The husband of a high-level DeKalb County school official performed architectural work on three of five multimillion dollar school construction projects that are the subject of a criminal investigation by the county’s District Attorney’s Office, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.
Some of those projects also involved two other businessmen who have ties to architect Anthony Vincent “Tony” Pope or his wife, school official Patricia “Pat” Pope, who oversaw all of the projects. The businessmen are Lithonia builder C. David Moody and Decatur architect Vernell Barnes.
Tony Pope says he and his wife have done nothing wrong and the District Attorney’s investigation will find no evidence that his wife directed work to his firm or his associates.
Before executing a flurry of search warrants in October, DeKalb County authorities said in court documents that they wanted to scrutinize five specific projects and any other in which Tony Pope, Moody or Barnes were involved. Both Moody and Barnes indicated they are cooperating with the investigation.
In a search warrant for the case, the D.A.’s office said it is investigating numerous possible crimes, including racketeering, bid-rigging, mail fraud, wire fraud, theft by taking, theft by deception, false writings and false swearing.
From documents and interviews, the AJC has pieced together a framework showing the Popes’ and the two associates’ connections to each other and their involvement in the projects being scrutinized, which are worth more than $110 million.
Tony Pope, owner of the architectural design firm Vincent Pope & Associates, had a direct contract with the DeKalb’s school system on one of the projects, and worked as a subcontractor for builders on the other two, according to Pope and documents obtained by the AJC.
The school district’s conflict of interest policy prohibits family members from working in the chain of command of a school employee.
Documents also show that Pat Pope, while working for the county, still held a position with her husband’s company.
Though county authorities refuse to discuss their investigation, Tony Pope said detectives are trying to build a case that Pat Pope used her position to slide work to him and his business associates.
“We haven’t done anything,” Tony Pope said. “Somebody is trying to frame Pat to say that she manipulated the system to keep me busy. That’s a bunch of crap.”
Start of an investigation
The school system hired Pat Pope four years ago to shore up the school system’s construction program, which had been saddled with delays and cost overruns.
Pope, 50, was an industry insider, having worked for construction companies in Atlanta and elsewhere. Her private sector experience made her an attractive candidate.
“She’d be working on these mega projects,” said her ex-husband, Sulayman Clark. “She’d be the only woman. And she’d be the only African-American ... Those guys loved her. I mean, Pat walked on water.”
The first sign of trouble surfaced in late 2008, when school officials examined records from Pope’s office. But it wasn’t until October, when authorities searched the homes and offices of the Popes and Moody, that the probe appeared to pick up steam. Later that month, Pat Pope was removed as chief operations officer and moved to a different building. She no longer oversees high-dollar construction projects, but is still receiving her nearly $200,000-a-year salary.
She declined to comment for this story through her attorney, Manny Arora, who said Pat Pope has done nothing wrong.
Moody and Barnes also would not grant interviews, but said they are cooperating with the investigation.
Authorities in DeKalb County will not discuss the case and a judge has sealed documents related to the October searches.
The search warrant, however, suggests that the investigation is focused on five projects overseen by Pope: Columbia High School, Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy, Mountain Industrial Center, Arabia Mountain High and Flat Rock Elementary School.
A sixth school, Henderson Mill Elementary, was also named in the search warrant, but has not been the subject of new construction or major renovation, school spokesman Dale Davis.
Of the projects named by authorities, Tony Pope estimated that his firm collected slightly over $2 million in gross income on three of them combined.
For one, involving Columbia High, his firm was hired directly by the school system in April 2005, six months before Pat Pope began working with the county.
Pat Pope worked on the project as a vice president for her husband’s company, Vincent Pope & Associates, county documents show. Then, when she began her county job, she oversaw the same project.
State documents also show that, in 2007, two years into her county position, she was listed as the chief financial officer and secretary for her husband’s company.
Tony Pope’s involvement was less direct in the two other projects under investigation. In those, his firm was hired as a subcontractor by the builders who were in charge of the projects and had the contracts with the county.
Pope said he was told that his firm could not be hired by the county while his wife worked there, but said it was allowed to do the same kind of work on school projects as long as his firm was hired by the builder.
“My contract is with the builder — not the school system,” Tony Pope said.
In one instance, the builder was Moody, who is a friend of Pat Pope and president of C.D. Moody Construction Company.
The project was the construction of McNair Discovery Learning Academy, south of Decatur.
Moody was awarded an $11.9 million contract, later revised to $12.2 million, to build the school in April 2006.
The contract shows that Moody identified Barnes as his subcontractor for the architectural, civil and structural work. Barnes also is listed as the architect on 10 different price revisions to the contract from October 2006 to March 2008.
Pope’s name is not found on any of the paperwork.
Pope, however, said that Barnes, whom he has worked with in the past, got behind in his work so Moody brought him in to help.
“I was like a temp service,” Pope said. “We just loaned them some people.”
Pope estimated that his company earned about $160,000 for the work.
“None of it’s illegal,” Pope said. “David Moody has the right to hire anybody he wants to.”
The other project on which Pope did subcontracting work was the renovation of Mountain Industrial Center, a complex that houses two high schools, a wellness center and some administrative offices.
Pope said he got that job after meeting one of the company’s founders, Clarence Nix, at a party in 2007.
“They asked me, ‘Was I interested in doing some DeKalb County school work?’” Pope said.
Pope said he told them he couldn’t because of his wife’s position.
“And they said, ‘What if we’re the contract holder?’ ” Pope said.
Nix could not be reached for comment. His co-founder, Carey Fowler, said it was Pope who asked them for work.
“At no time did Mr. Pope ever indicate to Nix-Fowler Constructors that there may be a problem with him working for the DeKalb County school board on design build projects,” Fowler said.
Fowler also said that Tony Pope’s involvement on the project was not hidden. The company’s contract with the school district identifies Pope’s company as one of his two architectural subcontractors.
He added that his company did not hire Pope in order to get the county project, nor was the company pressured to hire Pope.
It’s not clear why the school system allowed Pat Pope to manage projects in which her husband was involved; school district officials would not comment on the situation, spokesman Dale Davis said.
School district policy states that “no employee is permitted to work within the ‘chain of command’ of a relative.”
And an attorney for the school system in 2005 said that policy applied to Pat and Tony Pope’s situation, according to a letter obtained by the AJC.
The letter was sent from attorney Josie Alexander to Superintendent Crawford Lewis shortly before Pat Pope began working for the county. Lewis had sought the attorney’s advice on how to handle any apparent conflict of interest between Pat Pope and Tony Pope, who regularly worked on school projects.
Alexander’s advice: Don’t let Tony Pope work on any projects that Pat Pope was overseeing.
“My prosposal is that...Mr. Pope would not be allowed to be considered as an architect for any SPLOST-funded projects or any other project where Mrs. Pope would be responsible for selecting or managing the architect,” Alexander wrote.
Tony Pope once counted the DeKalb County school system as his biggest client. When his wife landed the county job, he was working on five different school projects, he said.
To address the school district’s conflict of interest issues, Pope said, he finished two of them, kept a third and gave back the remaining two.
“That was the option I gave them,” he said.
School officials would not comment on any arrangement they might have made with Pope over his continued work on school projects.
Tony Pope also contends that he sought out — and received — written permission in April 2008 from the school system to do subcontracting work on such school projects.
The school district said it had no record of such a document and Tony Pope declined to show the letter to the AJC.
Longtime friends
Tony Pope said he has known both Moody and Barnes for more than a decade.
He described Moody as a friend, but said that Pat Pope has known him longer. Her sister used to work for Moody, he said.
Over the years, Moody was a guest at the Popes’ home several times “for a Christmas party or something like that,” Tony Pope said.
Tony Pope said he and Moody also have worked together before. Their first project was in 1999, when they worked on a medical clinic in East Point, Pope said.
C.D. Moody Construction is one of the most prominent minority-owned construction companies in metro Atlanta and has gotten much work from DeKalb’s school system in recent years. Since 2003, Moody has collected nearly $40 million from the school district, documents show.
Barnes is the owner of Vernell Barnes, Architect, a small design firm he formed in 1997, according to the company’s Web site.
Pope described Barnes as a business associate whom he has known for about a decade. Pope and Barnes have worked together before. On another DeKalb school project, Pope said he farmed out some work to Barnes “to help him get into the system.”
Since the search of his home and office, Tony Pope said he has struggled to get work done. He has had to lay off two employees and is in danger of shutting down.
“They seized everything,” he said.
Around the same time, Tony Pope and his wife separated. They have been married since 2005.
“I think it’s just the stress of her being at DeKalb County schools,” Tony Pope said.
Pat Pope has moved to office space in the Mountain Industrial Center — one of the school district buildings that is a focus of the investigation. She has been assigned a handful of special projects and her former staffers have been instructed “not to discuss projects or have any communication with me,” according to e-mails between Pat Pope and another school official, obtained by the AJC.
“I asked [Superintendent Lewis] why I was being reassigned and he stated ‘in the best interest’ of the school district,’” Pope wrote. “He also went on to inform me that he was not the enemy contrary to what my ‘family’ believes.”
Her attorney, Manny Arora, said the investigation has been stressful for Pope, but that she has no plans to resign.
“She has a contract and she’s going to honor it,” Arora said.
About the Author
