More than four months after Interim DeKalb CEO Lee May called for replacing the county's economic development board, most of its members still remain in their positions.
The DeKalb Commission has approved two of May's nominees to the DeKalb Development Authority, but commissioners have disagreed over the other four candidates.
Don Bolia, a partner for Peachtree Government Affairs lobbying firm, and Tyrone Rachal, the president of Urban Key Capital Partners, were confirmed by the county commission June 23.
The remaining nominees will be reconsidered by the county commission July 28. They are Kevin Gooch, a partner with Alston & Bird; Miranda McKenzie, an executive with Atlanta Technical College; Keisha Taylor, a senior director of entertainment marketing for Turner Broadcasting; and Baoky Vu, an investment strategy executive. No one has been nominated for the seventh seat on the board.
Vaughn Irons, the CEO of APD Solutions, remains the chairman of the DeKalb Development Authority’s board.
May said Feb. 28 that he wanted to remove the authority's current board after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News exposed a document that allowed Irons' company to receive a $1.5 million county contract. The document purporting to be from the DeKalb Board of Ethics said Irons had no conflict of interest to bid on a housing rehab contract while also serving on the Development Authority.
Irons has said he didn’t know the Board of Ethics never voted on the issue.
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