{"id":5266,"date":"2013-08-23T10:06:26","date_gmt":"2013-08-23T14:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=5266"},"modified":"2013-08-23T10:07:43","modified_gmt":"2013-08-23T14:07:43","slug":"corruption-in-dekalb-meets-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/corruption-in-dekalb-meets-consequences.html","title":{"rendered":"Corruption in DeKalb meets consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nBid rigging and kickbacks?\r\nI’m sure that’s only in Atlanta….\r\nAnyway, it turns out it’s not so much\r\n\r\nDeKalb County that’s a slum<\/a>\r\nas the county government.\r\n

\r\nSomebody at AJC wrote yesterday,\r\n\r\nDeKalb to review government restructuring<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nA day after a yearlong investigation into DeKalb contracting was\r\nmade public — a report that detailed a culture of corruption\r\nthat permeates county government — DeKalb commissioners say\r\nthey will review how the county is governed and seek changes.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nA special purpose grand jury investigating contracting in DeKalb’s\r\nwater department recommended the county get rid of its CEO form of\r\ngovernment. DeKalb is almost singular in the authority it gives its\r\nCEO, a countywide elected official who runs the day-to-day\r\noperations of Georgia’s third-largest county.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThat authority, according to the report, was used to steer tens of\r\nmillions of dollars in contracts to favored vendors. Suspended\r\nDeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis has been charged with extortion for\r\nallegedly strongarming vendors into donating to his campaign.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nInterim DeKalb CEO Lee May said the county will review its governing\r\nstructure over the next 30 days and propose some recommendations on\r\nhow to improve operations, especially contracting.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nWSBTV reported Wednesday,\r\n\r\nDeKalb special grand jury recommends 12 for criminal investigation:\r\nKey county officials include former CEO and public safety director<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nCBS Atlanta wrote 17 July 2013,\r\n\r\nGovernor Deal Suspends Dekalb County CEO Burrell Ellis<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nGeorgia Gov. Nathan Deal has announced he’ll suspend indicted DeKalb\r\nCounty CEO Burrell Ellis.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe announcement at the state Capitol during a press conference\r\nTuesday afternoon came a day after a three-person panel voted\r\nunanimously to recommend suspension for Ellis.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nA 15-count grand jury indictment charges Ellis with trying to extort\r\ncampaign contributions from companies and their employees.\r\nProsecutors allege Ellis instructed the county’s director of\r\npurchasing and contracting to prevent some companies from getting\r\nbusiness because they didn’t contribute to his campaign.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nJonathan Cribbs wrote for the AJC yesterday,\r\n\r\nDeKalb CEO: County Government Better for Druid Hills:\r\nThe interim DeKalb County CEO pleaded Tuesday with residents of the community not to create a new city or seek annexation into Atlanta.<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nMaybe there are consequences for corruption, and not just for the individuals\r\ndirectly involved.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bid rigging and kickbacks? I’m sure that’s only in Atlanta…. Anyway, it turns out it’s not so much DeKalb County that’s a slum as the county government. Somebody at AJC wrote yesterday, DeKalb to review government restructuring, A day after a yearlong investigation into DeKalb contracting was made public — a report that detailed a […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[70,2,3],"tags":[6850,6853,2087,1153,3992,6362,8728,6854,8701,8699,2129,3993,6852,3240,6851,8702,12,7,46,6363,1911,8700,6],"class_list":["post-5266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethics","category-government","category-transparency","tag-bid-rigging","tag-burrell-ellis","tag-campaign","tag-corruption","tag-criminal","tag-dekalb-county","tag-ethics","tag-extortion","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-governor","tag-grand-jury","tag-indictments","tag-investigation","tag-kickbacks","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-nathan-deal","tag-slum","tag-suspended","tag-transparency","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1mW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5266"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5269,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5266\/revisions\/5269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}