Council Accounts - Conflicts and a Lack of Transparency
A year ago, <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/422" target="”_blank”">I wrote</a> about New York City Council's earmark funds and the ways they were
being abused. Atlanta's council members have a different sort of
fund, not intended to help their constituents, but intended to help
themselves. They too are open to abuse and, according to <a href="http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2009/01/15/ethic…; target="”_blank”">an
article</a> in yesterday's Atlanta <span>Journal-Constitution</span>,
the city's ethics board has fined two council members for their abuse of
these funds. <br>
<br>
One council member "spent $11,200 from his council account since 2006
to pay NGP Software, a political consulting firm, to provide
information about voters in his district." He was fined $750, and has
to repay the money to the city. <br>
<br>
Another council member spent $15,000 to hire his brother's company to
help put together town hall meetings, outings for senior citizens to
the Georgia Aquarium, and T-shirts with the council member's name on
them. The council member insisted that his brother made no profit on
the transactions, but the city's ethics code was amended in 2006 to make
it a violation to hire or do business with an immediate family
member. He will pay two fines totalling $15,000.<br>
<br>
For more on how council members spent their accounts, see <a href="http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2008/10/19/spend.html&…; target="”_blank”">this
article</a> from the <span>Journal-Constitution.</span><br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2008/10/21/atlantae…; target="”_blank”">an
<span>AJC</span> editorial</a> from
October, in 2008 the council accounts were reduced from $30,000 to just
$1,800, due to the city's budget crisis. But since annual funds stay in
the accounts year after year, some council members still have a lot of
money to spend (as much as $100,000), and they don't want to give the
money back to the city.<br>
<br>
Transparency is another important issue with council accounts, as it
was in New York City. According to the editorial, "When asked by the <span>AJC</span>, the [city finance] department
could not come up with the balances remaining in each council member’s
spending accounts. Nor could the department produce any records for
2008 spending by council members." It was an article in the <span>AJC</span> that made all this public.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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