Whistleblowers in Office of Inspector General allege widespread corruption at highest levels of city government

Employees of Atlanta’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) asked for protections under state and federal whistleblower protection laws Monday in a letter alleging corruption and misuse of funds at the highest levels of Atlanta city government. The letter was sent to the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Georgia Attorney General’s Office and Georgia’s Office of Inspector General. 

The letter was signed by Deputy Inspector General Shelby J. Williams, an assistant inspector general, two senior investigators, and the office’s business manager. It comes two weeks after former Inspector General Shannon Manigault resigned from her post, reporting being stonewalled and harassed by members of the Mayor’s Office and City Council.

 “The federal government and State of Georgia afford protections to employees that come forth and identify vulnerabilities within government systems.” the OIG employees wrote in the letter, which summarized 11 of the OIG’s ongoing investigations. The subjects of those investigations include Mayor Andre Dickens, members of his cabinet, high-ranking departmental managers, and City Councilmember Andrea Boone, according to the letter. 

Star-C reportedly the subject of several OIG investigations

Four combined investigations involved Star-C, an Atlanta affordable housing nonprofit, the letter states. The whistleblowers wrote that the OIG’s investigations into Star-C began on Nov. 7, 2023, after the OIG received a complaint that the City of Atlanta was “awarding too much money to nonprofit organizations affiliated with Purpose-Built Communities,” a community redevelopment organization. Star-C is one of those nonprofits. 

Courtney English, the mayor’s chief policy officer and senior advisor, is Star-C’s former community development director, according to his LinkedIn page,. In 2023, the City of Atlanta ethics officer, Jabu Sengova, sent English a letter recommending that he step down from the nonprofit’s Board of Directors. English told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week that he stepped down from Star-C’s Board “immediately” after the Ethics letter. English has had at least three speaking engagements in recent months—including one on Feb. 25—with biographies that list him as “currently” a Star-C board member.  

The OIG employees’ letter discusses a complaint received on Jan. 22, 2024, which alleged that “the City of Atlanta is awarding jobs and contracts to individuals that contributed to the mayor’s election campaign and cites a new business unit that is managed by Courtney English.” The Jan. 22 complaint noted that this business unit “does not have any stated responsibilities or duties with the city’s code, but has a funding stream and employees,” according to the whistleblowers’ letter. 

Among other issues outlined in the letter is that Councilmember Boone allegedly “gave Star-C a $2 million donation citing Courtney English’s relationship with Star-C and campaign contributions made to Andrea Boone’s campaign.”

Donations from Star-C to Boone’s campaign could not be independently verified, though Star-C officers are Dickens donors. Margaret Stagmeier, Star-C’s founder and board chair, has donated $3,550 to the Dickens campaign for the 2025 election cycle, according to Dickens’ campaign finance disclosure forms. The individual donor maximum for a local election is $3300 under the state ethics code. Star-C Board Member Darion Dunn donated $3,000 to Dickens’ 2021 mayoral campaign for the general election and $3,500 for the 2021 runoff, according to campaign finance forms. The individual maximum donation for a runoff election at that time was $1,600. 

Mayor allegedly coordinated $2M payment in bid for 2024 DNC

In 2022, the Atlanta City Council donated $500,000 to Choose Atlanta 2024 to help secure the city’s bid to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention, which was ultimately unsuccessful. The OIG employees’ letter says the office received a complaint alleging the donation violated city law as it was not for “purely charitable purposes.”

While investigating that complaint, the letter said, OIG investigators “found evidence that the mayor appears to have coordinated payments of over $2 million to the International Woodworking Fair (IWF) through Choose Atlanta 2024, Inc.” IWF’s annual workshop was booked at the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) for the proposed dates of the DNC. The payment was allegedly intended “to change the date of its workshop so the City of Atlanta could propose its bid to host the DNC,” the whistleblower letter states.

Alleged misuse of city property for personal benefit

The OIG initiated three investigations into alleged misuse of city resources by city employees for personal benefit. One investigation involved an assistant director in the Parks Department who allegedly had a home fence installed by a city contractor and then altered the invoice “to make it look like the fence had been built at a city park and billed to the city,” the letter states. During the OIG’s investigation, the office learned that the assistant parks director allegedly “also has two businesses that have received payment from the city as a possible subcontractor of a city park’s contractor.” 

Hartsfield Jackson Airport Assistant General Manager Tyronia Smith allegedly hosted a birthday party at the airport using aviation funds, the letter states. The individual who made this complaint to OIG alleged “that these types of expenditures have been a regular occurrence during Smith’s tenure and were guided by [former Chief Commercial/Revenue Officer J’Aimeka] Ferrell,” according to the letter.

Ferrell has since left the airport. According to her LinkedIn page, she is now the CEO of Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta.

Atlanta Fire-Rescue Department Deputy Chief James McLemore allegedly used “city equipment and property to run his private business,” according to the whistleblower letter. The letter also states, “McLemore appears to have made false statements on city forms and underreported revenues to the IRS.”

Potential union busting in the fire department and illegal searches and corner cutting in watershed

The most recent investigation cited in the letter, initiated on Nov. 26, 2024, began with a complaint that alleged high-ranking AFRD leaders engaged in “union busting.” During recent contract negotiations between the City and fire union, the complaint also alleges, AFRD Chief Rod Smith told a fire union to “wait until Dickens is re-elected to get the contract” and “not to be on the wrong side of things when this comes down.” 

Two water main breaks in May and June 2024 led to large swaths of the city without water for days. An AJC investigation into the water crisis found that poorly maintained water valves worsened the problem. Two months after the water crisis, OIG received a whistleblower complaint that alleged, as the letter reads, “the Department of Watershed Management (DWM) was using ‘cheap and inadequate valve boxes’” manufactured internationally and “inferior to cast iron American graded valve boxes.” 

A DWM employee alleged that he and four others were unlawfully detained and that DWM managers illegally searched their possessions after one manager’s wallet went missing. The letter states, “The OIG found evidence that the five employees were held in the conference room for over three hours,” with a uniformed police officer placed outside the conference room door. The employees said they were “forced to waive their rights to representation.” 

The final allegation, that employees had personal property seized and were denied the right to legal representation, is particularly striking after the Dickens administration frequently accused the OIG of those actions. Former Inspector General Manigault repeatedly denied those allegations.