Interim DeKalb County CEO Lee May Talks Cityhood, MARTA, His Vacant District Seat

Yesterday, members of the County Commission were again unable to select any one of five proposed candidates to fill the commission’s vacant district 5 seat, which represents the southeast part of the county. Meanwhile, the county ethics board recently saw the resignation of one of its members after a heated exchange with a county employee and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has started an investigation of Monday’s shooting death of an unarmed African-American man by a white DeKalb police officer. 

In the midst of all these pressing recent events, May sat down for a a discussion with Rose Scott and Denis O’Hayer to talk about the critical issues facing DeKalb County at this time.

May acknowledged that there was “plenty of blame to go around” concerning the fact that his original elected office, County Commissioner for District 5, remains empty, but said that he’s tried to get the seat filled: “I have taken as many efforts as I possibly can, within the law, to see that that seat is filled.”

However, he has not been able to find support from the other commissioners for his favored replacements and said that “through some parliamentary procedure I call, ‘tricks,’” they are preventing progress.

Regarding the shooting death earlier this week of an unarmed African-American man by a DeKalb police officer, and the December shooting death of an unarmed man who had actually called the police for help, May said, “Hindsight is always 20/20, but in [the December] scenario, I believe we should have brought the GBI in sooner … to eliminate any questions of openness and transparency in the investigation.” 

Nonetheless, he credited Police Chief Cedric Alexander with an open approach, and leadership abilities that May said assure best practices in training and preparation of the police force.

“The answer is ‘no’,” May said, when asked whether Druid Hills should be annexed in to the City of Atlanta.  “I would put us against any local jurisdiction out there” for civic and municipal services. 

May believes that the “lion’s share of Republicans” were behind previous cityhood efforts such as the City of Brookhaven.  With particular regard to sanitation services, May explained a recent decision to make trash and recycling pickup more efficient; in the past, “they’ve been paying for a Ford Focus, but they’ve been getting a Rolls Royce service.”

MARTA expansion in DeKalb is important to May.  He praised the Georgia legislature’s apparent willingness to remove spending expenditures on MARTA called the “50/50 split.”  And to measure success, May added, “we have two major transportation projects, The Clifton Corridor line, and the I-20 East rail expansion.  If we can accomplish both of those, we are in the catbird seat in DeKalb County.”DeKalb County Interim C.E.O. Lee May talks with Rose Scott and Denis O'Hayer.