Effort to end DeKalb’s CEO role fails

County administrator (Gwinnett): An appointed county administrator oversees operations; county commission retains ultimate policy and executive responsibility

Source: Association County Commissioners of Georgia

For years, concerned DeKalb residents have lobbied to change the way their government operates, saying the county's CEO position comes with too much power and is susceptible to abuse.

But an overhaul of DeKalb’s structure will have to wait.

The Georgia House of Representatives killed the idea of abolishing the chief executive role last week by declining to hold a vote in the closing hours of this year's legislative session.

Most of DeKalb's state representatives wanted to study the issue before making a change, and some didn't see the CEO job as the cause of the county's troubles. So for the foreseeable future, DeKalb will continue as the only one of Georgia's 159 counties with a government CEO, a politically charged position that has been blamed for contributing to corruption.

DeKalb’s metro Atlanta neighbors employ county managers or administrators who run government operations and answer to their county commissions. Unlike the CEO, these managers don’t have as much independence to manage employees and services.

But simply changing the way the county’s government is set up won’t stop abuse of power, said many of those against abolishing the CEO position. DeKalb’s issues stem from unethical elected leaders, they say.

“I don’t think the form of government needs to change,” said Teresa Hardy at a DeKalb NAACP meeting this month. “I don’t think it will make a difference — it’s just a change in the roles.”

Under the CEO elimination measure, Senate Bill 378, the position would have ceased to exist in 2019. A county manager would have been responsible for operations of the state's fourth-largest county, which has a $1.3 billion annual budget. A newly created commission chairman would have been elected countywide but have limited power and couldn't vote except to break ties.

“We should get politics out of the county’s day-to-day management,” said Robert Wittenstein, a supporter of the change and president of the Dunwoody Homeowners Association. “We should have a county commission that sets policy but let an experienced county manager decide who does what.”

Residents said in recent south DeKalb community meetings that they preferred a citizen-led study of the county’s government structure – including commission boundaries, term limits and divisions of power – before deciding on whether to kill off the CEO role. Legislation that would have formed a charter review commission also didn’t pass.

DeKalb’s CEOs have been mired in controversy in recent years, leading to calls for the county to do away with the role, which pays a $153,000 salary.

Suspended DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis was convicted last year of attempted extortion and perjury.

A special grand jury that investigated Ellis and related corruption recommended the elimination of the CEO position, saying it “creates an unnecessary layer of politics within our government for which the return to the citizens of DeKalb County is minimal.”

Ellis was replaced by Interim DeKalb CEO Lee May, who was attacked last year by corruption investigators who alleged a “stunning absence of leadership.” May, who supports changing DeKalb’s form of government, said the investigators’ claims were unsubstantiated.

Gov. Nathan Deal has also said he DeKalb’s CEO model should be changed, saying last year “it is not a workable system.”

But most of DeKalb’s state legislators disagreed.

“I don’t believe there’s an inherent flaw in the form of government DeKalb has. I think we have to improve how it operates,” said House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta. “To abolish a form of government because of bad actors would eliminate almost every form of democratic government.”

Rep. Scott Holcomb had also proposed legislation to end the CEO role, and he said he'll keep working to build community support for the change.

While removing the CEO position would be a step in the right direction, he said, it wouldn’t be a “cure-all.”

“You cannot fix a people problem through structural change,” said Holcomb, D-Atlanta, at a recent community meeting. “The people still matter.”

But Sen. Fran Millar, the sponsor of SB378, said he wanted voters to have an opportunity to decide the issue, and he didn't want it held up for years while it was studied to death.

“The people are tired of this,” said Millar, R-Atlanta. “Based upon what we’ve seen in DeKalb, it hasn’t worked out too well.”

Across Georgia, there are many varieties of county government.

In 120 counties, either a county manager or administrator runs day-to-day operations; 30 counties are managed by county commissions, and eight have a sole commissioner. DeKalb switched to the CEO type of government after voters approved it in 1982.

The leader of the group that recommended the transition to the CEO structure, Allen Moye, said DeKalb should retain a chief executive who represents the entire county and helps preserve a balance of power with the county commission, which oversees the legislative branch.

“Forms of government don’t come off an assembly line. You have to customize them for the demographics, size of population and services provided,” said Moye, who was the chairman of the DeKalb County Government Reorganization Commission. “Historically, when the General Assembly has tried to do something before involving the people, it’s been a miserable failure.”