The Atlanta Department of Watershed Management fired 13 employees Friday following an investigation into theft and mismanagement inside the agency.
Mayor Kasim Reed spokeswoman Anne Torres confirmed that the workers were terminated, but did not immediately release their names. Nor would she directly say whether they were fired as a result of an investigation by the city’s law department.
“Although the investigations into theft, water quality, and management/performance are ongoing, today’s terminations were deemed necessary and appropriate,” Torres said in a statement.
Watershed has come under intense scrutiny in recent years after city leaders discovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in missing or stolen equipment. The items include 28 industrial water meters weighing 700 pounds and worth $5,210 apiece, copper, pipes and more, according to police reports.
City officials have yet to find a missing backhoe worth $80,000.
In March several water and sewer workers pleaded for the Atlanta City Council to look into allegations of theft and bullying at the department, a criminal ring that they said involves middle management.
Gina Pagnotta-Murphy, president of PACE Atlanta — the Professional Association of City Employees — said news that several people lost their jobs Friday was “bittersweet.” She hasn’t been briefed on the terminations and doesn’t yet know the names of those involved, she said.
“At this point, I’m just saddened to know there are some being let go,” she said. “At the same time, I’m glad someone listened to these employees who are telling the truth and have been trying to explain to them for a long time that there’s been wrongdoing.”
Following those complaints, the city’s legal department, the Atlanta Police Department and the city auditor each investigated the agency. Auditor Leslie Ward said she expects to wrap up her report by end of the month. It’s unclear when APD will complete its investigation.
Reed’s administration has denied the AJC’s requests under Georgia’s Open Records Act to release the legal department’s findings, citing attorney-client privilege laws. The city has paid an outside firm, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP, $178,000 to assist with the investigation, a spokeswoman said.
The AJC previously reported that Watershed was vetting a list of employees — at one point as many as 19 workers — who could be fired as soon as this week.
Watershed terminated longtime employee Ben Kuku in recent days, both the mayor’s office and Kuku have confirmed. Kuku most recently served as head of Watershed’s Office of Customer and Business Services. Reed officials would not say whether Kuku’s termination was related to the investigation.
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