Table appears set for conflict

Documents show that Cunningham’s restaurants collected $3,077 from schools in the five years before he joined the school board, compared to at least $22,655 in the three and a half years after. The purchases mostly came in the form of large orders of pizza, chicken wings or both for teacher gatherings, yearbook parties and other events.

And, according to Zo’s, who could blame the schools for coming back for more?

“Rich ingredients, tasteful and fast service is what keeps Zo’s customers coming back,” the restaurant’s Web site reads.

Pizza and wings might seem harmless, but Cunningham’s sales may have violated the school board’s conflict-of-interest policy, which prohibits companies owned by board members from doing business with the school district.

The revelations about Cunningham come as the DeKalb school district is already reeling from the recent indictments of former Superintendent Crawford Lewis, former Chief Operating Officer Pat Reid and two others in connection with a construction program scandal.

School board Chairman Tom Bowen said he was surprised to learn from the AJC that the restaurants have been selling to DeKalb schools. He said the board will investigate the matter.

“Whether it’s an actual conflict of interest or not, it clearly is a perceived conflict of interest,” Bowen said. “My concern was the increase of the business [sales], relative to when he became a board member. Because the average person could only come to a conclusion that his knowledge of the system would have allowed him to get more business from the system.”

Bowen also said he wants the board to tighten school district policies that relate to such matters, and require that school board members file documents each year that detail their financial interests and investments.

Cunningham’s attorney, Dwight Thomas, denied that his client has run afoul of ethics policies.

“Mr. Cunningham’s relationship with Zo’s is not in violation of any DeKalb or State [sic] ethics policies and it does not appear that his relationship is in any way improper,” Thomas wrote.

Cunningham conducted a brief phone interview in May with the AJC, acknowledging that he owned the restaurants and sold food to DeKalb schools. But he said he did not use his influence as a board member to build his business.

“That’s ridiculous,” he said. “I’ve been here in this community doing the same thing for this whole time period. I don’t have to use influence in the school system. I was already in the schools.”

The AJC also found an additional $2,219 in purchases from a business named daVido’s, but those records don’t list an address, so it’s not clear whether the pizza was purchased from Cunningham’s restaurant or other daVido’s locations. There have been at least two other daVido’s in DeKalb in recent years.

Cunningham said he had business relationships with the schools that bought food from his restaurants prior to joining the school board.

“I did this before I got on the school board,” Cunningham said. “I’m not out there soliciting for any business.”

However, records show that Cunningham has added at least 11 DeKalb schools to his customer list.

Of the 14 schools that bought food from Cunningham’s businesses, only three did so prior to his election. All but two are in the district he represents.

The AJC contacted the principals of those schools, but all either declined to comment or did not return messages seeking comment.

Cunningham also acknowledged that he has sold food to booster clubs or auxiliary groups associated with the schools, which Bowen says is OK because the sales did not involve taxpayer money.

“The booster [club] is not part of the school system,” Cunningham said.

The AJC could not determine how much Cunningham made from those groups because they are not subject to Open Records Act requests and numerous organizations did not return phone messages seeking information.

Cunningham did not return numerous phone messages after the AJC obtained the documents confirming his food sales, but he is now trying to distance himself from the company.

Cunningham suggested to Bowen that he is not a current owner of Zo’s, and his attorney told the AJC that Cunningham has never had an ownership interest in the restaurants.

“He has no ownership interest,” Thomas said, adding that he could not address Cunningham’s prior comments to the AJC. “He has a wife that has an interest.”

Cunningham’s own statements and documents obtained by the newspaper contradict the attorney’s claim.

On Cunningham’s most recent financial disclosure statements, filed with DeKalb County in July 2009, he wrote that he and his wife were both self-employed and listed the employer as Zo’s.

In incorporation papers filed with the Georgia secretary of state, Cunningham was identified as the vice president and co-owner of two corporations whose holdings included daVido’s and Zo’s, respectively. Those corporations were later dissolved.

While inquiring into Cunningham’s restaurants, the AJC discovered several business licenses for Zo’s or daVido’s, but all were either delinquent or inactive, records show.

Shortly after the AJC interviewed Cunningham, his wife, Evelyn, paid off back debt associated with those licenses, closed them and obtained a new business license that lists a woman whom Thomas identified as Cunningham’s sister-in-law, Marcia Phillip, as the new owner.

Phillip could not be reached for comment.

While some food orders were only enough to feed a single classroom, others could have fed an entire school. Four topped $1,000, while 22 were more than $300.

The two largest purchases came from the same school, Flat Rock Elementary in Lithonia.

In April 2009, Zo’s catered a large lasagna meal for a math night event for $1,600.

Five months earlier, the school paid $1,350 for 300 spaghetti meals and drinks from Zo’s.

Martin Luther King Jr. High School, where Cunningham once served as the parent-teacher association president, paid the most money — $5,611 — to Cunningham’s businesses after he became a school board member. During Cunningham’s time on the board, MLK officials bought food from his businesses 14 times, including transactions for $1,260, $947 and $750.

In his interview with the AJC, however, Cunningham said his work as a school board member has hurt — not helped — his business.

“I’m making a sacrifice here,” he said. “Me being on the school board, I’m not getting anything from this. I sell pizza and wings and everything, but it’s not like they’re knocking my doors down. ... You come to my store right now and this parking lot is empty. I was doing a hell of a lot better when I was not on the school board than I am now.”

Whether it’s because of his time on the school board — or in spite of it — Cunningham is showing signs of financial distress.

One of Cunningham’s now-defunct corporations has a $16,685 state tax lien, court records show.

For several years, Cunningham’s monthly school board paychecks have been garnished — to the tune of $465 per paycheck — to pay off a $19,127 debt stemming from a leased luxury vehicle that was repossessed from him, according to court documents.