Angry shouting and public rebukes marked Tuesday’s DeKalb County Commission meeting, as several residents and business owners repeatedly demanded the county do more than suspend the purchasing director and another staffer over ties to the corruption case against suspended CEO Burrell Ellis.
In sworn court testimony — first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last month — purchasing director Kelvin Walton admitted to a special grand jury investigating contract corruption that he did not pay a vendor for work done at his home.
Nina Hall, Ellis’ former secretary who most recently was a manager in the water/sewer department, testified separately that she believed Walton had funneled money from at least two county vendors to her. At the time, she served on at least 15 selection committees for county projects.
“These acts are criminal,” said Hopie Strickland III, a construction firm owner who has filed complaints about the county’s contracting process. “Suspension? Stop insulting the taxpayers of DeKalb County and fire them.”
Interim CEO Lee May, who announced the suspensions Monday, said he was not considering stronger action against the pair.
Rather, he based his decision on how state law handled Ellis. When Ellis was indicted on 14 felony charges of political corruption last year, Gov. Nathan Deal removed him from office and installed May as the temporary head of Georgia’s third-largest county.
“I think the precedent has been set on how to remove an individual from a position of responsibility while this case is going on,” May said. “Until evidence is presented at trial, this is what we can do.”
Ellis is slated to go to trial in September. Taxpayers will continue to pay the salaries of Walton and Hall until at least then, amounting to about $51,000 and $18,950, respectively.
Viola Davis, the south DeKalb resident who has filed ethics complaints against Walton and Hall over their testimony, said she could live with the suspensions.
But, she said, they would only work if DeKalb called in outside investigators from federal or state agencies to look at the contract process that has been at the heart of the ongoing scandal in DeKalb.
Ellis is accused of shaking down county vendors for campaign cash and punishing those who did not give. He has denied wrongdoing, but Walton became an unindicted co-conspirator in the case by secretly recording meetings with Ellis over the issue for prosecutors.
“It is long overdue for us to restore the public trust,” Davis said. “We have to get someone to cut out this cancer of corruption completely before we can heal.”
About the Author
