Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Commissioner Larry Johnson Responds To Our Criticism

Today we received an e-mail from Commissioner Larry Johnson responding to "Commissioner Larry Johnson Must Go".

We thank Mr. Johnson for taking the time to respond to us and our readers. However we believe an investigation by an outside source is warranted and Commissioner Johnson should step aside from any further DeKalb County commissioner meetings until the investigation is complete.


DeKalb County Larry Johnson
1300 Commerce Drive/Decatur, Georgia 30030 DeKalb County Commissioner
District 3
Office 404-371-2425
Fax 404-687-3595
May 27, 2009

To Citizens of DeKalb County,

Tuesday evening, May 18, 2009, the Channel 2 evening news aired a segment that related
to my employment with the Fulton County Office of Healthy Behaviors being in conflict with my serving as the District 3 Commissioner for DeKalb County.

First, let me state for the record, that prior to running for office one of the first things that I did was to ensure that working for one jurisdiction and being an elected official in another would not pose a conflict. In the DeKalb County Code there is nothing that prohibits an individual from working for one jurisdiction while serving as an elected official in another. Additionally, there is no prohibition in the Fulton County Code for an individual to be an elected official in another jurisdiction while being employed with Fulton County.

That said the segment inaccurately alluded to my conducting DeKalb County business while on the payroll of Fulton County. Correctly stated in the newscast I was proactive in notifying all parties at Fulton County, including the County Manager’s office regarding my status as an elected official in DeKalb and the time requirements. As an exempt employee with Fulton County I do work on a flex schedule of four ten (10) hour days which results in easier recordkeeping and tracking of time and which allows me the flexibility needed to attend meetings in DeKalb.

The segment aired also alluded to there being several discrepancies between my time record in HR and the times meetings in DeKalb were held. Although this is a
personnel issue that Fulton County HR should resolve, I feel it necessary to address several gross inaccuracies contained in the newscast.

It is incumbent to note that the ‘schedule’ inaccurately used by the news station that is posted on the web is the general information community schedule of meetings and events taking place in and around District 3 and not my DeKalb County office schedule. The dates the report indicates were in conflict are listed.

The newscast indicated that the time period reviewed was October 2008 – March 2009 and there were other dates in conflict, but these dates were not specified in the newscast nor have they been provided to me for comparison with my records. It was noted in the newscast that scheduled commission committee meetings, posted on the official website were the source of the conflicts.

To help clarify the situation, there are several standing committees to which the Commissioners are appointed. No more than three (3) Commissioners are appointed to a committee and Commissioners do not attend all committee meetings to which they are not assigned. In short, the standard posting of the Committee Schedules is not reflective of the attendance of the Commissioners.

In 2008 I was Chair of the Economic Development Committee which met the third Tuesday of each month, a day I am officially off from work at Fulton County. I was also a member of the Planning & Land Use Committee and this Committee met the second Tuesday of each month --- again, Tuesdays being the day I am officially not on duty at Fulton County as my work schedule is arranged for a 4-day, 10 hour a day work week.

I am an exempt employee with Fulton County and due to the nature of my profession, I work evenings, Saturdays and Sundays on programs sponsored by the Fulton County Office of Healthy Behaviors --- this was not reported. I think that a full disclosure of the information ‘discovered’ by the news station should have been the goal rather than a strategic disclosure of fragments of information that do not reveal the full, true picture.

It has taken time, effort and energy to be subjected to and refute these spurious allegations, yet I will continue to serve the residents of District 3 and also be a dedicated public health official serving the residents of Fulton County and continue to represent DeKalb County to the best of my ability.

It is my hope that the station which aired this broadcast will undertake the same diligence and drive to publicly correct the erroneous impressions that may have been left by this scurrilous journalistic effort. I am deeply saddened that the lead story on a well-respected news station would be that of an elected official taking approved time off (and leave without pay in some instances), to serve the constituents of the District.

It is also my hope that we can continue to move forward with conducting the business of the people without concern that taking on hot button issues will result in attempts such as this to vilify and malign those that stand and fight for the rights of DeKalb citizens.

Since the airing of this segment I have focused my efforts on the celebrations taking place in my life recently -- that of my daughter’s graduation from high school which happened on my birthday and my wife’s graduation on the 23rd and receiving her doctorate; I felt it was vitally important to focus upon family as I am a husband and father in addition to being a public servant. These are once in a lifetime moments that cannot be recaptured once lost.

So therefore, I am now taking this opportunity to correct the erroneous impressions that may have been left by the recently aired news cast.I ask for your continued support and I will continue to serve and defend the will of the people.

Yours for a Better DeKalb,

Larry Johnson


Larry L. Johnson,
District 3 Commissioner

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Commissioner Johnson it seems very simple , have Fulton County Human Resource come out and say that the news story was untruthful and then you will be vindicated. With all the no comments it makes people wonder that it must be true.

I do believe the news reporters do there homework before they go on TV with a live news story on any public officer holder.

Who knows they are usually holding more in the pipe line than first released.

Anonymous said...

Commissioner Johnson:

Congratulations for facing this head on. DO NOT be intimidated by those who are calling for you to step down. I have witnessed how these news stories can spin the facts and leave out pertinent information.

Stay strong. You have MUCH support!

Slamin Ethel said...

Sounds like horse hockey to me Mr Johnson.
You have rambled on and on about your wereabouts trying to deceive the citizens of Dekalb. Now then with that being said, your district are not the brightest bulbs in the box so they may buy, but I do not.
The truth will come out when Fulton County does it's investigation, but until then I am on Channle 2's side, they do their homework before going forward with these stories.

Anonymous said...

Paragraph 5 is missing from this email: Date reported by WSB. Event/Meeting reported. Factual finding. Unfortunately I don't know how to format the complete email. Please print the complete letter.

Anonymous said...

Commissioner Johnson says he works weekend days and night in his job with Fulton County. There should be a time sheet or log in which his hours are accounted for. I am not sure what he means by an exempt Fulton employee, does that mean he is exempt from tracking his hours and can work or do whatever he wants with no accountability? It would be a simple matter to reconcile his real Fulton work hours with his real DeKalb govt hours worked.

Anonymous said...

Political mumbo jumbo, he must work for Dekalb and Fulton. Unbelievable bs by another Public Official. When does he have time for his family if he's working everyday, whatever. I don't believe a word he said, neither should anyone else.

Anonymous said...

How typical that Paul Howard can rush to judgement and arrest on a hardworking Officer and get the arrest warrants out, but has to take weeks and months to simply pull some time sheets. Oh yea forgot Larry Johnson is not an Officer thats why he has not been charged....
By the way Larry Johnson you are so full of it.............go peddle your BS somewhere where someone cares we sure as heck dont'

Better DeKalb said...

Let's say there is no wrong-doing, still sounds like Larry Johnson is spreading himself a little thin. Even after reading the letter I'm not clear, is Johnson an elected official of DeKalb, or an employee for Fulton? Focus on one county. Pick Fulton!

Also don't like the fact he used my blog name in his closing.

eldercare said...

Commissioner Larry Johnson has a Master's Degree in Public Health. Where would you suggest he work?

Anonymous said...

I know Fulton County employees who swear Larry never works four ten hours days in a week. Larry is scamming Fulco taxpayers. Now he's reeling that he finally got busted.

Anonymous said...

Do folks on this blog understand what an 'exempt' employee is? It means you are salaried (not hourly) and you work until the job is done. You don't submit for overtime. Why he even has to submit a time sheet is strange given he is an exempt employee (probably left over from years ago). Comp time is done on the 'honor system', if used at all. At the end of the day, if Larry's Fulton County management feel they are not getting an honest days work for what they are paying him, they will surely address that with him.

Just because someone makes a false allegation against you, you don't have to come out and deny it. Isn't there a saying, innocent until PROVEN guilty? Unless his employer complained, there is nothing Larry should have to do with respect to false allegation.

Oh yeah, the media has been known to NOT do all of their homework before reporting a story. They make mistakes like everyone else. Didn't Richard Belcher apologize at the beginning of the story after Larry's response? That simply made him try to dig deeper to find 'something' since obviously there was no story.

Anonymous said...

All residents of DeKalb County should be most concerned about the "Work" done by Commissioner Johnson. District 3 of DeKalb County is the "Murder Capitol" of DeKalb County with 43 homicides in 2008. The next closest is District 1 with 27. District 2 only had 12.

Anonymous said...

You guys are the police! If he is violating the law, arrest him and stop whining. It scares me that these low-minded individuals are the sworn to keep people safe and seek justice when they whine like babies about a real non-issue. With all budget short falls cutting back on the police force, reducing the number of personnel in crime scene, cutting budgets for major improvements in technology aimed at fighting crime, you guys are whining about this issue. And we are supposed to believe the police have integrity, sophistication, and professionalism. This is a poor representation of it.