“This is a friend of mine. Would you help him out?”

That’s how the latest DeKalb County scandal may have begun.

A local businessman says he was asked to repair damage at a DeKalb elected official’s home, for a discount.

But taxpayers ended up paying about $6,500 for the work. And once that money was in hand, the company issued a $4,000 check to the official.

Who ended up with the cash?

The official – interim CEO Lee May – says it wasn’t him.

The businessman said he knew nothing about it – though he thought it was odd all along.

Now, what started with raw sewage bubbling out of a commode has some smelling the stench of corruption in DeKalb again.

Read about it at MyAJC.com or in Sunday's newspaper.