With the primary election less than two months away, one DeKalb County incumbent appears to have a 4-foot by 6-foot advantage.
CEO Burrell Ellis’ name appears in bold letters on eight tall stocky signs that sprouted with the flowers and greenery this spring. Just above his name is his local jobs’ stimulus slogan, “Creating jobs. Building Hope.”
Taxpayers, not Ellis’ re-election campaign, have paid $4,000 on the eight temporary signs so far. That figure is expected to double when another eight are put up later this year and could swell to $40,000 if the county erects signs at the 82 upcoming water/sewer projects, according to records obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Ellis dismissed any question about his name appearing so prominently, saying he had no role in the design. But Ellis' opponents in this summer's Democratic primary have called for the signs to be taken down, and some taxpayers readily agree.
“It’s just a slap in the face of a taxpayer like me, who is looking for work myself and seeing my money wasted on a silly sign,” said Lucille Shelton, who went back to school and earned a master’s degree in counseling after losing her job-placement position, only to remain unemployed.
Signs touting “Your Tax Dollars At Work,” are common additions to the regional and national landscape. Signs popped up in front of Cobb County schools, for example, when work was being done with a penny sales tax set aside for education. Gwinnett regularly puts up signs on various road or park projects paid with that county’s penny sales tax.
The difference in DeKalb is its signs, while legal, raise ethical questions. Instead of being erected in front of projects in order to offer details to taxpayers about the work being done -- or even the name of the work -- its signs tie the idea of creating jobs to Ellis’ name -- in the middle of his re-election campaign.
Ellis defends the signs as promoting OneDeKalb Works, a local stimulus program that calls for contractors on county government projects to make a “good-faith effort” to fill half of their jobs with DeKalb residents.
“The sign lets people know what’s taking place in exchange for public funds,” Ellis said. “It’s pretty standard practice.”
Still, Ellis could not say how many jobs were created with the projects he is touting. He also did not have specific figures for the eight projects underway, such as the new roof at the county’s main library in Decatur.
The money for that project comes from the $6.5 million federal stimulus grants the county received for improving energy efficiency. By contrast, DeKalb will spend $100,000 of county tax dollars to buy books and materials for all 22 library branches throughout the county.
“In these tough economic times, every dollar should be going to our libraries or our senior centers, not a bunch of throwaway signs,” said Commissioner Larry Johnson, who took aim at the markers after receiving calls from residents, hopeful the signs meant the county was hiring.
It’s not. In the face of a continuing drop in property values and just a year after raising the tax rate 26 percent, Ellis called for a hiring freeze this spring.
That gloomy record is why Ellis’ opponents in the Democratic primary next month view the signs as a political move at a critical time.
Without a GOP candidate in the race, the winner of the summer’s election is all but assured to be the next CEO. That makes the signs as much a public relations tool as anything else to candidates Jerome Edmondson, a businessman, and former DeKalb police officer Gregory Adams.
“I’m new to politics, but I am a veteran of ethics,” Edmondson said. “Basically, he is just marketing his campaign.”
Adams agreed, saying Ellis “wants the people of the county to feel like he’s doing a good job, but it’s not about being a big name. It’s about service.”
Politics, though, can often be about both things at the same time, said Kerwin Swint, a political science professor at Kennesaw State University.
True, similar signs in front of the schools in his native Cobb promoted only the projects, not the politicians behind them. But, Swint noted, that makes them an ethical question for voters, the same people the signs are trying to rally to the polls.
“It’s a little bit like the letters members of Congress send out with their pictures and accomplishments, which, funny enough, tend to go out in election years,” Swint said. “It may skirt the propriety of spending public money, but it’s pretty common.”
The reception too is, like most things in politics, somewhat divided. Ellis said he has received only one resident complaint about the signs. That person didn't argue with the message, asking only a sign be moved away from the roadway.
Amanda Davis, a stay-at-home mom, likewise shrugged off the sign in front of the Decatur library as she and son Christian, 7, went in.
“I guess you do need to let people know you’re working,” Davis said.
When asked, though, most residents agreed with Simeon Word. The south DeKalb job hunter criticized the signs for not including a way for residents to tap into the training or resources the county is touting.
“The sign will get folks’ attention but not for anything that’s really an investment,” Word said. “It’s like throwing money away.”
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