Chairman of DeKalb Development Authority replaced
The DeKalb Commission removed the chairman of the county’s economic development board, Vaughn Irons, by voting unanimously Tuesday to appoint attorney Kevin Gooch to Irons’ former seat on the DeKalb Development Authority.
The commission’s confirmation of Gooch and another incoming board member, Turner Broadcasting marketing director Keisha Taylor, nearly completes the authority’s restructuring.
Since Interim DeKalb CEO Lee May called for the board to be replaced in February, six out of seven nominees have been appointed. The confirmation of the final nominee, Georgia Game Developers Association President Andrew Greenberg, is pending.
“It’s a fresh start,” said DeKalb Board of Commissioners Presiding Officer Larry Johnson. “We’re bringing in new folks who can promote innovation and creativity.”
May announced he would nominate new board members after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News reported on an invalid ethics opinion that allowed Irons’ company, APD Solutions, to bid on a housing rehab contract. Irons has said he had nothing to do with the ethics opinion that said he had no conflict of interest.
The terms of all of the board’s previous members had expired.
The new board members are:
- Don Bolia, a member of the Brookhaven Zoning Board of Appeals and a partner with a lobbying firm
- Gooch, an attorney who handles loan documentation
- Miranda McKenzie, an executive with Atlanta Technical College who previously worked as a director for community affairs for Anheuser-Busch Inc.
- Tyrone Rachal, the president of a finance firm who serves as a board member for several civic associations
- Taylor, senior director of entertainment marketing for Turner Broadcasting
- Baoky Vu, an investment strategy executive who serves on the board for the Technical College System of Georgia
About the Author
Mark Niesse is an enterprise reporter and covers elections and Georgia government for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and is considered an expert on elections and voting. Before joining the AJC, he worked for The Associated Press in Atlanta, Honolulu and Montgomery, Alabama. He also reported for The Daily Report and The Santiago Times in Chile.
