The director of Atlanta's Office of Recreation collected an annual salary of about $81,000 for nearly a year after the city placed her on administrative leave when an internal investigation found that she had been negligent in performing her duties.
The investigation found that Charlene Braud had not informed police of an incident involving a 4-year-old girl who said she had been inappropriately touched by a city swimming coach in February 2011. Braud's boss, George Dusenbury, commissioner of the city's Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, also was found negligent in the case.
The girl's mother went to the Atlanta police on Feb. 22, 2011, three days after the incident allegedly occurred. Peter Aman, the city's chief operating officer at the time, also directly contacted the police about the incident after Dusenbury told him about it Feb. 26.
After Braud, who supervised the city's pools as recreation director, was placed on paid administrative leave, she did not have to come to work to get paid. Braud could not be reached for comment for this article.
Sonji Jacobs, a spokeswoman for Mayor Kasim Reed, said it is standard practice to put employees on paid administrative leave during investigations.
Asked why Braud's paid leave lasted nearly a year, Jacobs said the city did not want to cause problems for a separate investigation by the Fulton County District Attorney's Office.
"We did not want to interfere with the DA’s investigation," Jacobs said, "and this matter required extreme sensitivity."
The case was presented to a Fulton County grand jury in June. It did not return an indictment.
It is unclear how many Atlanta employees are put on paid administrative leave or how much is spent for salaries during those periods.
The fallout from the molestation allegations included a five-day suspension without pay for Dusenbury. Braud is scheduled to get a new assignment in a different department next week, but she was not suspended. It was not clear Friday whether her pay grade would change.
Dusenbury, who was appointed by Reed, "received disciplinary action because of his failure to escalate the matter appropriately" with Aman, Jacobs said.
The swimming coach was not charged with a crime, but he has been fired.
Investigative reports obtained earlier this month by Channel 2 Action News and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed an Atlanta Parks and Recreation Department hindered by tension between two of its top managers. Dusenbury and Braud rarely spoke directly, they told investigators from the city's Law Department. Braud did not tell Dusenbury about the abuse allegations.
The AJC obtained Braud's personnel files through an open records request. One evaluation, dated September 2009, ranked her "effective" -- the middle grade of five. Braud took issue with that. "I do not feel that my efforts and extra efforts are accounted for in this evaluation," she wrote.
Another evaluation from 2008 called her "hard working, committed and knowledgeable," but it added that Braud needed to develop staffers who could work well without close oversight. In handwritten comments, Braud responded: "I believe ratings should be on my performance specifically and not my entire office of employees."
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