The wine cooler sent by Beltline staffers to their boss's fiancee last year came with a congratulatory note on her upcoming wedding. What it did not say was who picked up the tab for the $106.22 gift: Atlanta taxpayers.
That was far from all. Beltline employees working to ring the city with 22 miles of parks, rails and transit rang up thousands of dollars in credit card expenses with a questionable link to redevelopment work between April 2010 and May 2011, according to a review by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Taxpayers paid for elaborate staff retreats, stays at pricey hotels and expensive meals at some of the city's finest restaurants. They covered a nearly $500 bill for kegs of beer and a $2,100 tab for food at Turner Field. And they footed the bill for Beltline chief executive Brian Leary's parking ticket, his dry cleaning bill and his pre-dinner booze at a swank restaurant.
City auditor Leslie Ward recently released an audit that raised concerns about the Beltline's expenses after reviewing a month of costs. The AJC's review covered a longer time frame, and the results point to a broader pattern of questionable expenses, Ward said.
"These expenses show that the Beltline expenditures we found in the audit were no fluke," Ward said.
The city has already clamped down on such expenses. The head of Atlanta's economic development arm, which oversees the Beltline's main source of public funding, put credit card repayments under case-by-case review in August 2011 over concerns about loose accounting policies.
Now, Beltline officials are scrambling to reiumburse the city for some of the 2010-11 costs in the wake of the newspaper's inquiry.
Leary declined an interview request. Beltline officials acknowledge some expenses were "inappropriate" and should never have been covered by taxpayers. Other expenses, they said, were eligible under state law.
The Beltline, a nonprofit, 23-employee group under city oversight, gets most of its money to acquire land and pursue redevelopment from property tax growth generated by a special tax district around the project, under the theory it will pay off through longterm economic growth. A separate nonprofit group has also raised about $40 million, earmarked for Beltline capital projects and other specific uses, from private donors.
The Beltline is a key part of Atlanta's longterm development plan. It aims to circle Atlanta with a redeveloped necklace of parks, residences and businesses, in many cases turning blighted tracts into desirable locations for work or recreation. A planned streetcar line would help tie it together, although funding for that element was left in limbo by the defeat of the regional transportation tax.
Taking potential clients and supporters out to eat is common practice in the business world, particularly when it comes to real estate. But city officials have said certain restaurant expenses don't pass muster, especially those involving alcohol or expenses that went to paying meals for spouses. The submitted expenses include few details about each expense.
Duriya Farooqui, Atlanta's chief operating officer, said in a written statement it was clear that taxpayer dollars were "misused for ineligible Atlanta Beltline expenses."
"The inappropriate use of taxpayer funds by any entity is absolutely unacceptable, and we have put strong financial controls in place to prevent this from ever occurring" with taxpayer dollars again, she said.
State law governing special tax districts allows property taxes generated along the Beltline to fund "reasonable" costs linked to redevelopment. The AJC review found a range of costs, from big-ticket items to relatively small expenses, that seem to have a murky link to redevelopment.
Taxpayers funded several staff retreats that totaled thousands of dollars, including an event in September 2010 that featured a nearly $700 lunch at Rosa Mexicano, more than $300 for tickets to a nearby exhibition and a $465 charter bus to a Braves game. Another retreat held about six months later yielded a $753 bill for food at the Lobby at Twelve.
The records document a string of trips, costing more than $5,000, that Beltline staffers took around the nation for conferences and networking events. Officials say those trips help boost support for the project.
Among the trips was a three-night stay at the Hilton Sandestin in May 2011 for Beltline attorney Patrise Perkins-Hooker to attend an annual State Bar of Georgia conference for real estate lawyers. The hotel cost $329 a night, and taxpayers also picked up the tab for a $158 meal at a steakhouse and a $47 room service charge. The agency said the expenses were billed to taxpayers because it was a "professional development" trip, but they added the steakhouse meal has recently been reimbursed.
Smaller items also showed up in the review. Taxpayers paid the $27.95 parking ticket Leary got while downtown for a streetcar announcement, and they footed his $7 dry cleaning bill. Beltline officials reimbursed the city for those costs - as well as the tab for the congratulatory gift to Leary's fiancee - after the AJC requested the documents.
In all, Beltline staffers exceeded more than $5,000 in food and beverage expenses during the 13-month span. One bill was a roughly $300 tab at the Kevin Rathbun Steak restaurant involving Leary and three senior staffers for a dinner meeting he held twice a year. Another involved a $57.52 charge for alcohol at JCT Kitchen that was picked up by the taxpayers.
And tax dollars paid a $489.24 charge at Green's liquor store in June 2010 for beer kegs to launch an "Art on the Beltline" event. Those alcohol charges are being reimbursed, the agency said, and the Beltline said Leary and his top deputies will no longer bill the public for those twice-yearly dinners.
The biggest food expense by far came in May 2011, when 32 Beltline staffers and guests went to the Civil Rights Game at Turner Field. The group racked up $2,100 in charges that included soft drinks, chicken wings, pretzel sticks and a bottomless basket of popcorn.
Beltline officials called the trip to the ballgame a "team building and community engagement event" and thus eligible for tax dollars.
The chair of the Beltline's board, which oversees the organization, said it is taking steps to ensure accountable stewardship of taxpayer funds.
"Anything less than conservative, transparent stewardship of taxpayer dollars is simply unacceptable," said John Somerhalder, the board's leader and the chief executive of AGL Resources.
He did not comment on Leary, who came to the Beltline in 2009 after working at Atlantic Station for about a dozen years.
Invest Atlanta chief Brian McGowan, who put credit card charges under scrutiny shortly after he took the job last year, elaborated on those new policies. He said he's developed procedures guiding what's an acceptable expense and what isn't. He's also hired an accountant whose main job is to review the Beltline's expenses.
"As the Atlanta Beltline moves forward, there are now very clear and concise guidelines on handling expenses," McGowan said in a statement.
Several city lawmakers briefed on the findings raised concerns over the Beltline's oversight. Councilmember Felicia Moore, who chairs the city's finance committee, said she's hopeful that the spending problems will lead to strong new policies.
"Hopefully, the lesson is learned and we won't be going down this road again," she said.
Staff writer Jeremiah McWilliams contributed to this article.
Examples of some expenses:
* A $106.22 wine cooler from Pottery Barn for Beltline chief executive Brian Leary's wife.
* A $27.95 parking ticket
* A $7 dry cleaning bill
* A $2,100 tab for snacks and soft drinks at a "community engagement event" at a Braves game.
* A $489.24 bill for beer kegs to launch an "Art on the Beltline" event
What is the Beltline?
The Beltline was originally conceived by a Georgia Tech graduate student in 1999 as a way to turn the 22 miles of unused rail ringing the city into parks, transit and trails. It has received more than $120 million through the pledge of future increases in property taxes generated by new development in a special district, called a TAD, created along the route. Boosters have raised more than $40 million in private donations mostly for capital projects for a non-profit partnership aligned with the Beltline. So far about 90 separate projects have been started or completed along the path, although a plan to link the east and west sides of the Beltline with a streetcar were dealt a blow by the failure of the T-SPLOST transportation tax that would have funded construction.
How we got the story
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution used an Open Records Request to review hundreds of the Beltline's credit card expenses that were reimbursed by taxpayers between April 2010 and May 2011 for this report. It follows a July report by the AJC that found taxpayers funded cakes and desserts for birthday celebrations for agency staffers and payments to lobbying firms on behalf of the Beltline to help secure federal grants.
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