Excerpts from DeKalb Interim CEO Lee May’s Aug. 6 letter to investigators. The full letter is on MyAJC.com:
Let me begin by thanking you for your work. We agreed you would issue your final written report within the next three weeks which would be on or before Wednesday, August 26, 2015. We discussed presentation of the Final Report to the Board of Commissioners in October. Upon reflection, no further presentations need to be scheduled until issuance of the written Final Report.
In our meeting, you also expressed frustration about non-payment of your invoices, and I assured you that any outstanding invoices would be processed immediately and your final payment will be issued upon receipt of the Final Report … .
After review of your August 5th Investigative Update, I am concerned about the tone and content of your Final Report and I insist that your Final Report be detailed, factual and accurate. Your August 5th Investigative Update was very broad and included generalized personal attacks on the entire county workforce.
I entrusted you with this task because I believe your 16 years of service as the Attorney General for the State of Georgia and your status as a partner in a major law firm make you uniquely qualified to conduct a factual investigation and issue a professional and accurate Final Report. While I understand your frustration at not being fully paid as of this date, the salacious headline-grabbing characterizations in your August 5th Investigative Update and its imprecise references will need more context in your final report for my administration to take proper action to restore the faith and trust in DeKalb County government.
For example, your August 5th Investigative Update references a Purchasing Card (P-card) being used to purchase a trip to the Bahamas for an employee. I believe you are referring to an award given as part of a county customer service award program, and not an individual employee who simply used a county P-card to purchase a cruise to the Bahamas. While you might disagree with utilizing government funding for customer service award programs to increase employee morale, this use of a county P-card certainly does not provide evidence to support your conclusion that DeKalb County government is “rotten to the core.”
Additionally, you have already raised concerns over P-card usage in your June 2nd Interim Report. On June 8, 2015, upon receipt of your recommendation, I immediately eliminated the P-card program, with few exceptions for emergencies. Nowhere in your August 5th Investigative Update did you mention this fact.
You also mention that you have uncovered criminal wrongdoing. I must insist that you talk immediately with the appropriate prosecutor, whether it is the Acting United States Attorney, the DeKalb District Attorney, or the DeKalb Solicitor-General to determine next steps and the propriety of inclusion of any such findings in your Final Report. I know that you do not want your actions or Final Report to jeopardize or prohibit a future criminal investigation and prosecution.
Our next communication should only be delivery of the final report on or before August 26, 2015.
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