Clayton County residents wanted more transparency in county government. They got it, and now that openness is costing them.
After less than 75 days in office, the new leadership has racked up nearly $500,000 and counting in its vow to create a more open government:
- The county recently paid an Atlanta firm more than $104,000 to do a forensic audit of county spending but fired the company before it could finish the job. An Atlanta law firm was hired to take over and it rehired the old firm to help with the ongoing audit, which comes a few months after the county had already spent $160,000 to do a state-mandated audit.
- As part of their efforts to create a better-run government, county leaders have brought in a $200-an-hour financial adviser and are adding a chief financial officer and chief operating officer. Total cost for those two jobs: $234,000 a year, not including the benefits package.
The spending comes as budget season nears, but Clayton’s top official said this week he’s trying to make sure the county’s inner workings are in tiptop order.
“If I’m going to come in and assume the financial responsibilities for this county, I want to make sure all of the finances are proper and in order, and that we have the proper operating procedures in place,” Chairman Jeff Turner said.
But one county official said major money is being spent before the new board members have had a chance to familiarize themselves with Clayton's budgetary needs.
“I’m concerned for the county,” said Commissioner Gail Hambrick, who opposed the forensic audit. “This is budget season. Nothing has been done to formulate the budget. I want to know, with the spending that’s been done since January, what kind of hit that will have on our budget?”
New commissioners Turner and Shana Rooks swept into office vowing to bring more transparency to government.
Turner said he and Rooks pushed for the forensic audit after residents asked for greater accountability of county finances. The concern arose last year after District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson’s office raided the county’s finance department as part of an ongoing investigation into county corruption. At the time, boxes of financial records were seized, and commissioners and other key county officials were subpoenaed. To date, no findings from that probe have been released.
When asked why he felt the state-mandated audit wasn’t sufficient, Turner said: “We wanted a clean slate. The company who did (the state-mandated audit last year) was a reputable company. We wanted to make sure we, the current new board, chose a company that would do a more in-depth look at the finances.”
Toward that end, commissioners voted 3-2 to hire the White Elm Group, which launched a forensic audit of the county’s finances on Jan. 3. The company submitted two invoices totaling $104,066, according to records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
But now, less than a month after White Elm’s dismissal, little is known about the work the company did in January, or what, if anything, the forensic audit found.
Hambrick said she tried to get more details about the audit via an Open Records request but couldn’t get an explanation. “Still to this day I don’t have a breakdown for what the bill was for,” she said.
Meanwhile, the county has hired Atlanta law firm Arnall Golden Gregory to take over the audit, with White Elm’s help.
Turner has declined to discuss details of the ongoing audit, except to say White Elm’s search turned up “nothing alarming.”
“I don’t want anybody jumping to conclusions. Let them do their jobs and then we’ll report the findings,” Turner said. “I want to make sure we report the findings in a fair and ethical way. We’re going to be very transparent. We’re not trying to do any headhunting. We just want accountability.”
In addition to the spending that’s already taken place, Hambrick expressed concern about a tentative agreement reached this week between the county and its seven cities over distribution of local option sales tax (LOST) money. The deal calls for the cities’ share of revenues to go up over the next three years. The cities will get 31.41 percent of tax revenues the first year, 32.41 percent the second year, and 33.41 percent the third through tenth years. The 10-year agreement is effective July 1 if approved by the councils in each city.
“We don’t know what kind of hit that will have on the county. Cities are getting more (money),” Hambrick said. “There’s too many variables here just to throw away money.”
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