At MyAJC.com, you can catch up on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s investigation of DeKalb County, as well as see related payment records and court documents.
A federal grand jury has served DeKalb County with a wide-ranging subpoena for vendor payment records, a clear sign that a corruption investigation won’t end with this week’s guilty plea by ex-Commissioner Elaine Boyer.
Investigators want evidence of what work was done for the money, such as reports, written opinions, audits or correspondence.
The subpoena names 62 vendors paid by all the remaining sitting commissioners and Interim CEO Lee May, dating back more than six years. May was a commissioner before replacing suspended CEO Burrell Ellis, who goes on trial Monday on corruption charges of his own.
Included on the subpoena are two companies operated by Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton’s ex-boyfriend, Warren Mosby. HSI Systems & Consultants and RighThink Associates received more than $34,000 in taxpayer funds during Sutton’s first two years in office, mostly for Mosby’s advice on how to be a commissioner, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last week.
At the time of the payments, Sutton and Mosby were romantically involved. That became public record in February, after the pair had an altercation at Mosby's home and the commissioner told a DeKalb County police officer that "she and Mr. Mosby have been in (a) relationship for the last seven years, " according to an incident report.
Prosecutors also want records on The Consulting Firm, which Commissioner Stan Watson paid $1,880 this year to develop a website that solicited campaign donations — a violation of the state ethics law.
Neither Sutton nor Watson immediately returned calls seeking comment Friday. Watson previously said that he did not know that the website, PoliticalStan.com, sought donations, and that he would consider paying the money back.
Also on the list of vendors is everyone from the DeKalb County Clerk of Superior Court and Leadership DeKalb, to a person paid $300 to be a clown and twist balloons.
Others were paid to coordinate community meetings for commissioners, provide administrative services and public relations and produce newsletters.
Some are vendors whose work the AJC has already questioned.
For example, MargLan Group is a company set up by one of Sutton’s former office aides, Marguerita Lance.
Lance had been on the county payroll more for more than three months when Sutton had a $3,500 check cut to the company in July 2013. An invoice said the payment was for “professional public affairs services” from March 11-30, 2013.
Responding to an open records request from the AJC, Sutton’s office could produce no work product from MargLan Group. The newspaper asked the county’s Information Technology department for any archived emails between Lance, Sutton and her chief of staff during the month of March 2013, and none turned up.
A reporter called Lance in August and asked about additional money she received after she became a DeKalb County employee.
“You’re calling me out of the blue,” said Lance, who left Sutton’s office earlier this year. “You’re looking at some papers. I don’t know what you’re talking about, and you want me to give you a cold statement.”
She told the newspaper to contact the county government, then hung up.
Sutton said in a letter to the AJC that Lance “worked in our office as a contractor performing administrative services before joining us as an employee.
“We paid Marguerita $3,500 for her work prior to being added to the payroll,” Sutton said.
However, the time span on the invoice overlaps five days with her start date, which personnel records show as March 25.
The AJC also questioned payments to The Collaborative Firm, a consulting company headed by former Fulton County Commissioner Michael Hightower. Records show that in 2009, when May was still a commissioner, he and Commissioner Kathie Gannon paid a combined $16,000 to the firm.
Asked to show work product, May produced a 93-page plan for spurring redevelopment in the Moreland-Bouldercrest-Cedar Grove corridor.
Bleakly Advisory Group is another company that came onto the radar of the AJC and is now on the subpoena list. Gannon and Commissioner Jeff Rader paid it a combined $8,500 in 2008. Their offices produced a 41-page report on tax allocation districts, as well as follow-up memos about the potential for creating such a district in the Briarcliff-North Druid Hills corridor.
Among other vendors for whom investigators are seeking records are:
- Influence Factory, a company paid almost $46,000 by Sutton's office from 2011 to 2013 for consulting and media services. The AJC reported last week that company chief Howard Franklin did some campaign-related work for Sutton in 2012, but he maintains it was minimal and done on a volunteer basis.
- Heather Flury, whom Rader and Gannon have paid a combined $48,500 since early 2008 for website maintenance.
- Jamil Hockett, an intern for May's office paid more than $36,000 over a period of three and a half years.
May did not respond to a request for comment Friday, but DeKalb spokesman Burke Brennan said the county will cooperate with investigators.
“He [May] has given all department heads, supervisors, staff, standing instructions to comply and fulfill all requests from pending investigations,” Brennan said. “We want these investigations to move forward, answer any questions and put these issues behind us.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
The ongoing investigation was triggered by a March article in the AJC exposing how Boyer made thousands of dollars in personal purchases on her county Visa card.
The AJC went on to press Boyer for answers about payments to 72-year-old evangelist Rooks Boynton, whom she couldn’t show had done any work. She has since confessed to paying a phony consultant more than $78,000 in a two-year kickback scheme and running up more than $15,000 in personal expenses on her purchasing card.
Boyer resigned and agreed to plead guilty days before the AJC planned to publish a second expose. She has struck a plea deal with prosecutors that could lighten her sentence to months in prison, if she becomes a valuable witness.
“Hopefully,” said Pam Saint, one of Boyer’s former constituents, “she’s going to squeal on everybody.”
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