(WSB Radio) DeKalb County has created a new office aimed at eliminating fraud and abuse.
During a news conference on Tuesday, CEO Burrell Ellis introduced seven board members who will oversee the development of the Office of Transparency and Accountability.
"Since taking office in January, we've been inundated with a growing number of requests from citizens and employees that a variety of county departments be investigated because of allegations of waste, fraud, and abuse," said Ellis.
Ellis hopes to choose and Inspector General by the fall.
Maybe Recorders Court will be investigated after all.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
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25 comments:
Can we get Dale Russell as the Department Head?
Could we have the same group look into some of the fraud that the Dekalb County School system has been likely practicing?
Title one fraud would be a great place to start. I've heard many reports of different Dekalb schools telling parents "it's been taken care of" when they try to sign up for a school lunch account for their kids.
The chances that these kids are all now considered Title one (extra federal funds due to free and reduced meals) is very high.
Doesn't fraud for federal crimes carry stiffer penalties?
These allegations should be the basis for a grand jury investigation, not a citizen board.
Or Dale Cardwell......
Anyhow...I think the Recorders Court thing is a dead horse.
Recorder's Court is not a department of DeKalb County. Learn your civics. It's the 3rd branch of government, the Judiciary. The CEO's office is only responsible for Budget, Facilities, and administrative oversight.
Yea, how the hell did they sweep the recorders ct thing under the rug?
OK smarty pants, is 90 million dollars that is unaccounted for not some kind of administrative problem?
An office aimed at eliminating fraud and abuse. Isn't that what the DA's office does?
Not being a smarty pants. Just being logical. Where per chance do you think the 90 million is hiding. You are unfortunately believing what you read in the paper. I'm sure the folk in the county would love for you to identify this 90 million dollars. You really think that if there was 90 million dollars in collectible funds, finance would not know about it. Evidently you want to believe something is wrong. You are entitled to your belief, but they should be based in reality.
Y'all know my views on this subject. Grand Juries wield vast powers to investigate these problems inherent to government, that how the system was designed and used until J. Thom dropped the system. Gwen Keyes or at least some of her staff should know that few of us have been griping about the DA's disuse of the this powerful court. I suspect there are several reasons for not using the Grand Jury; the use of ordinary non-political citizens renders them uncontrolable by Gwen or the CEO or BOC. The citizens have a vested interest in righting wrongs and eliminating waste and fraud and can be uncontrolable because of their independence. The Grand Jury has vast powers. If under oath, the witness has only three options. Plead the fith amendment and expect further scrutiny and investigation, tell the truth as you know it or lie.
If you lie unless everyone covers for you, (not likely to happen, because many of us know whats going on and give a damn and will burn you) you are up the creek.
Because a grand jury is so uncontrolable it will never happen. Grand juries are the true "nuke" of investigations and Gwen and the current administration want to avoid "nuking" themselves.
Just read the memo and I have grave reservations about the politcs of several of the appointees.
"CEO Ellis has chosen the following citizens as board members:
Gale Walldorff, former DeKalb County Commissioner and Community Leader;
Neville W. Anderson Sr., President, Neville W. Anderson, CPA, P.C.;
Donald R Byrd, Chief Operating Officer, Vista Realty Partners, LLC;
Elizabeth Kiss, President, Agnes Scott College;"
Waldorff was a memeber of the "gang of four" commissioners in a bitch fight for eight years Liane Levitan, Mr Byrd is a developers and we the developers have been dropping big money into local elections, and is simply suspect because he is unfortunately for him-self, a real estate developer that collectively as a group has controlled over-devolpment in the metro-area resulting in a decline of "quality of life" for most of us.
I like the inclusion of a CPA to study the numbers, and I assume the president of ASC would have the communities best interest at heart, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is not a hidden adjenda in the background.
In essence, I trust our citizens far more than I trust DeKalbs political leaders appointees because DeKalb citizens will be (hopefully) bipartisen and independant. Grand juries are the way to solve the issues facing DeKalb. We need true investigation and not a witch hunt.
90 Million due to the county....I'd say Ellis has a horse in that race.
Hello, Recorders court and personell is run and paid by Dekalb County. Check it out before you try and pass the buck.
Just to put things into perspective, the police department is budgeted about $115 million a year. $100 million missing? That's almost enough to run the whole police department for a year! Remember that the next time you hear there is a shortage of officers and there is no money. Remember that the next time you hear they want to raise your taxes for more police!
DeKalb County needs and deserves more police! Maybe if Recorder's Court got their act together, or if someone would investigate where the money went, DeKalb could hire more officers!!
I'm sure not all of the $100 million would go to the county. Some of it goes to the state, etc... But when you're facing budget shortfalls, even $2 million of it would be a HUGE help!
Transparency...I'll give you Transparency - NOTHING HAS CHANGED!
Bolton is out of the loop but the people he put in place still run their little kingdoms.
The cry for tickets isn't quite as loud, but they've made it clear - the quota is two tickets and answer your calls. (A very very easy quota to fill....)
The DeKalb County CEO appoints the Chief Recorders Court Judge. Vernon Jones appointed Joy Walker in 2002. Vernon Jones appointed Troy Thompson as the Recorders Court Administrator in 2008. The CEO and the Board of Commissioners approve the courts budget and oversee the operation of the court.
I am not sure I understand this new office that the CEO is creating. Wouldn’t it be essential that they have the ability to conduct criminal investigations? A board of civilians may be useful for some things but we all believe that there has been an abundance of fraud in this county government for years.
I would like to apologize for my horrible post last night, I hit enter instead of preview and off it went!
Some of y"all were inquring about recorders court issues and Gwen has reacted. Courtesy the AJC: "Over a nearly eight-year period, 10 people — including four former DeKalb Recorder’s Court deputy clerks and a former probations employee — dismissed, closed out, or even destroyed traffic citations in exchange for money or retail vouchers, DeKalb district attorney Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming said Thursday."
Whoo Whoo!
For a very long time some of us on this blog just trashed our D A because they stated she would not pursue the bad apples in the Recorders Court. Well today she announce the arrest of 4 former employees for tickets fixing. Let's see who man and women up and and admit their own rush to judgement or just hate on me for bringing it up.
Please post this comment, I apologize for my demented post post last night, I hit "enter" instead of preview and off it went. It would of been cleaned up and made sense if I had previewed it several times, as I usually do. Again, my apologies and many of y'all who know me as an employee but not my NIC know I do not frack around. Doh!
Again, why do we have Recorders Court. In other counties, Magistrate and State court has a special traffic/non-serious misdeamenor division to handle such. Cobb, Fulton and Douglas come to mind as examples. Oh I forgot, this is Dekalb and we have to have a bloated budget like Atlanta. Nevermind!
Transparency?
It appears from the bid specifications ( see Dekalb co. invitation to bid # 3001424) that Dekalb County has decided to purchase S&W M&P .40 caliber pistols. While I applaud the County's decision to increase the power of the standard duty weapons by going from 9mm to .40, I'm not quite sure why leadership chose the S&W pistols? The bid does not specifically request S&W pistols, but the bid specs are worded so as to rule out the main alternative and the clear favorite of GA law enforcement agencies: Glock.
Transparency?
I am wondering who was involved in the Testing and Evaluation process and what criteria lead them to choose S&W. I'm looking around at other agencies such as Sandy Springs, Johns Creek, Roswell etc that are buying the newest and best and they are all buying Glocks. Various Glock models are already approved as back up carry guns for Dekalb PD so why include in the bid specifications requirements for such minor features as replaceable back straps and not having to depress the trigger to disassemble the gun. It sure seems that the primary reason for including the requirements is to eliminate Glock from consideration.
Transparency?
There is a lot at stake when the county decides which duty gun to issue. It would seem to me the number one criteria above all others should be the weapon's reliability. Local news reported that Atlanta PD had to retrofit every one of their brand new S&W M&P pistols for some sort of problem with the trigger. Why buy into a pistol platform that has a track record of issues when there are time proven alternatives?
Transparency?
Who's making these decisions and based on what?
Just because you don't know something doesn't mean there is a lack of transparency.
If I had to guess, the range staff and probably some of the veteran SWAT team members probably evaluated a number of guns.
Glocks are great guns, but they also have issues.
Don't be so quick to assume the worst when you don't know something.
I'm not assuming anything, Just raising yet another concern about the transparency issue. A true commitment to transparency would dictate that we don't have to guess.
Perhaps some of the folks that were involved in the evaluation can chime in. Was fair testing conducted by appropriate PD personnel, or did the folks in the big buildings over in Decatur do just enough testing to get the guns they wanted?
There isn't a transparency issue just because you don't know something! Why not start off by asking how the decision to purchase this particular weapon was made instead of FIRST claiming there is a problem with "transparency" and implying some impropriety because most departments use another weapon?
A prudent person would have simply posted, "I have heard most departments choose Glocks. How was the decision to choose this particular weapon instead of a Glock made? How much did cost and quality weigh in on the decision?"
OK, so in my most prudent voice. "I have heard most departments choose Glocks. How was the decision to choose this particular weapon instead of a Glock made? How much did cost and quality weigh in on the decision?"
Sounds like someone must know, so spill the beans.
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