TORPY: Was Atlanta’s inspector general just too good at her job?

“Pure and simple, it’s retaliation,” she said in a statement hours before the City Council curbed the powers of her office. “The attacks have been systematic, sustained and savage. As we have uncovered more corruption, once again, at the highest rungs of City Hall, the attacks have gotten worse.”

Her departure was a case of an immovable object and an irritable force — an angry mayor.

The administration has in recent months painted Manigault as an out-of-control, self-appointed sheriff whose investigations have bent the law. They pointed out she even bought spy pens, no doubt to engage in some municipal espionage.

The mayor’s people have said Manigault misused subpoenas, visited city employees at their homes and even confiscated their personal electronic devices.

The latest accusation, made more than once by the mayor’s team, turns out to be balderdash. The devices seized were city-issued. But, of course, we live in a fact-free world these days.

The feud blew up last year but has simmered longer than that.

Credit: City of Atlanta

Credit: City of Atlanta

Dickens had been dinged by the IG a couple of times, starting with a finding in 2023 that his office bypassed normal spending protocols in connection with an annual soiree informally known as the Mayor’s Senior Ball. The event gets old folks out for a night of fun and dancing. And reminds them of who the mayor is come Election Day.

The investigative report noted that Dickens’ office booked rooms for members of his family, including his mom. He later repaid the bills.

But bringing up a fellow’s mama is a surefire way to instill undying animus. In fact, when Odie Donald, the mayor’s chief of staff, was building a case against Manigault in a meeting a few weeks ago, he had the Senior Ball on one of his slides.

Manigault’s office conducted dozens of investigations, including one that miffed a couple of council members and, she said, caused the city bureaucracy to roadblock her efforts.

This caused her to take the unusual step of standing in line with other aggrieved Atlantans to speak to the City Council during public comment.

She told the council there was a “concerted effort” within the city machinery to obstruct investigations and “disclose our confidential investigations.”

Her public complaints set off alarms through City Hall. People there are touchy on the subject. The IG’s office was created in the wake of a corruption scandal that sent more than 10 city officials and contractors off to prison.

Everyone nodded in agreement that a tough internal corruption cop was needed. But when the person hired to that job comes out and loudly says that city officials really didn’t mean it, then much angst ensues.

In response to Manigault’s complaint, the city created a task force to make recommendations. But Manigault and her board, which has supported her, say the task force was set up to defang the office.

Manigault’s fate was sealed in early December when her office released a report that said Dickens’ office gave “unfair advantage” to a company to help run the city’s ATL311 customer service calls. Dickens’ office replied that Manigault was misreading city law.

Credit: Screen grab of presentation

Credit: Screen grab of presentation

In January, the mayor’s office released legislation to change the IG’s office. In the original version, the word “corruption” had been largely erased. The IG was supposed to worry more about “waste, fraud and abuse” and not so much about criminal investigations.

“We wanted to make certain that language about the mission was clear — she’s not the FBI,” City Attorney Patrise Perkins-Hooker said.

But the suggestion was so silly that the administration backed off that, as it did on insisting that the mayor’s office appoint the IG’s board members.

In recent weeks, the mayor’s office has accused Manigault of overstepping her bounds, issuing perhaps 50 subpoenas that violated state law to glean financial information of people being investigated.

The city attorney reduced her concerns to Manigault in a letter, saying the IG’s actions might cost Atlanta a pretty penny in lawsuits. And then the city quickly released this letter to the media. So much for the secrecy of attorney-client privilege.

(The city has complained that Manigault has been quick to release her investigations to the press. I guess they think turnabout is fair play.)

One of the last things Manigault did as IG was to get her board to hire an attorney to defend her office. That’s because the city’s attorney has already publicly castigated her, creating a conflict.

A politically connected contractor who the IG dinged in a report last year — she had concerns of “cronyism and patronage” — is suing the IG personally. And that contractor is using the city attorney’s scolding letter as one of the pillars of his lawsuit to attack the same city’s investigation team.

Life at City Hall rolls on.