Saturday, October 13, 2012

Swaying Reed by Bartering with Booty, Brother

J. Anthony “Jim” Beard
UPDATE: Atlanta City Council Woman Felicia Moore introduced a bill this afternoon to REPEAL the No-Bid Contract discussed in this post.  Click here to see the story


______________



Earlier this month, a former Supervisor at the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management blew-the-whistle on Kasim Reed’s CFO, J. Anthony “Jim” Beard, for abusing an employee gift card giveaway program.  Responding to the gift card caper, Reed announced a "get-to-the-bottom-of-it" audit.

While Reed spends his time tracking down plastics redeemable at CVS, Walmart, and Bed Bath & Beyond, larger questions loom over Atlanta's city hall.


City vendors, in a classic case of "Pay-to-Play," are providing Reed's political aide's with luxury “loaner" vehicles for their personal use


The Atlanta City Council should use this new era of "get-to-the-bottom-of-it" to ramp up its own review of city vendors who are currying favor with key Reed aides. 


His Brother’s Keeper

Earlier this year, local media captured Tracy Reed, the Mayor's wayward brother, on videotape driving a city-owned vehicle without a valid driver’s license and with an outstanding arrest warrant. 


Buried in that otherwise highly publicized controversy was a larger violation.  


At the time Tracy Reed was videotaped, he was employed at the Atlanta airport where his responsibilities included validating who was qualified (and who was unqualified) to bid on airport concessions.
After the initial violation was broadcast, an APD dash-cam videotape of a separate traffic violation surfaced and was broadcast by an Atlanta television station.  

The 
dash-cam videotape revealed that Tracy Reed was driving a luxury Lexus sedan registered with the State of Georgia.  The owner of the vehicle was none other than the winner of a lucrative "No-Bid" contract at the airport, Darrell Anderson.


Upon learning that the APD dashboard videotape was broadcast, Kasim directed the Atlanta Police Department to investigate "who released the videotape" to the news media i
nstead of first directing his staff to investigate "how a city employee was able to get possession of a city vehicle without a valid drivers license and thereby place the city at financial risk."

Kasim first focused on the political fallout of his brother's blunder.  He was primarily concerned with reaction to the broadcasting of an APD dash-cam videotape that showed the Mayor's brother driving a luxury vehicle owned by a city vendor.


Public outcry and media scrutiny about brother Tracy's lack of a valid driver’s license and outstanding arrest warrant soon led to his termination from the city payroll.  The controversy passed and any hope of a investigation died with Tracy's termination.  

Borrowed Booty

This past summer and into the early fall a complex, behind-the-scenes lobbying effort was waged by representatives of the Porsche car company.  

Porsche’s agents were seeking to have an Atlanta street named after the German car company's founder, Ferdinand Porsche.  

Amidst the car company’s efforts, however, “The Booty Bundler,” a/k/a/ Stacii Jae Johnson, Reed’s on-staff Entertainment Director, was arrested while driving a Porsche that was on loan to her. 

'Round midnight on a hot, sticky August evening, APD pinched The Booty Bundler for driving the on loan Porsche after she had been drinking and partying.


Johnson was arrested for DUI, Resisting Arrest, and a variety of other infractions (including flipping her Mayor's Office business card to the arresting APD officer).

Within hours of her arrest, Ms. Johnson was terminated from the city's payroll but no city investigation was initiated.  

The Atlanta City Council should use these two examples as a starting point for an investigation...given Reed is in the mood to "get-to-the-bottom-of-it."  


** Note: City residents were horrified to learn that Reed was giving serious consideration to naming an Atlanta city street after Ferdinand Porsche, a member of the Nazi Party during World War II.  The street naming effort failed.



**Update (October 14, 202)

Kasim Reed has secured enough City Council votes to name an Atlanta city street for Ferdinand Porsche, a member of the Nazi Party during World War II and founder, namesake of the car German company.

The vote is scheduled for Monday, October 15, 2012. 

Horrified citizens were led to believe that the street naming effort had failed but Reed has revived the effort.

Shame on you, Kasim Reed!  Shame on you!

No comments:

Post a Comment