East Point: Council member's firm can’t hire officers

By April Hunt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A new policy in East Point has put an end to a city councilman’s hiring of off-duty city police officers for his private security firm.

The appearance of a conflict of interest seemed clear enough to unite a city council often at odds, though Councilman Clyde Mitchell said other private firms have long hired city officers for such jobs.

“We were just trying to fill a need,” Mitchell said of Executive Security Agency, the firm he started with East Point Police Maj. Melvin Douglas earlier this year. “This is the kind of business that has been going on in East Point for years.”

Councilwoman Earnestine Pittman, who is resigning her seat to run for mayor, raised the issue last month.

She pushed for the policy to make it an ethics violation for any city employee to work for businesses owned and operated by elected officials. The new policy also prohibits municipal employees from working for firms owned or run by their supervisors.

“It is double dipping,” Pittman said. “Our ethics should be clear: it’s a conflict of interest if you stand to gain.”

Elected officials operate under ethical guidelines similar to those across metro Atlanta. The new policy also puts East Point in the company of cities such as Atlanta and Sandy Springs, which also clearly set out guidelines for police officers.

The Sandy Springs policy does not spell out working for a supervisor or elected official but gives the police chief final approval on what may appear to be a conflict.

“Here, anything that even smells like a conflict of interest is denied,” said Sandy Springs Lt. Steve Rose, adding that a situation like that the one in East Point would not likely earn the chief’s approval.

That sort of situation would also be denied under the Standard Operating Procedure for the Atlanta Police Department.

There the chief also has final say, but must weigh whether the off-duty job creates the impression of a conflict or that it appears within the officer’s duty to the city.

No one in East Point had filed complaints against Mitchell, Douglas or the firm. But the often-contentious city council rallied around the policy by deciding that even the appearance of a problem was enough to warrant concern.

“There are too many issues. Like, you could intimidate city workers to working for you,” Councilman Lance Rhodes said. “This entire scenario is problematic.”

Mitchell said his company, which provides security details to stores and restaurants in the city, will continue to operate but without using East Point officers.

That won’t affect the company’s bottom line, but he said it will hurt some of the officers who had relied on his firm to supplement their pay.

“This is another way the city is not protecting their employees’ interests,” Mitchell said. “There is politics behind this. It is taking money directly from these officers.”