Fulton probe derailed by politics, lawyers say

By Jim Walls

For the AJC

Fulton County Commissioner Nancy Boxill and a county employee who was under investigation for fraud attended a professional conference in Brazil this year shortly after officials allegedly shelved the inquiry, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.

Neither Boxill nor Cheryl Estes, the program manager in the Human Services Department who joined Boxill at the conference in Rio de Janeiro, would comment on the trip when contacted by the AJC.

Attorneys allege that county manager Zachary Williams told an internal investigator and her boss to suspend an inquiry into Estes and several co-workers and eliminated their jobs when they refused. Williams on Friday denied trying to short-circuit the investigation or saying that county commissioners had pressured him to do so.

The investigation concluded that $183,194 in county funds were improperly diverted to the personal use of four Fulton County employees. Fulton police have now opened their own inquiry. Meanwhile, the county's investigator has been demoted, her boss fired, and the office for which she worked abolished.

The trip to Rio, the county’s internal investigation, and the fate of the investigation are all part of a complicated narrative that is perhaps best understood in parts. The narrative is based almost entirely on a copy of the internal investigation report and supporting documents, which were supplied to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by attorneys for the investigator and her boss, and on various claims made in writing by the attorneys for the two, who are threatening to sue the county.

Investigation, part I

Williams created the Office of Professional Standards after he became county manager in 2008 to field and investigate whistleblower complaints. María Colón, its sole investigator, reported to Gwendolyn Warren, the deputy county manager; both had worked for Williams previously in Broward County, Fla.

In January, acting on a tip, Colón began to investigate a private company called Exquisite Events, LLC, which is created in 2007 by Cheryl Estes and three other county employees.

Colon was investigating whether county funds had been improperly diverted to buy personal items and also business supplies for Exquisite Events, which stages weddings, corporate meetings, banquets and other events.

In February or early March 2010, lawyers for Colón and Warren allege, County Manager Williams told Warren to put Colon’s investigation on hold until after the November elections.

"Williams expressed concern over Exquisite co-owner Cheryl Estes' close ties to Commissioner Boxill, with whom Ms. Estes was planning to travel to South America for a conference," attorney A. Lee Parks Jr. wrote in a Sept. 17 letter to county officials. "Williams instructed that Warren and Colón ‘not put anything in writing,' and stop further inquiry until after the November 2010 elections because, in Williams' words, ‘it could get too political.'"

In an e-mail to the AJC on Friday, Williams denied making statements that Parks attributed to him. He declined to comment further.

Parks says that Colón did, indeed, put her investigation on hold on or about March 1. Three weeks later, Estes joined Boxill for the conference in Rio.

The Brazil trip

A county spokeswoman confirmed on Friday that Estes attended the U.N. Habitat World Urban Forum 5 in Brazil. Boxill and Estes were among five Fulton County officials listed as participants in the conference.

The county has not yet responded to an AJC request for expense reports related to the conference, and it is not clear whether taxpayers paid for the five to attend.

Estes was one of three people making a presentation on “Gender Budgeting in Local Governments,” according to the conference website. Boxill, according to the website, also spoke on gender-neutral budgeting, a topic that's part of a 4-year-old gender-equity initiative in Fulton County.

The U.N. conference ran from March 22 to March 26.

Investigation, part II

Records of Colón's investigation show no activity between March 1 and March 30.

"There was a brief period of time when she suspended the investigation but then got back into it," James Radford, an attorney for Colón and Warren, said in an interview.

But a few days after the Brazil conference ended, Colón resumed compiling records of purchases with county funds by Exquisite Events’ owners, records released by attorneys for Colón and Warren show.

Linens, banquet chairs, tablecloths, party supplies and other items for the business were all charged to Fulton County by one of the business' owners, Colón found.

The business owner's county-issued credit card was also used to pay for personal items, many of which were delivered to the co-workers' homes -- sporting goods, Wii and PSP video games, men's cologne, beauty equipment, DVDs and the "Car Wash" movie soundtrack.

Colón reported finding that some of the purchases were based on bogus invoices, purportedly for supplies for homeless shelters.

On July 5, attorneys said, Warren decided she and Colón "could not sit on this any longer" and told Colón to prepare a final report for Fulton County prosecutors. Warren also informed Williams of her decision, attorneys said.

The fallout

Two days later, minutes show, an item asking, "What is the role of the Office of Professional Standards?" was added to the county commission's July 7 agenda. Warren and Colón's attorneys contend that Williams, the county manager, discussed the matter with county commissioners behind closed doors later that day, although one commissioner denies that it came up.

Parks wrote, "[W]e believe certain commissioners advised Williams that taking a stand against the county's whistleblower agency would ‘not look good,' and asked him to ‘handle the problem' himself.”

Williams fired Warren that night, telling her "certain commissioners want you gone today," primarily because of investigations by the Office of Professional Standards, Parks wrote. He said Warren received no other reason for her termination.

Colón accepted a demotion and a $45,000 pay cut the following week, Parks wrote, and Williams "formally and quietly" abolished the Office of Professional Standards on July 20.

‘That’s a problem’

Most county commissioners declined to comment or did not return telephone calls seeking comment on the July 7 executive session. Commissioner Robb Pitts, however, said the Office of Professional Standards and the possible misuse of county funds were not discussed at that closed-door meeting.

The commission talked in private about "a number of issues" involving Warren that day, Pitts said, but they were unrelated to the Exquisite Events investigation.

"The same person may be involved, but they’re two separate situations," he said.

Pitts said he believes the county still needs an internal investigative function. He said he is troubled that county commissioners were not involved or even informed when Williams created the Office of Professional Standards, or when he abolished OPS.

"Elected officials should be involved in setting it up and funding it and so forth," he said. "This certainly had not come before the Board of Commissioners for discussion or approval. ... [Disbanding the office] hasn’t come before us either, so that’s a problem."

Pitts said he has urged County Attorney David Ware to bring in the GBI or outside lawyers to look into Williams' handling of the matter.

Pitts and chairman John Eaves are up for re-election in November; Commissioner Boxill decided not to seek another term this year.