Atlanta Progressive News

(APN) DECATUR — DeKalb County Commissioner Nancy Jester (District 1) has called for the resignation of Interim CEO Lee May, in the wake of the Bowers-Hyde corruption report released at the end of September 2015.

 

http://atlantaprogressivenews.com/2015/10/10/DeKalb-county-report-finds-widespread-corruption-seeks-mays-resignation/

 

During a press conference today, Tuesday, October 13, 2015, Jester stated there is no other way to regain public confidence.

 

“Corruption and ineffective management in DeKalb County can no longer be thought of as a rare instance,” Jester said during the press conference.

 

“The reality is DeKalb County faces a crisis with the possibility of simultaneously wiping out our financial reserves and killing future jobs and economic development for decades to come,” Jester said.

 

“There is one way by which this crisis can be resolved.  That act is for Lee May to resign as DeKalb Interim CEO,” Jester said.

 

Additionally, she called for the dissolution of the CEO position by the Georgia Legislature, with DeKalb County instead being run by “an appointed, professional manager” alongside the Board of Commissioners.

 

As previously reported by APN, DeKalb County is in hot water over the issues of questionable spending and ethics concerns raised by the Bowers-Hyde report.

 

Jester also released a statement today from former U.S. Bob Barr (R-GA), former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.

 

“I share the concerns of this Report’s authors, and support their call for further investigation and action, in order to correct what appears to be a long-festering pattern of spending of taxpayer monies by officials in DeKalb with little or no regard for ethics or for the letter and the intent of Georgia law,” Barr states in the press release.

 

“[M]any officials in the County consider the monies entrusted to them by the taxpayers to be nothing more than their personal piggy bank, to be used for whatever purposes they wish, regardless of whether those expenditures bear any relationship to the authorities and responsibilities of the office they hold,” Barr said.

 

“Rather than be dismissed out-of-hand as Mr. May has done, the Report should serve as the foundation for a far more extensive and detailed investigation by appropriate officials at the state and perhaps the federal level as well,” Barr said.

 

May launched a series of community meetings after the report came out “for residents to discuss issues important to them… including the county budget, government operations, and other topics of community concern,” a press release stated.

 

Tonight will be the first of these community meeting May attends, after he rescheduled the first meeting the day it was to occur.

 

Instead, Jester held that meeting without him, and reported that it went well, with over one hundred residents attending.

 

When asked what might happen at tonight’s meeting, Jester said, “I hope he listens.”

 

The Up Close and Personal meetings with Interim CEO Lee May are as follows:

 

Tuesday, October 13, 6:30-8 p.m.

Lou Walker Senior Center

2538 Panola Road

Lithonia, GA 30058

 

Thursday, October 15, 6:30-8 p.m.

Tucker – Reid Cofer Library

5234 LaVista Road

Tucker, GA 30084

 

Tuesday, October 20, 6:30-8 p.m.

Derwin Brown Memorial South Precinct

2842 H.F. Shepherd Drive

Decatur, GA 30032

 

Thursday, October 22, 6:30-8 p.m.

Welcome Friend Baptist Church

3198 Bouldercrest Road

Ellenwood, GA 30294

 

REVISED:  Monday, October 26, 6:30-8 p.m.

Maloof Auditorium

1300 Commerce Drive

Decatur, GA 30030

 

Commissioner Jester also pushed for an additional meeting in her district, which Interim CEO May added: Town Hall in Dunwoody for Tuesday, October 27, 6:30-8 p.m, at Dunwoody City Hall 41 Perimeter Center Dunwoody, GA 30346.

 

(END/2015)