DeKalb County’s incoming chief executive said four outside companies will help her evaluate how well the county is operating and serving its residents, with a strong focus on core areas like public safety, affordable housing and infrastructure.
Lorraine Cochran-Johnson defeated two challengers in the Democratic primary in June to become the first Black woman to hold the county government’s top office, and just the second woman ever. No Republicans ran for the seat.
She takes over for the term-limited Michael Thurmond on Jan. 1.
“I thought that it would be a good idea to have top global companies take a look at DeKalb and ensure that we have best practices,” Cochran-Johnson said in an interview.
Cochran-Johnson, who also recently discussed her plan on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia podcast, said the review will pinpoint specific areas where changes are needed and explore how to build on the successes. She said the four firms — Ernst & Young, Accenture, Piper Sandler and Pond & Co. — are providing their services to the county free of charge.
Pond, an architecture and engineering firm based in Peachtree Corners, will assist the county by holding a listening tour to get community feedback, said a company spokesperson, adding that there is no contract for the work.
“It is pretty common for our local government group to provide help of this nature where there is a need and we have expertise,” the spokesperson, Eve Errickson, said in an email. She added that the company has provided similar services pro bono to DeKalb and other local governments in the past.
Accenture did not answer questions about the arrangement. Representatives at Ernst & Young and Piper Sandler did not return messages seeking comment.
Cochran-Johnson said she has narrowed the evaluation effort to focus on six essential areas: public safety, economic development, infrastructure, housing, responsible government and quality of life. In recent months, a task force has been created for each of the six areas, she said, and they are receiving support from the consulting companies.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
As examples of quality-of-life issues, she said her evaluation will explore social equity, community wellbeing, environmental responsibility, public health, education and empowerment, among others. She also emphasized the need to modernize the county’s infrastructure and said she is focused on safety, water and sewer services, roads, “expanding high-capacity transit and enhancing the efficiency of project execution.”
She also is looking at ways to increase housing inventory and reduce housing costs for residents.
She added that the county is facing a “public safety crisis” due to police staffing levels and she plans to look at how officers can better serve communities.
DeKalb County has about 6,000 employees and is home to around 780,000 people.
Cochran-Johnson said the four companies helped develop ”white papers” that lay out “those areas of evaluation, what the goal is, how they will go about the evaluations.” The incoming CEO, who emphasized transparency during her campaign this year, and during her time as a county commissioner, declined to release the white papers to the AJC at this time, saying she did not wish to publicly identify members of the task forces. But she said she plans to publicly release the documents at a later date.
Cochran-Johnson added that the county’s current CEO, Thurmond, requested that her external evaluations start after his administration ends. “I take no issue with that request and I’m happy to honor it, because right now he has a lot that he’s trying to bring to a close,” Cochran-Johnson said, adding that the outside companies will not come in and review departments until next year.
Thurmond denied an AJC request for an interview.
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