Personal phone charges cost DeKalb taxpayers
Even though DeKalb County Commissioner Stan Watson carries a government-issued cellphone, he charged the county nearly $5,000 worth of charges on his personal cellphone over the last three years.
Watson said Monday he plans to repay DeKalb County, and he would no longer bill the county for his personal cellphone use, according to a statement he sent to Channel 2 Action News.
Watson’s personal cellphone costs averaged about $140 per month, and he used his county debit card to pay bills totaling $4,882 from May 2011 to March 2014, according to Verizon account statements obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through an open records request.
His cellphone bills included a monthly charge of $9.99 for the VZ Navigator app, routine calls to 411 Search at $1.99 each, late fees and $89.99 for monthly access charges. He also charged the county $267 in January 2013 for a replacement cellphone after he said his previous phone fell in some water.
Watson, who represents about 350,000 residents in east DeKalb, said earlier this month the expense was justified because he used his personal cellphone to talk with residents and government officials as part of his daily job as a commissioner.
About the Author
Mark Niesse is an enterprise reporter and covers elections and Georgia government for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and is considered an expert on elections and voting. Before joining the AJC, he worked for The Associated Press in Atlanta, Honolulu and Montgomery, Alabama. He also reported for The Daily Report and The Santiago Times in Chile.
