A Clayton County commissioner is questioning whether an investment banker who works as a financial adviser for the county should continue in that role after he was successfully sued for fraud, negligence and breach of contract.
Ed Wall helps prepare the Clayton County’s budget and assists in local option sales tax negotiations with the county’s cities. He also is chairman of the nine-member DeKalb County Pension Board with oversight of more than $1 billion in employee pensions.
Chattanooga developer Duane Horton filed a lawsuit against Wall and his former employee Sterne Agee after a failed real estate deal.
After a six-week trial, a jury sided with the plaintiff and awarded $32 million in punitive and compensatory damages to Horton. Thursday, the judge ordered Wall and Agee to pay another $4.4 million in interest payments.
“A jury in Tennessee decided that in his professional capacity, Mr. Wall committed acts which should call his continued role as financial advisor to Clayton County into question. The person who occupies the position of financial advisor for the county should be a person who upholds high ethical standards. The findings of the jury in the case of Mr. Wall question whether Mr. Wall meets this test of a person with high ethical standards. I plan to ask the board to consider that question at our next meeting,” Commissioner Sonna Singleton Gregory told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an email.
Gregory said she plans to bring the matter before the board at its meeting on Tuesday.
Commission Chairman Jeff Turner said he’s withholding any judgment, adding that Wall’s current legal trouble “hasn’t affected his job with the county.”
“He’s given us good financial counsel. I still have confidence in him, “Turner said Friday. “I’m waiting to see what comes out of his appeals and any additional information. I want to do my due diligence. I don’t want to be knee-jerk in my decision.”
Other commissioners couldn’t be reached for comment.
An adviser with Piper Jaffray and Co., Wall was hired, at a cost of $225 an hour, by Clayton in 2013. Wall’s duties also include dealing with bond-underwriting and other financial matters. His contract with Clayton ends in February 2016.
In DeKalb, Wall sits on the pension board and was appointed chairman by a majority vote of the Pension Board, said DeKalb spokesperson Burke Brennan.
Staff writer Mark Niesse contributed to this article.
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