Inspector General: Mayor’s task force was “prescripted” to silence oversight
Before the Inspector General Review Task Force began meeting in September, the mayor’s office created a timeline that included a plan for the task force to present an amendment to the city charter that Inspector General Shannon Manigault believes would weaken her office.
The timeline document is entitled “Timeline Draft 09042024” and spans from August to November. The Atlanta Community Press Collective (ACPC) obtained the draft timeline through an open records request.
“This timeline confirms our fears that this task force was not formed (nor has it been executed by staff) in good faith,” Inspector General Manigault told ACPC in an email. “Rather, the task force was created to offer an illusion of legitimacy to an outcome prescripted by the mayor.”
The draft timeline states that on Oct. 7, the “appointed working group” would present a charter amendment.
If the charter amendment aligns with what the mayor’s office has requested, it will strip the OIG of its independence, discretion in choosing what to investigate, and ability to keep investigations confidential. Some of the changes the mayor’s office requested include requiring the Office of Inspector General (OIG) to get approval from its governing board before starting an investigation and obtain a written response from the subject of an investigation before concluding the investigation.
Where are we now?
The task force has met twice and is scheduled to report its findings to the mayor and City Council on Oct. 18.
While it appears the task force has not followed the timeline as outlined in the draft document, the inclusion of specified dates and action items such as “Provide presentation/legislation to task force,” “Second reading of legislation,” “Final reading of legislation,” and “Appointed Working Group Presents (Charter Amendment)” suggests that the mayor’s office had a vision of what it wanted the review task force to accomplish. The mayor’s office selected each member of the 7-person task force, comprising two city council members, a retired Georgia Chief Supreme Court Justice, and four private attorneys.
ACPC contacted task force members to ask about the mayor’s office’s draft timeline. Interim-City Attorney Patrise Perkins-Hooker, who was not included in ACPC’s original request for comment, responded on behalf of one task force member, Norman Brothers, the Chief Legal and Compliance Officer at UPS.
“Mr. Brothers does not plan to respond to your inquiries,” said City Attorney Perkins-Hooker. “I can tell you that there is no draft legislation that has been prepared and obviously, the projected timeline that you received is not the one the Task Force is working under.”
Indeed, the task force met on Oct. 7 without introducing any proposed legislation. The task force met for the first time 21 days into its 45-day working period, which likely threw the task force off schedule.
The 45-day working period offered little room for delays. The short timeframe has also been a point of concern for the OIG and its supporters.
Will Fletcher, president of the Association of Inspectors General, wrote a letter to the OIG review task force stating, “It is our position that the Council mandated 45 day window is not adequate for a full and proper vetting of all the issues…”
The OIG said the 45-day timeframe “defies comprehensive fact finding and analysis.”
Council Member Howard Shook, who also sits on the task force, acknowledged this issue at the Oct. 7 Committee on Council meeting. “We all knew that this wasn’t going to get done in 45 days,” Shook said.
By comparison, the 2019 Task Force for the Promotion of Public Trust, which led to the creation of the OIG, met for five months and held five public hearings before submitting its report.
The task force is scheduled to discuss any recommendations or proposals at its third and final meeting on Oct. 16, according to the meeting agenda.
How did we get here?
The OIG investigates fraud, waste, abuse and corruption in the City of Atlanta’s government. Manigault told the City Council in May that senior-level government officials were obstructing her office’s investigations. In a June letter sent to the mayor and the city attorney, Manigault documented examples of obstruction, including a commissioner asking employees to disclose the subject of confidential interviews and a deputy commissioner attempting to recall an email from OIG’s access and revoking OIG’s access to the city’s Human Resources Database.
On Aug. 14, Manigault sent a letter to city leadership detailing an investigation that uncovered a false invoice approved by one member of the City Council and the close relationship between another city council member and a lobbyist to whom the city has paid millions of dollars.
The draft timeline shows the mayor’s office began drafting the review task force legislation the following week.
On Sept. 3, the mayor’s chief of staff, Odie Donald, made a presentation about the OIG to the Committee on Council. Donald then introduced legislation to create a review task force to impose checks on the city’s transparency offices, including the OIG, the Ethics Office, and the governing board that oversees both offices.
The inspector general believes that her office’s investigation into Bernie Tokarz, a lobbyist and city contractor, and Council Members Michael Julian Bond and Andrea Boone is connected to the formation of the Inspector General Review Task Force.
“OIG issued investigative findings regarding powerful government players and one week later, the mayor begins carrying out a plan to pass legislation to weaken the office,” Manigault told ACPC. The draft timeline “reveals the lengths to which those in power will go to silence those they disfavor. And who suffers from this retaliation against the City office dedicated to exposing corruption? The people of the City of Atlanta.”
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