DeKalb County Government "Rotten to the Core"

Two weeks ago, members of the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners voted to strip money intended to pay for a corruption investigation by former Georgia Attorney General Mike Bowers from the county's mid-year budget.

 

The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners have opted to pull hundreds of thousands in funding for a special corruption investigation, a move board member Nancy Jester called a "delay tactic" to avoid scrutiny.

 

Before commissioners approved the county's $1.3 billion mid-year budget Tuesday, they stripped out $500,000 for an ongoing probe into corruption allegations against county officials and staffers.

 

"The commissioners that are hemming and hawing on this are trying to keep disclosure at bay," says Commissioner Jester, who opposed the move.

 

"To come around and say, 'Oh but I have a question about this investigation because I'm such a great financial manager, and I'm so careful with taxpayer dollars,' those things are not congruent," Jester says.

 

The commission also stripped another $200,000 for the district attorney's office to hire four people for his public integrity unit.

 

Yesterday, Bowers sent a letter to Lee May to update the DeKalb County iCEO on the status of the investigation commissioned by May into public corruption in DeKalb.

 

The DeKalb County government we have found is rotten to the core. The misconduct starts at the top and has infected nearly every department we have looked at.

 

While most folks have been helpful, some department heads have flatly ignored requests from you and your office to provide full documentation with regard to P-card records, including the transaction logs that are required to be kept at each work site.  

 

They have also ignored Open Records Act requests we have filed and today are in violation of state law.... By refusing to provide the needed records they are delaying the completion of this inquiry.

 

The extent of P-Card abuse and misuse is astounding.

 

Taxpayer funds were routinely used to buy liquor, catered meals, candy, popcorn and pretzels filled with peanut butter for elected officials, department heads and staff members. The county's own internal auditors have reported this improper spending over the years. Yet the abuse has continued.

 

But the waste and fraud is not exclusive to P-cCards. For instance, several departments over the past five years have regularly overspent their budgets and no action has been taken to correct this illegal conduct.

 

Thefts of county property have been covered-up and mishandled.

And just in the last few days, we have found what appears to be a bribery scheme involving a major county department.

 

Lee May responded to serious allegations of theft, financial impropriety, and possible bribery by throwing the very investigators he hired under the bus in a press release.

 

"I wholeheartedly disagree with the opinion that DeKalb County is rotten to the core. The overwhelming majority of DeKalb County employees are honest, decent, hard-working, and committed to public service.

 

We were aware of the underlying issues mentioned in Mr. Bowers' letter. That is why we hired him to conduct a comprehensive review of county government operations to identify corruption, fraud, criminal activity, conflicts of interest, or abuse; with a report in 120 days.

 

The 120 days has come and gone, and it appears the only thing we have to show for it is a 2-page letter full of salacious - but vague - innuendo."

 

DeKalb County Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton doesn't see the point of an investigation, according to the AJC.

 

Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton said she's never seen the purpose of the investigation since law enforcement agencies are already doing the same thing.

 

"If any of those things are found to be true, of course I would be alarmed, no question about it," she said. "I need to see what we're getting for the money we've already been charged."

 

Commissioner Nancy Jester (R-Dunwoody) spoke to 11Alive about the letter and corruption in DeKalb County.

 

"It's a very disheartening letter to read," said Commissioner Nancy Jester. Jester's conclusion -- the letter is on the right track, and the investigation is just what the county needs to clean up its act.

 

Jester said when the full report is complete, she'll be ready to call for arrests and prosecutions, if necessary.

 

"If people have stolen from the taxpayer, they need to be held to account. If they're an employee or if they're an elected official, they have got to be prosecuted for that crime."

 

Jester also spoke to Fox 5 Atlanta about the letter.

 

Commissioner Nancy [Jester] says "things are very bad in DeKalb County; this is not a perception problem. This is a real problem."

Commissioner Jester says the findings are shocking. She says people need to be held accountable. "We need to hold people's feet to the fire on this. Taxpayers are harmed and we won't stop wasting money until we root out this corruption.

 

DeKalb County Commissioner Nancy Jester sent out the following statement this morning:

DeKalb County is a great county with amazing people. Among those are many good and dedicated public employees of the DeKalb County government who, everyday, work hard for the taxpayers with honor and professionalism. 

It is both the taxpayers and these many honest employees of DeKalb County who are the victims of an out of control, corrupt DeKalb County government that is rotten to the core.

It does not serve the taxpayers nor employees of DeKalb County for elected officials to deliberately mischaracterize and misquote the initial update from the DeKalb County Special Investigators. Instead of living in denial and attempting to cover up the stunning reality we face at this point in the investigation, the Administration should - with all due haste - ensure the taxpayers and honest employees that those stealing taxpayer dollars will face the full force of the law.

Instead of criticizing the DeKalb County Special Investigators, the Administration should order every county employee to fully cooperate and make all information and documents available or face immediate termination.

Instead of criticizing the DeKalb County Special Investigators, the Administration should acknowledge that when employees refuse to cooperate by withholding information and documents, it is the employees who refuse to cooperate that delay the investigation and raise the cost of the effort.

As long as the Administration fails to send a clear and direct message that every employee will cooperate with the investigation, taxpayers and honest employees will continue to endure the consequences of the few who are acting outside the law.

It is unacceptable for some of my fellow Commissioners to both refuse to make their records and documents available and refuse to support this investigation while giving away millions of tax dollars for a soccer complex.  If there are millions for billionaires, there is money to expose waste, fraud, and abuse.

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