Atlanta’s inspector general defended herself on Monday against allegations that her office has been violating the legal rights of city employees as it works to root out corruption inside City Hall.
Inspector General Shannon Manigault spent Monday afternoon telling members of a temporary task force organized to examine her office’s policies and procedures that the methods her team uses to investigate alleged misconduct are aligned with standard practices used by other inspectors general throughout the United States.
She accused Mayor Andre Dickens’ office of trying to obstruct her office’s work in response to her team uncovering several incidents of city employee misconduct. Some of her supporters say Black Atlantans backed the office’s creation to restore public trust after years of corruption, only for elected leaders to now attempt to strip the inspector general’s office of its powers to avoid accountability and added scrutiny.
Manigault’s office uncovered alleged nepotism and abuse of power by Tarlesha Smith, the city’s former human resources commissioner, who was fired in July after an investigation revealed she helped her daughter, Bridget Smith, land a city job for which she wasn’t qualified. The investigation also found that she was working to get her daughter’s HR supervisor fired for attempting to terminate her daughter’s employment.
In May, Manigault told the Atlanta City Council that her office is “facing an emergency” due to retaliation by other city officials for its work. On Monday, Manigault said members of her staff have had their “professional integrity” attacked while doing their jobs “in the same manner as anti-corruption professionals in offices of Inspector General across the country.”
“The way the Atlanta Office of Inspector General has been operating is consistent with how other offices of Inspector General operate,” Manigault told task force members on Monday. “These other jurisdictions have the kind of access to records that the mayor’s office has denied the Atlanta Office of Inspector General.”
Atlanta City Council unanimously approved creation of the seven-member temporary task force in early September at the behest of Dickens’ office to “enhance the city’s ethical framework” in response to concerns raised about the inspector general violating some employees’ legal rights.
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 1644 President Tracey Thornhill told the task force on Monday that some of his 3,500 union members are concerned about the inspector general’s investigative practices after receiving reports of investigators showing up at employees’ homes unannounced and allegedly threatening to confiscate people’s “personal property.”
Manigault denied those accusations, saying members of her team have sought to confiscate the work cellphones of city employees, which is within her office’s powers.
Thornhill called on the task force to limit the inspector general’s powers to investigating major waste and fraud, to require the city council to approve the inspector general’s policies, and to define the process of filing a complaint against the inspector general.
“Fairness demands a clear process with checks and balances,” Thornhill said during the meeting. “We don’t necessarily disagree with some of the findings of the inspector general, but how you get that matters. Credibility matters.”
Cecily Welch serves on the governing board of the Office of Inspector General and the Ethics Office, which works to maintain the inspector general’s independence. She told the task force on Monday that the inspector general’s office operates outside of typical, standard reporting structures within city operations.
“This is a feature, not a bug, of its design,” Welch said. “We intentionally do not insert choice in what the respective offices are allowed to investigate. I believe the insertion of choice in the various functions and/or the breach of confidentiality hinders the effectiveness of the offices and would serve to erode the public trust in the Office of the Inspector General.”
The temporary task force is due to report on its findings later this month before the City Council decides whether further outlining of the inspector general’s powers are necessary.
What is an inspector general?
Manigault became Atlanta’s first-ever inspector general in December 2020 after spending years serving in the same role in New York City’s Department of Investigation. Her job is to investigate “illegal acts,” including waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption allegations with powers outlined by the City Council in its February 2020 ordinance, which created the office of inspector general.
Her office staff includes 15 additional people working on an estimated $2.5 million budget.
Why does Atlanta need an inspector general?
The City Council voted unanimously in February 2020 to create an office of inspector general at the behest of former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in the wake of several major corruption scandals under her predecessor, Kasim Reed, that led to criminal convictions of former city of Atlanta staffers.
That includes former Atlanta Chief Financial Officer Jimmie Beard, who is serving a three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty earlier this year to theft of city funds, purchasing two “machine guns,” and obstructing federal tax laws between 2011 and 2018.
It also includes former Chief Procurement Officer Adam Smith, who received a two-year sentence in 2018 for accepting more than $40,000 in bribes from a vendor in exchange for receiving city contract deals worth millions of dollars, and former Deputy Chief of Staff Evelyn Katrina Taylor-Parks, who pleaded guilty to conspiratorial bribery in 2018 and was sentenced to 21 months in prison.
