Atlanta Mayor Dickens appoints interim inspector general

Perkins-Hooker brushed aside concern that the watchdog role is uniquely independent since its purpose is to investigate potential misconduct of elected officials — including those inside the mayor’s office.

“The mayor is just (appointing) someone who will not report to him — the person is just being appointed by him,” she said. “It’s just somebody to fill the seat until the board gets in place, and our hope is that the nominations will come in March.”

The inspector general’s governing board is made up of members appointed by legal and civil rights groups and is in charge of vetting and hiring the city’s inspector general. But the body no longer has enough members, after a majority resigned earlier this month alongside former Inspector General Shannon Manigault.

Credit: Riley Bunch/riley.bunch@ajc.com

Credit: Riley Bunch/riley.bunch@ajc.com

Manigault resigned from the top watchdog post citing “threats, bullying, intimidation and harassment at the hands of people who have been the subjects of our investigations.”

Her announcement came on the heels of a nearly yearlong battle between Manigault’s office and the Dickens administration over how much power the inspector general should have during investigations.

The city attorney accused the remaining inspector general staff of “sabotaging” changes to the office.

“With the staff there being supporters of the former inspector general trying their best to basically do anything they can to kind of sabotage what’s going on,” Perkins-Hooker said. “They are just very caustic in their attitude.”

Perkins-Hooker visited the office the day Manigault resigned and seized “spy pens” and other covert surveillance devices that were banned recently by Atlanta City Council.

Among the items confiscated, the city said, were 15 surveillance pens and coffee cup lids and smoke detectors with hidden cameras attached. The city attorney denied taking records or reports from the office.

Manigault gave an unprecedented speech during public comment at an Atlanta City Council meeting in May in which she detailed a “concerted effort” by top city officials to block misconduct and corruption investigations.

Her remarks triggered a campaign against her inside City Hall led by the mayor’s office that accused Manigault of trampling employee rights during interviews and even breaking state law while issuing subpoenas to third-party banks.

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

The Dickens administration created a task force to overhaul the office’s policies and procedures — with recommendations that would have given elected officials power to appoint members of the inspector general’s governing board. It would have also limited the office’s power to investigate illegal activity by politicians.

Atlanta City Council members backtracked a majority of the changes offered by the mayor’s office but ultimately passed sweeping legislation that outlines new procedures the watchdog office must take while carrying out its investigations.

It is legislation that the former inspector general said would “destroy the office.”

Manigault accused the mayor and his top officials of spreading misinformation and false narratives such as claims that the inspector general confiscated employees personal devices during investigations.

“But however much the people of the city of Atlanta want us to be here and want us to be doing our job,” she said when she resigned, “city leadership has made it crystal clear for them a real, functioning, effective Office of Inspector General is not welcome in Atlanta.”