DeKalb County Watershed Management Director Joe Basista has submitted his resignation and will leave his job next month.

Basista was appointed to the post in August 2011 by DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis. Basista cites personal reasons for his decision to step down, according to a DeKalb County news release.

His resignation comes just as a special purpose grand jury investigating contracting within the watershed department wraps up its yearlong probe. It also comes in the same week another member of DeKalb’s leadership stepped down.

Public Safety Director William Miller, the county’s top law enforcement officer, announced Monday he will retire from the department at the end of the month.

A national search will be conducted to replace Basista.

“I appreciate Joe’s service to the county,” Ellis said. “I accept his resignation and wish him the very best.”

About the Author

Keep Reading

A Korean Air plane takes off from Incheon International Airport in South Korea on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. The plane is chartered to bring back Korean workers detained in an immigration raid in Georgia. (Yonhap via AP)

Credit: AP

Featured

Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

Credit: NYT