City Council approves new task force, heating up Atlanta’s battle on oversight

Months after Atlanta’s inspector general raised alarms about interference in her office’s investigations, the City Council has formed a task force to scrutinize the city’s oversight agencies.

The Atlanta City Council approved legislation Tuesday to create a task force to review “the processes and procedures of the Office of Inspector General, The Ethics Office, and [their] Governing Board.” The task force will hold three public meetings and report to the mayor and the Council by Oct. 18. The public meeting dates have not yet been announced. 

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the Ethics Office are the city’s independent oversight offices. The Ethics Office was created in 1984 and reconstituted in 2002. The OIG was created more recently in 2020 as a response to federal corruption convictions of several members of former Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration. The OIG is responsible for rooting out fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption in the city. The Ethics Office ensures the city complies with its Code of Ethics.

The task force legislation was a late addition to the council agenda Tuesday. It was first discussed just hours beforehand at the Committee on Council meeting. A video recording of that meeting is unavailable as the city council live-stream was not working during both the Committee on Council and the later full City Council meeting. 

Atlanta Inspector General Shannon Manigault spoke to the Council during a public comment session in May about the interference her office faces in conducting its investigations. 

During that meeting, Council Member Marci Collier Overstreet questioned Manigault’s decision to discuss issues facing her office during public comment. 

“I will definitely be looking into legislation to close this up so that this doesn’t happen again,” Overstreet said in May.

Overstreet was not present at Tuesday’s City Council meeting to vote on the legislation, but her name is among the seven people chosen to serve on the task force. 

The remaining task force members are: 

Council Member Howard Shook, Former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, David Dove, Richard Deane, State Rep. Tanya Miller (D-Atlanta), Norman Brothers.

David Dove is Executive Counsel to the Governor’s Office and lives in Marietta. 

Richard Deane is the former Partner-in-Charge of the Atlanta Office of Jones Day. 

Norman M. Brothers, Jr. is UPS’s Legal and Compliance Officer.

While the task force legislation was late to Tuesday’s agenda, it is not a surprise.

Since her cold reception in front of the City Council in May, Manigault and her office have held many public engagement events. Manigault has spoken at Neighborhood Planning Unit meetings and before the Atlanta Planning and Advisory Board. She also appeared at a leadership breakfast at the Center for Civic Innovation (CCI) and on Closer Look with Rose Scott. The inspector general warned during those appearances that limiting the OIG would be worse than having no inspector general at all. 

The Office of Inspector General was not yet ready Tuesday evening to comment on the newly created task force.