Questioning Reed Administration Payments To City Employees Isn’t New
This week is not the first time former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and current City Council President Felicia Moore have disagreed on payments to city workers.
David Goldman / Associated Press
Former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed giving payments to city workers without city council approval is not a new topic.
It came out this week that Reed paid more than $500,000 in bonuses and prizes to staff last year.
City Council President Felicia Moore said that violates city code. Reed said that’s not true, and the payments were “appropriate.”
It’s not the first time they have disagreed about payments to city workers. In 2014, then-councilmember Moore challenged Reed about paying employees for unused sick and vacation days.
As Moore recalled, “In 2014 I believe it was where I certainly got in the crosshairs of the mayor because I called illegal payments and payouts he made to key staffers, some of which are the ones that are on this particular list as well.”
At the time, Reed said, “We acknowledge that this was an error. We’ve said that we’re not going to continue the practice going forward, and if council wants to put forth a practice we’re willing to work with you.”
Moore said the issue “whittled away” because the council didn’t seem willing to “battle with him.”
Councilmember Howard Shook, chair of the Finance Executive Committee, said this week’s news is different from what happened in 2014, given the nature of the payments. The more recent payments included thousands of dollars in prizes for lip syncing and ugly sweater contest winners at a holiday party, as well as $5,000 to $15,000 bonuses for top administration staff.
“All of these transactions share one thing in common, and that is that they are subject to a whole lot of questions,” Shook said.
The city ethics and auditor’s offices are reviewing the payments. The city legal department wants to hire outside counsel to investigate.
“Hopefully all of these investigations are going to have a beginning, a middle and an end. Because only then are we really going to see where the process flaws are that were manipulated and exploited, and only then are we really going to know what remedial steps we need to take,” Shook said.
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