DeKalb County’s Ethics Board chairman has called upon federal, state and county investigators to find out how a fake legal document allowed a member of the DeKalb government win a $1 million county contract.
“If it is found that criminal activity took place,” John Ernst wrote in letters seeking the investigations, “I additionally request prosecution of the guilty parties to bring them to justice.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News reported last week that an ethics opinion allowing Development Authority member Vaughn Irons to bid for federal stimulus funds was invalid and possibly forged. The Ethics Board never voted on it and it was never filed with the county clerk, yet a signed copy of a draft somehow got filed with the contracting department.
“Someone fraudulently signed an ethics opinion and passed it around,” Ernst told the AJC. “Because of this, someone who was being told no is being told yes.”
He wrote to acting U.S. Attorney John Horn and DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James to request investigations. He also sent copies to the FBI, the GBI and state Attorney General Sam Olens.
The county’s ethics code forbids members of the county government from doubling as county contractors.
Irons maintains there was no conflict of interest in his bidding because his housing rehab contract didn’t overlap with his role at the Development Authority of DeKalb County. But he has said that no one at his company or associated with it was involved with the questionable opinion. He has called on the Ethics Board to investigate itself. The focus of the probe, he said, should be to to determine why it never voted on his request for an opinion and how a draft wound up being filed as if it was real.
The Ethics Board will be getting involved anyway. DeKalb resident Rhea Johnson, citing the AJC’s work, has filed new ethics complaints against Irons and Commissioner Stan Watson. The AJC/Channel 2 investigation revealed Irons’ company, APD Solutions, has been paying Watson for consulting services, and that Watson used his public office to aid the company’s planned Panola Resort development in south DeKalb.
DA Robert James’s office has already begun assembling the documents the AJC and Channel 2 obtained, though the office stopped short of calling it an official investigation. FBI Special Agent Stephen Emmett would not comment on whether his agency will get involved, citing policy.
Commissioner Nancy Jester, who called for an FBI investigation last week, asked Irons to resign from the Development Authority by the close of business Friday.
He didn’t do that, and a spokesman said he had no intention of quitting, nor a reason to.
However, on Saturday interim CEO Lee May announced that he has already begun the process of replacing the entire board. In light of the allegations, they need a fresh start, his spokesman, Burke Brennan said. Irons and the others will stay on the board for now though, because May will need approval of the County Commission for his replacements.
Jester said she hopes commissioners will work with May in installing a new board. All Development Authority members’ terms are expired.
Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton expressed resistance to doing anything immediately.
“We don’t need to fly off the handle, making rash decisions based on something we saw on TV,” Sutton said during a Friday budget meeting.
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