Somebody is leaking information from closed Dunwoody City Council meetings, and the mayor is not happy about it.
To get the bottom of things, Mayor Mike Davis announced at the council's Feb. 13 meeting that the city will launch a special investigation to root out the source of the leak. Former DeKalb County District Attorney Bob Wilson, one of the state's lead investigators into the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal, will be paid $150 per hour with public funds to lead the probe.
"That's amazingly cheap for an attorney, " Dunwoody resident Joe Hirsch said.
But, he added, "I think rather than investigating who leaked it, they should be investigating who said it was OK to hold the meeting [in private]."
Davis' announcement of the investigation followed a specially called closed session before the Feb. 13 council meeting. There was no public discussion of the cost for the investigation, and no formal vote occurred.
Council members either did not respond to questions about the investigation or referred all inquiries to the mayor.
A local newspaper, The Dunwoody Crier, reported that City Council members, during a Feb. 3 closed session, had discussed selling a 16-acre tract of land, originally purchased for a park, to a developer who wants to build single-family homes and town homes on the site. The paper did not provide a source for the information other than to say it was not a City Council member.
Georgia law allows governments to discuss the acquisition of property in closed session, but it does not allow discussions relating to its sale.
Speaking later in the week, Davis said that, contrary to news reports, there was nothing illegal about the Feb. 3 closed meeting.
"We know for a fact that our executive session was legal," Davis said. "So it's safe to say that everything you've read and heard is probably wrong."
City Manager Warren Hutmacher said the City Council will be provided regular updates as to the running cost for the investigation. At no time, he said, will the mayor or council involve themselves in the probe.
Hutmacher said the City Charter allows for hiring of personnel without official council action, and that's why no vote was taken. He said the mayor had consulted council members individually about the idea.
"We really think this is an important issue," Hutmacher said. "We want to make sure it doesn't happen again."
Dunwoody is not the only metro Atlanta government bristling from information leaks.
The Clayton County school system spent upward of $40,000 last year in an unsuccessful effort to find the source of a rumor involving its superintendent's conduct. Despite a four-month investigation, which included computer forensics and cell-phone data collection, the probe failed to find out where the rumor started or find any evidence of wrongdoing by Superintendent Edmond Heatley.
Dunwoody's case is different in that it involves the direct operation of the city's government. The city has not released any details about how the investigation will be handled, and Wilson was not available for comment Monday.
Davis said the city works hard to operate in the open, but state law allows for certain matters to be discussed in private, chiefly to protect the taxpayers. He would not elaborate on how or whether the leaked information damaged the city.
Hirsch is unapologetic about his skepticism. He agreed that government leaks can be costly to taxpayers, but he had hoped Davis and the council would have addressed the rumors circulating about the park property and precisely how they intend to fix the leak in their midst.
"At the City Council meeting, they had the opportunity to explain to the citizens a little bit about what's going on," Hirsch said. "Instead, they just keep circling the wagons."
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