During this current administration, it was discovered that 150 million dollars, yes, that's right, 150 million dollars is missing from Recorders Court. No formal investigation has been launched. There is 60 million dollars in uncollected fines that Burrell Ellis describes as unfeasible to collect. The water department is shaking down homeowners with water bills they do not owe, and never owed. Sharon Sutton is spending taxpayer money on smorgasbords and defense attorneys. Now this.
Our previous and current District Attorney's have shown their incompetence, or down right refusal to investigate any of this corruption. But now the spotlight is on D.A. Robert James. He has an legal obligation to investigate this matter with indictments handed down and convictions. The law has been broken. He has no choice in the matter. He swore an oath to uphold the laws of this state and county. This investigation should be rapped up in 30 days with people in jail. If Robert James fails to get an indictment, then he needs to be investigated.
This is a scandal!
Where's the repayment going to come from? Let's see, the commission just raised property taxes by 25 percent, bringing in about 55 million. Now they have to repay the bond money of 40 million, leaving just 15 million from the tax increase. Can you say bankrupt? Incompetent buffoons!
As for the visual slant showing one of our police cars as the words are spoken "the money was used for salaries", we call bullshit. Under this administration we have seen our pay and benefits reduced.
Yeah, somebody is being paid alright.....
With this type of unchecked, blatant corruption in public view, how long before it bleeds over into our police department, if it hasn't already?
The madness continues!
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23 comments:
It's sad to say this administration is no better that the previous one we had in place.
We are headed on the same path as Fulton County.
The Police Department is not part of this current corruption scheme. It is the shambles that this administration has made it.
Honestly the only real stop to this destructive county govt is going to come from the state legislature. They should pass new laws which give the governor the authority to really investigate these crooks and actually the power to step in and take over.
This has occurred in other states like in Harrisburg, PA where the state now governs under a court ordered consent decree becuase the city is bankrupt.
Same thing happened to LAPD in the early 90's with a federal judge running the Rampart division for several years while they cleaned up that mess.
There is no help for Dekalb Co without an outside entity.
There are some fantastic officers and still some good administrators in the county but unfortunately they have to work for the criminals that are elected in Dekalb.
The governor has quiet a bit of authority over a sheriff but its a lot harder to step in on an entire county commission under current GA law. That should be changed. Unfortunately I think this will only happen after it gets a lot worse financially like in the case of Harrisburg, PA.
Tucker Precinct just had another fine Officer up and quit after a free County certification. He was one of the best Officers we had and now he is gone to work for a better Department. I guess soon we wont have to worry about not having cars to drive because there will be no Officers left to drive them. Come on Chief OBrien stop filling the academy with numbers and people who just want a job, you are putting the public and all of us at risk. Just look at the news and you can see how many issues your so called Officers are having.inglyth
Yep I totally agree. And you thought we had it bad before.
psiThe county got rid of a lot of unethical employees in high ranking positions, (not the police dept. per say) when they allowed early retirement. The sad situation is that most of these important positions were filled from within and by just as crooked or unethical replacements. And the eat goes on.
So DA Robert James, the little golden child of former DA Tom Morgan out of the office again as the Tax Paying Citizens of this County are raped by Burrell and the BOC once again.
I guess Ole Tom didn't have much to choose from.
I know that in the election that brought in Robert James, there were few choices. None to good.
I voted for Robert James as there was little else to vote for. Big Mistake.
What a sack of $ht Robert James has turned out to be.
He must take lessons from lit'l larry on manipulating the elderly citizens of DeKalb with his Cell Phone Schemes of Pandering to the Elderly.
DA Robert James = NOT WORTH TWO DEAD FLIES.
Isn't this called The Good Ole Boy System? That was their claim 15 yrs ago...The politicians of DeKalb need to be Gutted! They are all in each others camp. 2012 can't get here soon enough!!!
The state or feds should investigate, if they are not already.
Be interesting to see the results of what if any evidence of corruption there is.
A 40 million dollar mistake , you got to be kidding me on this matter.
How do you spend 40 million dollars and not realize where it comes from?
We are already 30 million short for next year and now add 40 million, if they have to pay it back to the park fund.
They going to make mega millions off the increase water rates.
Just more money for Lil Vern to spend.
Don't forget Watershed demanding payoffs to sign off on the newly required backflow preventers. Rumors of shaking down foreign restaurant owners to get their signoffs. Dammit someone needs to stop this runaway train.
Go to the next BOC meeting, and if you're a County resident, sign the card to speak and make the following statement "I'm a citizen of DeKalb County Georgia and I demand an investigation into the finances of my county government by a non-partisan investigative body" and walk away from the podiumn politely.
The forty million dollar looting of the bond funds for county operations is the whackiest, incompetent, moronic and niave decision to date. (not to mention criminal)
Everyone in local government knows you cannot rob your bond funds to pay for operations, I know damn well Richard Stognar knows better than to do this and should of never let this occur. Did it occur to anyone that they would get caught?
DeKalb government is playing in the big leagues and stupid crap like this exemplifies why the CEO's office and staff shouldn't be allowed near the county government decision making process.
With so many poor or rotten decisions made over the last three years, the citizens and employees need to be watching the CEO/BOC like a hawk.
My opinionated opinion.
KenC
PS
Any county citizen can request DeKalb DA James to seat a grand jury to investigate the 40 million bond theft.
This scheme has all the earmarks of a Richie Stogs type plan to get the money any way short of robbing a bank.
No need to rob a bank when you have the tax paying citizens of DeKalb to fleece.
The old man Stogs still got game.
I am leaving next month for a city agency in north Fulton. They are matching my current pay and giving me a brand new take home vehicle.
TO Anon 1153 a.m.
It was called the good ole boy system back in the day, it now "The good ole brother system", Even if they are carpet baggers from the North.
After reading this blog every few days over the past year or so, I have a question. WHY in the HELL are the officers of DKPD staying? I think I understand the sense of commitment, loyalty, duty to serve. Many of you talk about that in your posts. But, just dayuhhhhhm. At what point does a corrupt, "screw-over-the-police", inept, corrupt (oh, did I say that already?) BOC become the "enemy"? Most officers out there despise perps. Most would rather lock up a bad guy than to go home on time. Why, oh WHY, do you continue to work under the Dekalb County BOC? I just don't get it. There are a LOT of agencies out there hiring that are above board, ethical, and growing. RUN FOREST RUN! Bail while you've still got something good to look back on!
Supervisors can stop with their tired song & dance regarding "productivity." It isn't a secret most of us serious about our careers are headed out the DeKalb door but I will NEVER impose additional hardships on the working class because they failed to come to a complete stop at a sign, etc just to make a major with no other life feel more self-important. I do my job everyday but tax collection isn't part of that for these crooks. I hold my head high turning in one warning a day knowing that my presence was where it belonged watching an elderly lady walk to her car in a dark parking lot. My fortitude for this job WON'T be corrupted through your pitiful threats or intimidation. I am the professional Police Officer here and at any department I will work for in the future and NOT your lackey. We all know who the easily frightened are here and I'm sure they'll be used and abused like a little prison bitch until the day they retire or die but I won't compromise what's right now in this declining economy or ever to make someone's political career. I am the 1% in DeKalb.
Anon November 5, 2011 12:24 AM ((hugs)) can I clone you?
To Anon 7:55 PM....
I will try and explain why some officers stay in a corrupt place like DeKalb, where your quality of life, pay, benefits and respect you should receive from citizens all go down the toilet. After many years as a Dekalb Officer myself, I personally felt the burning need to get the hell out and just cut my losses and start over again with somewhere with a future.
First, most real police officers are idealist to their core and have faith that eventually the citizens of DeKalb County will finally wake up and stop electing criminals based on the color of thier skin but rather the content of thier character. If a person robs and kills you, it does not matter what race they are.
Second, in the past a lot of officers were ex-military and many were wartime combat veterans, so comraderie fond in very dangerous situations, like found in police work, was loved and appreciated. Kind of like being part of the football or basketball team except a hell of a lot more dangerous. Nobody wants to quit the team, even when your on a loosing streak. Most police officers have a character and a personal code of ethics that wont allow them to give up.
And third, there is a thing called "finish the game". We were hired with certain promises and benefits that we were told were written in stone. We accepted DeKalb County's government and the Dept of Public Safety's word when we were hired. We raised our right hand and swore an oath. And then the citizens of Dekalb County decided they would rather elect criminals that would lie to us and you and steal all the money and run all the business's out of the county. Since the police department was a thorn in thier side, they deciced they would put criminals in charge of the police department as well and promote the likes of Don Frank to high ranking positions. Then they lowered the hiring standards so that even criminals can now become cops, if they will work that cheaply. Those of us who are from the old school, the real deal, dont want to quit the game. It is personal now. You have lied to us; cheated us; slandered us; endangered our families; left us with no choice but to move out of the county to avoid raising our children in a war zone, and forced us to work 2 and 3 part time jobs as well as being a cop just to try and maintain any sort of standard of living for our families because you have cut our pay and raised our monthly contribution level.
To put it in a nutshell, its either us or them and its time to finish the game.
A retired DeKalb Police Officer
The Pct I work or may I say the watch it's self is not pushing tickets. They are just pushing enforcing the law, getting criminals off the street and catching real perps. You guys out at East have a nut in charge.
To Anon 10:09..
It's a sad, sad state of affairs. I hope, as I'm sure a lot of DKC citizens do, that when the "game" is over, the OFFICERS have one huge check mark in the WIN column. Thoughts and prayers are with y'all.
This place is joke. It's ran by a bunch ignorant thugs, instead of the professional superior officers they are supposed to be. It's all about do as I say not as I do. R u kidding me. Over half these scrub supervisors didn't do crap as an officer. Y'all know who you are. To the supervisors who have tried to make this sewer better thank-you. To the scrubs, keep drinking the kool aid and enjoy your undeserved positions n rank. The rest of us will still be able to look at ourselves in the mirror with pride. C
Cant wait til I recieve my call back from the FED's..... can you say bye bye DeKalb thanks for the training....
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