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Bottoms: "Out of body experience" winning runoff

Keisha Lance Bottoms in the mayor-elect transition office at Atlanta City Hall

ATLANTA -- Mayor-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms she expects to spend much of the next three weeks making personnel decisions for her new administration. One of them, she tells 11alive News, is to keep Atlanta Police Chief Erica Shields in her job.

Friday morning, Keisha Lance Bottoms was in a dark hallway outside her new transition suite at Atlanta City Hall. With her inauguration three weeks out, time is suddenly running short.

"Overwhelming. I have 849 text messages that I haven’t read. And I don’t know how many voice mails I have. Lots of missed calls," Bottoms said.

Bottoms won a narrow victory Tuesday. Her opponent Mary Norwood vowed to demand a recount. Bottoms says that won’t prevent her from taking the initial steps to build her new administration.

"If it were the other way around, I would want to make sure everything is in order," Bottoms said of the recount. "But I think that’s been affirmed and reaffirmed. And so I think it’s just time for us to move on."

One decision she’s already pondered involves Erica Shields, appointed a year ago as Atlanta police chief by Mayor Kasim Reed. Bottoms aims to keep her where she is.

"We’ve talked informally about it. I’m a fan of Chief Shields. I think she’s done a great job and I made that known throughout the campaign. So I would be happy for her to stay on as chief," Bottoms said.

Bottoms says she also hopes to make some introductions at the state capitol – to establish relationships with Governor Deal and other state leaders between now and January. The days since the runoff, Bottoms says, have been otherworldly.

"To see the national response, how engaged people were nationally has really blown me away," Bottoms said.

The response has included folks who have embraced the fact that a woman named "Keisha" is taking the reins of government in Atlanta.

Asked about that, Bottoms laughed. "I love it. isn’t that appropriate? That’s kind of cool. I think it’s really cool. I went to high school with several Keishas. I think I’ve made us all proud."

She gets sworn in January 2. The location was undetermined as of Friday due to the pending sale of the Atlanta Civic Center, typically the venue for mayoral inaugurations.

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