Councilman says he'll vote on deal despite potential conflict

By Eric Stirgus

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

An Atlanta councilman says he intends to vote Monday on a plan to lease the city jail to Fulton County, although some say it would be a conflict of interest on his part because his brother works at the jail.

"I wasn't elected to look out for my relatives. I was elected to vote on the issues," Councilman Michael Julian Bond said.

City Ethics Officer Ginny Looney sent Bond an e-mail that said the councilman can vote on the matter, but he probably should not.

"You are not prohibited from participating in the discussion and vote due to a conflict of interest under the ethics code," Looney wrote.

But she added: "If you want to be entirely safe on the conflicts issue, I would advise you to recuse yourself on the matter."

City code requires elected officials to disclose any financial or personal interest in any legislation. Bond's brother is a lieutenant at the city jail and may lose his job if the lease deal gets done. Still, Looney wrote that the impact on the job status of Bond's brother is "uncertain," so it's unclear whether there is a personal interest in which way the councilman votes on the matter.

Mayor Kasim Reed and his aides have pushed for the lease deal because they say it will save the city at least $12.7 million a year as they try to balance a budget. His staff was also hoping Monday to introduce legislation to sell City Hall East to a group of developers, but those plans require more work, said David Bennett, a senior policy adviser to Reed involved in the negotiations.

Bond has been one of the most vocal critics on the council about the proposed lease.  A few council members have raised questions about the deal, but most have not.

Bond's concerns include that Fulton County could charge Atlanta more money each year to guard city inmates at the jail.

Another concern Bond has is the possibility that with the loss of city jail personnel, police officers will have to guard city inmates for long stretches when they're being treated at Grady Memorial Hospital when the officers could be on patrol. Interim Police Chief George Turner told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday that Fulton County has talked about "stepping up" its efforts to provide security for inmate medical care at Grady.

Bond said complaints that it is unethical for him to vote on the matter are being led by critics who don't like his questions about the lease plan. He noted that some council members and the mayor have relatives who work in city government.

"I don't see any reason not to continue to debate the [jail] issue," said Bond, a former city corrections officer.

Others said Bond's participation in the issue is troubling.

Bill Bozarth, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, a nonpartisan group lobbying for stronger ethics laws, suggested Bond "err on the side of being cautious."

"Ginny Looney has stated it correctly and I agree with her," Bozarth said. "[Bond] would be well-advised to back out of this."

Georgia State University professor Harvey Newman, who led a case study on Atlanta's ethics guidelines last year, believes the city needs to tighten its rules.

"It sounds like the nepotism portion needs to be beefed up," said Newman, who did the work for the Atlanta Committee for Progress, a group of prominent business and civic leaders that includes the mayor.

Atlanta officials strengthened the ethics code in 2002 after a lengthy federal investigation into corruption at City Hall resulted in the conviction of former Mayor Bill Campbell and some of his aides.

Newman said changes may not happen "until there's another scandal."