DeKalb County Commissioner Stan Watson got spanked last year by the county’s ethics board. He had been working for a politically connected developer for a couple years but somehow forgot about that arrangement when he voted to give the developer $1 million worth of work. Months later, he re-forgot and voted again to give him another $500,000.
Two ethics board members last year wanted to suspend Watson for this conflict of interest. But the board’s majority, a forgiving lot, decided to just tell him to knock it off.
Last month, Watson decided it was time to move on. The former state rep, known in the Legislature as a serial forgetter when it came to filing campaign disclosure statements, has decided his $40,000-a-year commissioner’s gig is small potatoes.
Instead, Stan Watson is going Big Time. He wants the taxpayers to pay him nearly $1 million — that's one millyeeon dollars — over the next four years. He is running for tax commissioner. He wants to collect your property taxes.
Henhouse, meet fox.
Something like this should not be shocking news. DeKalb is a land where slippery ethics and outright corruption go together like Bonnie and Clyde.
Sure, there’s an appetite for reform. I keep hearing there is.
In recent years, voters have endured a never-ending narrative of a county careening between dysfunction and malfeasance. At least 40 DeKalb elected officials, appointees, business people, teachers and cops have been convicted of corruption-related charges, ranging from CEO Burrell Ellis and Commissioner Elaine Boyer to a janitorial guy and a grease trap inspector.
If there is one thing for sure, skulduggery in DeKalb spares no pay grades.
So finally, after all those trials and subpoenas and investigations and news stories comes election time. Finally, in next month’s primaries it’s time to make things right.
But, we now have the specter of Stan Watson collecting our taxes for a quarter-million dollars a year.
Really, there is little shame.
Viola Davis, a nurse who plays DeKalb watchdog in her off time, said, “We voters are their employers. But we haven’t done a good job of electing them.”
In fact, even though Watson’s name has surfaced repeatedly for unfavorable reasons, “Stan has an excellent chance of winning because of name recognition,” she said.
As Commissioner Jeff Rader put it, “He hopes people don’t remember why they remember him.”
It’s the curse of DeKalb.
John Ernst, the former ethics board chairman who argued for Watson to be suspended, said DeKalb’s commission districts are too big for newcomers or do-gooders to raise money or get traction to unseat sitting commissioners. The five regular commissioners each represent 130,000 residents.
Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton, who has fought against having a powerful auditor or ethics board, certainly fits the bill as someone difficult to unseat.
Sutton came to office in 2009 as a financial conundrum. There had been warrants issued against her for writing bad checks and her wages were being garnished for defaulting on her Lexus. But she somehow loaned herself $60,000 to run for office. Ultimately, she even lost her home to foreclosure during her first term.
Somehow, the financial pictured has brightened during her second term. In 2013, she told our friends at WSB-TV that her $163,000 house was paid for. At the time, the TV station was sniffing around because she had failed to pay her property taxes. Slipped her mind, she told them.
Forgetfulness seems to be rampant in DeKalb.
And it gets more interesting.
Back when she first came to office, Commissioner Sutton paid $34,000 in county funds to political operative Warren Mosby, who comes from a political family — and, as it turns out, was Sutton’s’ boyfriend.
When the AJC asked for evidence of his $34,000 of work, the commissioner came up with little that was tangible.
Mosby’s brother Howard is a state rep and his late father, Nate, was a DeKalb county commissioner. In fact, Nate Mosby came to office after former commissioner John Evans was convicted for bribery. Later, former civil rights legend Hosea Williams beat the elder Mosby by claiming he was a lackey of the white political establishment.
I bring all that up because, it seems, Warren Mosby has gotten tired of telling others how to run for office and wants to do it himself. He’s running against Kathie Gannon for one of the county’s two super-commission seats. It’s hard to beat a sitting commissioner but Mosby, who is African-American, is likely hoping to beat the white Gannon in the majority black district.
Mosby didn’t return calls, nor did Sutton. I called Watson and caught him in a meeting. I presume he forgot to call back.
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