college. That pathway will focus on aviation mechanics and different jobs in the aviation field.
What is the county doing to help entrepreneurs and small businesses?
We hold small-business workshops that we do within the county to make sure that we get these businesses registered within the county. We will also be working with the Urban League of Atlanta as we do those workshops. We want them to come in and let our small businesses know what is available to them as far as loans, how to get a loan with the Small Business Administration, and how to work with the government.
