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Mary Norwood
Mary Norwood (born 1952) is an American businesswoman and politician who is a member of the Atlanta City Council. She was a candidate for mayor of Atlanta in 2009 and 2017. In both campaigns she advanced to the runoff, but respectively lost to Kasim Reed and Keisha Lance Bottoms by narrow margins. In addition to her mayoral runs, she represented city-wide posts on the Atlanta City Council from 2002 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2018. She resides in the Tuxedo Park neighborhood of Atlanta's Buckhead community.
Norwood was born in Augusta, Georgia. She attended Sweet Briar College, is a graduate of Emory University.[better source needed] She is married to Dr. Felton Norwood, who worked as a pediatrician at Piedmont Hospital for more than 30 years.[better source needed] She and her husband have two children together. She moved to Atlanta in the early 1980s,[better source needed] and around that time became involved in activism on neighborhood and community matters. She founded several local groups related to environmentalism and the preservation of green space, and served on the Mayor's Task Force on Race and Diversity during the mayoralty of Bill Campbell.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s (during the dot-com boom), Norwood owned OneCallWeb.com –a web-based broadcast voice messaging provider that facilitated telemarketing-style auto dialing.
From 2002 until 2010, Norwood served two terms as a member of the Atlanta City Council, holding the second of its at-large seats. She forwent re-election in 2009 in order to run for mayor. The Atlanta City Council has three at-large seats, which are each filled through separate elections. Norwood was first elected in 2001 to an at-large seat that incumbent Julia Emmons was ceding (Emmons opted to forgo re-election and instead run for council president).
Norwood was one of five white members on the black-majority council. Facing three other candidates, Norwood won a strong victory with approximately two-thirds of the vote. Norwood was unopposed for re-election in 2005.
Norwood voted against a tax increase proposal in June 2008, which did not pass. After the failure of the tax increase, the city administration responded by reducing public safety personnel and imposed a 10 percent pay cut on city workers to balance the budget. The City of Atlanta's budget was said to be balanced for several years. However, by March 2009, Atlanta's bond rating was downgraded by Standard & Poor's, a key credit rating agency. This downgrade resulted from four years of operating deficits, as well as longer-term pressures associated with the Atlanta's underfunded pensions, police overtime, and subsidies to several funds. Atlanta's solid waste and capital finance funds were also downgraded. In June 2009, the City Council voted 8–7, to increase the Atlanta property tax rate for general operations from 7.12 mills to 10.12 mills, a 42 percent increase. Atlanta is one of the few big cities nationwide to raise property taxes that year. Norwood voted against this increase, insisting that there was money to be found within Atlanta's budget. In both instances that she voted against tax increases, Norwood asked the city to reduce its spending on areas other than public safety personnel.[citation needed]
Norwood rejoined the city council in 2014, having won election to the city's second at-large seat in the 2013 election. She unseated incumbent Aaron Watson, a rarity in Atlanta City Council elections. Norwood was regarded to have benefited from strong name recognition as a result of her mayoral candidacy four years prior. In 2017, she opted to run for mayor a second time instead of seeking re-election to the council.
In 2021, Norwood ran unopposed for the 8th district seat on the city council. The seat represents parts of the Buckhead neighborhood and northwest Atlanta.
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Mary Norwood
Mary Norwood (born 1952) is an American businesswoman and politician who is a member of the Atlanta City Council. She was a candidate for mayor of Atlanta in 2009 and 2017. In both campaigns she advanced to the runoff, but respectively lost to Kasim Reed and Keisha Lance Bottoms by narrow margins. In addition to her mayoral runs, she represented city-wide posts on the Atlanta City Council from 2002 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2018. She resides in the Tuxedo Park neighborhood of Atlanta's Buckhead community.
Norwood was born in Augusta, Georgia. She attended Sweet Briar College, is a graduate of Emory University.[better source needed] She is married to Dr. Felton Norwood, who worked as a pediatrician at Piedmont Hospital for more than 30 years.[better source needed] She and her husband have two children together. She moved to Atlanta in the early 1980s,[better source needed] and around that time became involved in activism on neighborhood and community matters. She founded several local groups related to environmentalism and the preservation of green space, and served on the Mayor's Task Force on Race and Diversity during the mayoralty of Bill Campbell.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s (during the dot-com boom), Norwood owned OneCallWeb.com –a web-based broadcast voice messaging provider that facilitated telemarketing-style auto dialing.
From 2002 until 2010, Norwood served two terms as a member of the Atlanta City Council, holding the second of its at-large seats. She forwent re-election in 2009 in order to run for mayor. The Atlanta City Council has three at-large seats, which are each filled through separate elections. Norwood was first elected in 2001 to an at-large seat that incumbent Julia Emmons was ceding (Emmons opted to forgo re-election and instead run for council president).
Norwood was one of five white members on the black-majority council. Facing three other candidates, Norwood won a strong victory with approximately two-thirds of the vote. Norwood was unopposed for re-election in 2005.
Norwood voted against a tax increase proposal in June 2008, which did not pass. After the failure of the tax increase, the city administration responded by reducing public safety personnel and imposed a 10 percent pay cut on city workers to balance the budget. The City of Atlanta's budget was said to be balanced for several years. However, by March 2009, Atlanta's bond rating was downgraded by Standard & Poor's, a key credit rating agency. This downgrade resulted from four years of operating deficits, as well as longer-term pressures associated with the Atlanta's underfunded pensions, police overtime, and subsidies to several funds. Atlanta's solid waste and capital finance funds were also downgraded. In June 2009, the City Council voted 8–7, to increase the Atlanta property tax rate for general operations from 7.12 mills to 10.12 mills, a 42 percent increase. Atlanta is one of the few big cities nationwide to raise property taxes that year. Norwood voted against this increase, insisting that there was money to be found within Atlanta's budget. In both instances that she voted against tax increases, Norwood asked the city to reduce its spending on areas other than public safety personnel.[citation needed]
Norwood rejoined the city council in 2014, having won election to the city's second at-large seat in the 2013 election. She unseated incumbent Aaron Watson, a rarity in Atlanta City Council elections. Norwood was regarded to have benefited from strong name recognition as a result of her mayoral candidacy four years prior. In 2017, she opted to run for mayor a second time instead of seeking re-election to the council.
In 2021, Norwood ran unopposed for the 8th district seat on the city council. The seat represents parts of the Buckhead neighborhood and northwest Atlanta.