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Atlanta City Councilwoman Cleta Winslow has used taxpayer dollars to pay a political ally $65,000 over five years to mow lawns in her district.
The work included a lot across the street from her house and yards on the street where her ally lives. Atlanta taxpayers also footed the bill to mow a property owned by one of her campaign donors, and another owned by the mother of one of her aides.
The payments could amount to an array of infractions. Winslow overstepped procurement guidelines, and she may have violated both the city’s ethics ordinance and the state constitution, experts say.
The city opened the door to such abuses by failing to impose safeguards on how elected officials spend discretionary funds, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation found. With no public scrutiny or meaningful oversight, officials are free to spread the cash around.
No one even raised a fuss as Winslow paid Roy Davis’ Richro Lawn Care more than $20,000 last year for the mowing, even though, under the city’s procurement rules, the work should have been put out to bid.
The AJC found no evidence that Winslow did that.
Nor did it find evidence that she has attempted to recoup lawn-mowing costs from property owners, which also included banks, mortgage companies, investors and out-of-state residents.
Her arrangement with Richro may have violated the city’s ethics rules by putting city services to use for private advantage, Ethics Officer Nina Hickson said.
Winslow also may have violated the state constitution's gratuities clause, Hickson and other legal experts said. That provision forbids governments from giving away services for nothing in return.
Winslow said she wasn’t personally benefiting from having the lot near her home maintained.
“No, the neighbor asked for it to be cut. The owner is dead, sir. The city of Atlanta cannot find the owner,” she said.
She then ended the interview and has refused to discuss Richro further.
Winslow has previously said she’s serving her community, one of the poorest in Atlanta, by paying for the mowing services because government agencies are financially strapped.
But Amy Henderson, spokeswoman for the Georgia Municipal Association, said the use of government resources on private property must “confer a clear and substantial benefit for the public.”
“We get a lot of city officials who want to help,” she said. “But we tell them there are channels to go through for that (and) to keep in mind the public government cannot use its resources for the benefit of an individual.”
Henderson said this question came up often during the worst of the recession as many homes were foreclosed. In that case, a number of governments opted to step in and clear yards, but with one key difference — billing the property owner for the work, or at least making the attempt.
“That’s a way to avoid the conflict with the gratuities clause, so you’re not giving it away,” she said.
Special favors?
The AJC tried to determine exactly what work Davis did and the cost per lot, but his invoices had some inaccurate and incomplete information. The addresses he listed for a number of properties don't exist, possibly the result of incorrect numbers for vacant lots and homes in neighborhoods hard hit by foreclosures.
But the invoices listed at least 60 identifiable properties he mowed between the summers of 2012 and 2013, along with several right-of-way strips.
The AJC walked neighborhoods and found empty lots at some of the addresses listed on Richro invoices, and abandoned, dilapidated houses at others. About half of the properties had no records of code violation complaints, while other had multiple complaints of overgrowth, trash and other problems.
Among the yards cut was a vacant lot on Lowndes Street owned by Elexis Properties, a real estate management company that contributed $200 to Winslow and gave her use of office space during her reelection campaign last year. Elexis representatives did not return messages seeking comment.
Winslow also paid Davis to cut the yard of a Holderness Street home owned by Janice Sikes, whose daughter Arianna Sikes worked in the councilwoman’s office at the time. Richro also cut a lot next door owned by the Sikes family.
Janice Sikes did not return a call seeking comment about her property.
Winslow paid Davis to clean up on his own street, Mozley Place, 11 times between July 2012 and 2013.
Campaign records show Davis is a political supporter of Winslow. His company gave her a $500 campaign donation in July, according to a report she sent to the state. Such donations from vendors to candidates, however, are common and allowed under the law.
Davis refused to discuss with the AJC how he got the job from Winslow.
“Nah, that’s not something I want to get into, sir,” he said, just before hanging up on a reporter. “Thank you very much.”
The city’s finance department is supposed to flag payments to a single vendor that exceed the $20,000 annual cap, and the AJC wanted to ask city officials how Winslow’s $21,150 in checks to Richro slipped past.
The AJC also wanted to know why no one in the city questioned paying Davis for mowing lawns on his own street. The potential conflict should have been obvious, since his invoices listed his Mozley Place address at the top.
But officials from Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration, which oversees the city’s finance and law departments, declined a request for an interview to discuss city protocols.
Asked about the matter, Council President Ceasar Mitchell said in a statement that he’s planning a council retreat within the next month and that these issues and potential reforms will be discussed.
Hickson’s office is now looking into a possible misuse of taxpayer funds by Winslow, who has already been slapped with a number of ethics fines in recent years for using city funds for campaign purposes, in violation of the city’s ethics law.
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