On DeKalb County’s official website, interim CEO Lee May enthuses thusly: “DeKalb County has continually operated as one of the more progressive, efficient, and accountable governments in the state of Georgia, largely because the person charged with day-to-day management is elected by the people he or she serves and must answer directly to those very same people.”
That funny-sad boast got a bit funnier-sadder this week, when May decided to bring in a pair of certified fanny-kicking investigators to find the source of what he called "the stench of corruption and distrust (that) permeates the air."
Excuse me as I affix a clothespin to my nose.
May is filling the CEO's post while his predecessor, Burrell Ellis (who was elected by the people), is out on an extended legal vacation. Ellis is waiting to be tried for a second time on multiple corruption charges after the first jury deadlocked. He maintains his innocence.
Both the gumshoes May tapped — former state Attorney General Mike Bowers and investigator Richard Hyde — had a big role in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating case. Now that that unhappy saga has run its course, it's fitting that they're being asked to bring their shovels to DeKalb.
May vows that the investigation will be a wide-ranging look into the county’s operations and finances. He said he will not stand in its path, whichever way it veers.
“Absolutely, it’s risky,” he told reporters Wednesday. “I think Mike would throw me in jail if he thinks I’m doing something wrong.”
May said he never met Bowers until a week ago, noting, “There will be no whitewashing of this report, no cover ups, no editing or amending.”
Bowers agreed. “This is high-risk poker,” he said. “He’s taking a big risk with me and Richard. We’re like rolling cannons on the deck of a ship, and everyone knows it.”
Hyde, the other untethered howitzer, is a brash former Atlanta cop and fearless inquisitor. For the Judicial Qualifications Commission, he looks into complaints against Georgia judges, robed officials who once were considered virtually untouchable.
But in recent years, Hyde has accumulated dozens of judges’ scalps and unearthed all means of judicial skulduggery. This includes sexual escapades, corruption and malfeasance. Often times, judges targeted by Hyde decide to suddenly “spend more time with their families,” rather than endure formal investigations.
“We’re going to investigate this like I’ve investigated judges,” Hyde said Wednesday. “I’m already getting calls from people who want to talk, and it’s only been out two hours.”
But while Hyde and Bowers are getting the old band back together, a key member of their APS investigation triumvirate will be missing: Bob Wilson.
It turns out county officials were not keen on Wilson, a former DeKalb district attorney, joining the team. They felt he had too many ties to DeKalb.
Wilson represented some DeKalb school members when the governor was removing them for wanton knuckle-headedness. He has also chaired the DeKalb Medical Foundation Board of Trustees.
Most notably he has represented Paul Champion, the owner of a tree-trimming company who has contended he had to pay to play when it came to getting business in DeKalb. In fact, Champion’s lawsuit against the county reads like a road map for much of the devastating grand jury investigation that ended up getting Ellis indicted.
Wilson, contacted this week, seemed a bit melancholy at not being invited to the party.
“Mike and I make a good team,” he said of his longtime friend, Bowers, a DeKalb native who also has done work for DeKalb’s school board.
“I have been chomping at the county’s backside for quite some time,” Wilson said. “They might not want someone who has been chomping at their backside. I take it as a compliment.”
The DeKalb investigation will differ greatly from the APS probe, which looked into huge, inexplicable gains by students on the state-mandated tests. In it, the Bowers gang started with reams of analysis produced by the state, documents that narrowed the universe when it came to finding teachers to grill.
After some educators ‘fessed up, the special investigators got the governor to assign 60 GBI agents to help them widen their circles of questioning.
This time, the mandate is open-ended: Go find some screwy stuff in DeKalb. Bowers said he will have at least five people helping him, possibly more as needed. But it won’t be an army of khaki-clad agents.
“It will take a lot to dig down into it,” predicted Wilson, the former DA. “The county is big; the holes are deep and the lock boxes are hidden well.”
Wilson’s client, Champion, said in his lawsuit that he had to pay off purchasing director Kelvin Walton to get county business. When investigators determined that Walton was lying to them and had taken freebies from Champion, the purchsing director was persuaded to wear a wire, a move that snagged Ellis.
But even though Walton was named in that indictment as an unindicted co-conspirator, he remained as the county’s purchasing director for 10 months until he was suspended — with pay.
This week, May put out a list of 10 reforms he has put into place since replacing Ellis. Those moves include: recommending a big increase in ethics board funding, overhauling purchasing and contracting operations, instituting a new ethics policy for administration employees, creating a task force to recommend changes in county operations and hiring a new purchasing director.
Yes, May is taking credit for filling the seat of the scoundrel who was finally suspended (as I said, with pay!) a year after he was publicly named as a crook.
May contends that a lot of the corruption and twisted ethics occurred long before he took over for Ellis in 2013. That’s true, although he was first elected as a commissioner in 2006.
Still, take him at his word. He might look like he’s still in divinity school, but May is ambitious and will almost certainly run for CEO in 2016.
OK, Mr. Interim CEO, if you can actually make DeKalb anything like the “progressive, efficient, and accountable” government it says on the website, then you’ll have my vote.
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