Stonecrest City Council moved on without its mayor Monday.
It was the DeKalb County city’s first regular meeting since Mayor Jason Lary announced his medical leave, which took place shortly after an investigation revealed allegations of widespread abuse and mismanagement in the city’s coronavirus relief program.
According to the council and city manager, Lary did not provide anything in writing about his medical leave other than issuing a press release, which pushed back on the malfeasance accusations and announced he was stepping away due to recurring cancer.
“The mayor has said it in the public, but he has not officially notified the city, so there’s nothing of record,” City Attorney Winston Denmark said during Monday’s meeting.
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
To make it official, the council unanimously voted to accept Lary’s leave of absence, which is indefinite until he chooses to return. The mayor did not provide a timeline for his expected return. Mayor Pro Tem George Turner will perform mayoral duties in Lary’s stead.
Lary is among several people implicated in an alleged scheme to misuse $6.2 million of federal COVID-19 relief funds, including potential kickbacks. He denied any wrongdoing, refused to resign and added that he and other city officials — many of whom have been fired and replaced — did the best they could given the short timeframe to use CARES Act funds.
During Monday’s meeting, newly appointed City Manager Janice Allen Jackson looked forward to a second wave of coronavirus relief funds. She said Stonecrest is poised to receive between $10 million and $17.3 million as soon as June, which would need to be spent by 2024.
“That definitely works to our advantage because that really allows us to go through that planning process to really see what would best serve the residents of our community and how you want to meet those needs,” Jackson said.
Turner added the city needs to be as transparent as possible during the next round of federal relief disbursement — given how misuse allegations tainted the city’s prior program.
The council recently gave Denmark, who conducted the CARES Act investigation, permission to continue looking into the matter, and they expanded his approval Monday to cooperate with “the appropriate authorities.”
In relation to the CARES Act investigation, the city also clarified its designated marketing organization (DMO) during Monday’s meeting. According to the investigation’s findings, Lary and other city leaders allegedly misinformed grant recipients that the city had a DMO and that 25% of grant awards should go to it for marketing purposes.
However, that company — Visit Us, Inc. — has no relation to the city, and the investigation never found that any marketing services were provided in return for the checks. The full amount given to Visit Us by the 138 grant recipients remains unknown, but The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has records showing the company received at least $90,000. Two other companies also received money from grant recipients in similar deals, according to the investigation.
The council voted to partner with Discover DeKalb, the DMO for the county and multiple other DeKalb cities, for the next six months. According to Stonecrest’s charter, the city must contract with at least one private DMO as a way to use 40% of the city’s hotel and motel tax income.
“This would be a short-term solution to get in compliance while we put in a formal process to search for a longer-term solution for us,” Jackson said.
The story so far: Stonecrest received $6.2 million in federal pandemic relief funds from DeKalb County. Questions were raised after the city contracted with a newly formed nonprofit to disburse those funds to small businesses. An internal investigation began, and its results were released last week, finding widespread mismanagement and improper contracts that resemble a kickback scheme.
What’s next?: The city attorney and Stonecrest staff will begin taking the recommended actions detailed in the investigative report, which includes an external audit of the program and tracing where the money was spent.
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