Directors among Atlanta water employees fired

Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration released Tuesday the names of 13 people fired from the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management late last week.

Among the employees is Yafet Bekele, Watershed’s director of safety and security, and a half dozen managers in security and inventory. The terminations come after the city’s law department concluded an investigation into reports of theft and mismanagement inside the agency.

Still, Reed officials haven’t said why the employees were let go and whether the decision was connected to the investigation.

Reed spokeswoman Anne Torres has said the actions “were deemed necessary and appropriate.”

Attempts to reach Bekele on Tuesday were unsuccessful. Watershed also recently terminated Ben Kuku, a longtime employee and director of the Office of Customer and Business Services.