AJC investigation: DeKalb official put vacation expenses on county Visa card

A rental car during a vacation in Phoenix. A flight for a relative. Personal cell phone expenses. A rental car to drive after a crash.

DeKalb County taxpayers have picked up the tab for those expenses and more, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is blowing the whistle.

Our investigation found a DeKalb County commissioner using a county Visa card to ring up thousands of dollars of personal purchases, in some cases while she and her husband were having financial problems. She paid back more than $4,000 after the AJC began scrutinizing her spending. She cannot produce dozens of receipts, and the DeKalb district attorney says he’ll be looking into it.