In September 2013, The Atlanta Journal-Constiution reported about late taxes owed by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s real estate holding company.
Using a combination of real estate and tax records, interviews and e-mails obtained through open records requests, the AJC detailed how Fulton County Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand stepped in to help Reed after a tax lien was sold to a private collection firm.
George Anderson, an ethics watchdog, filed complaints in recent days with city and county ethics officials based on the AJC’s reporting. Local ethics officials will now consider the complaints to see if there is probable cause to investigate.
A pair of ethics complaints alleges Kasim Reed received special treatment from Fulton County’s tax chief after an overdue tax bill from the Atlanta mayor’s company was turned over to a collection firm.
The complaints were filed over the past two weeks against Reed and Fulton County Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand by George Anderson, a Rome, Ga.-based ethics advocate.
Anderson was spurred by a September report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution detailing how, soon after Reed was sworn in as mayor in 2010, Ferdinand personally intervened to buy back an $18,500 tax lien against Reed’s real estate investment company from Vesta Holdings, the private collector that had purchased it.
The move ran counter to Ferdinand’s aggressive tactics in other cases.
Typically, Fulton taxpayers who fail to pay all or part of their bills have liens slapped on their properties within months of being deliquent. The liens can get sold to investors, who collect interest and penalties and can auction properties to settle accounts.
When taxpayers have complained that they weren’t properly notified, as Reed’s attorney did, Ferdinand’s policy has been to tell them to resolve the matter by satisfying the debt with the firm that bought it.
The AJC discovered that Reed met personally with Ferdinand in April 2010 to discuss his company’s tax account. By taking the lien back from Vesta, Ferdinand spared him political embarrassment, and the tax chief later filed documents instructing the Superior Court Clerk to remove all liens placed against Cascade’s properties from the record.
In complaints filed with both Atlanta’s and Fulton County’s ethics boards, Anderson accuses Reed of receiving a gratuity from Ferdinand, a fellow Democrat, in violation of ethics codes and state law.
“The mayor got special, preferential treatment,” Anderson said. “When you put yourself above the public, then you have taken your position and made it for personal gain rather than for public service.”
In a statement, Reed’s office said there was “nothing improper about this four-year-old transaction.
“Mayor Reed exercised his option as a private citizen to resolve this issue no differently than anyone else who seeks to rectify a business tax issue,” spokesman Carlos Campos said. “We are confident these baseless charges will be dismissed.”
Ferdinand did not respond to a request for comment.
Fulton County’s Ethics Board will hold a probable cause hearing, tentatively scheduled Feb. 20, to decide whether to launch a formal investigation into the complaint against Ferdinand, Chairman Donald Edwards said. If the allegations were substantiated, the board could reprimand him, fine him up to $1,000 or refer the case to the District Attorney.
Atlanta ethics officer Nina Hickson said Wednesday her staff will do a “preliminary analysis” to decide whether to investigate the complaint against Reed. A hearing will be held only if officials believe there is probable cause to proceed, but Reed disputes that conclusion, Hickson said.
The AJC reported in September that Reed’s holding company, Cascade Investors, had been chronically late paying property taxes on a vacant warehouse property in southwest Fulton County. When Reed became mayor in 201o, Cascade owed thousands of dollars in overdue taxes on the property, records show.
Reed formed Cascade Investors with four other men in 2006 to purchase two parcels of property in unincorporated Fulton County, just outside the city of Atlanta. Records show taxes are now current on the property.
Anderson, a former bookstore owner, has been firing off ethics complaints throughout the state for the past two decades, targeting both Republicans and Democrats on the local and state level. He puts the number at 460 since 1995.
Anderson’s complaints against Gov. Nathan Deal have contributed to turmoil at the state ethics commission, where two top officials have filed lawsuits alleging they were pushed out of their jobs for investigating Anderson’s allegations against Deal.
In 2004, he filed the only other ethics complaint ever lodged against Ferdinand. Anderson cried foul because the tax chief used Tom Biggers, his delinquent-tax administrator at the time, as a middleman to buy his south Fulton County cattle farm from Foxworthy Inc., a company that had bought millions of dollars in tax deeds from the county.
The board ruled unanimously that there wasn’t enough evidence to pursue ethics charges.
Edwards, of the Fulton ethics board, said Anderson’s complaint won’t be taken less seriously because of his frequent filer status.
“We wouldn’t make that distinction,” he said. “We would look at the substance. He’s entitled to make his sworn complaint, and we’re required to review it and make a determination.”
