Atlanta City Council members are again calling for increased transparency from Mayor Andre Dickens’ administration following Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporting that revealed an eyebrow-raising consulting contract with the city’s former clerk.
Former City Clerk Foris Webb III was hired by the city in September 2023 to help guide the signature verification process for the first-of-its-kind referendum launched by opponents of the city’s public safety training facility.
Webb was paid $910,000 by the city for nearly two and a half years, despite the petition being held up in federal court during most of that time. The signatures were never counted or verified.
On Monday, council members paused regular meeting proceedings to voice concerns about the contract and question who authorized it.
“I think one of the reasons it’s important to discuss it is because this is the second time in about the course of a month the council has been informed by something in the press,” council member Liliana Bakhtiari said, referring to recent AJC reporting related to the Eastside Beltline light rail project. “Not from within our building.”
The former clerk was paid in 26 installments of $35,000 — terms stipulated within the contract. The payments came to light after the AJC filed a records request for litigation and consulting fee payments related to the training center.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Newly-elected council member Kelsea Bond is the body’s first democratic socialist and supporter of the referendum effort. Bond slammed the Dickens administration for pouring resources toward fighting the citizen-led ballot initiative.
“This is behavior that we would criticize (from) Republicans, the Trump administration, the Kemp administration,” Bond said. “And to see it from our very own city government here in Atlanta, which has such a long legacy of democracy, doesn’t make me proud to be an Atlantan.”
Atlanta City Attorney Marquetta J. Bryan didn’t have many answers for council members on who OK’d the contract and how it went so long without being noticed. Bryan said she terminated the contract immediately after discovering it through the AJC’s records request.
“That means sunshine laws are working,” she said. “While I cannot give you any background related to the agreement, what I can do is put things in place to try to prevent things like this from going forward.”
Bryan has created new policy measures for consulting contracts, including: Spending caps on consultant agreements; requiring clearly defined fixed terms with start and end dates; conducting “deep dive” briefings on contract scope; dedicating a single contact within the city to manage consulting work; and implementing reviews of active consulting contracts.
Council debated the idea of holding a meeting during committees next week to hear from the administration on the problematic contract.
“It seems like the other entity that could answer this question could be a representative from the mayor’s office,” Bond said.
Resolution pushes for diversion services during World Cup
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Bond, who uses they/them pronouns and was elected to a first term in November, introduced their first piece of legislation aimed at curbing arrests during the FIFA World Cup by expanding the diversion services that direct individuals struggling with mental health and substance abuse toward support programs.
The resolution asks the Atlanta Police Department to prioritize community-based services like the city’s Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative and Fulton County’s new Center for Diversion Services.
The Dickens administration officials were met with pushback last year when it tried to replace the PAD program but ultimately extended the contract.
The call for increased diversion services is coupled with yearslong concerns of overcrowding and even life-threatening conditions at the Fulton County Jail. The city currently leases beds in the city detention center to the county, but that contract is set to expire at the end of this year.
“The current conditions at the Fulton County Jail represent a human rights crisis,” Bond said. “It’s morally imperative that the city of Atlanta steps up to utilize diversion as an alternative to arrest for eligible cases and take immediate steps to reduce the jail population.”
Got tips, tricks or just want to say hello? Email me at riley.bunch@ajc.com. Sign up to get the AJC’s Inside City Hall newsletter directly to your inbox by visiting ajc.com/newsletters/riley-bunch-columnist.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
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