They Are Dropping Like Flies in DeKalb

First, there's the story of Bob Lundsten, written about here.  A DeKalb County grand jury indicted Bob Lundsten last month on nine charges of theft and making false statements, accusing him of using his government-issued purchasing card for buying things for personal use, and then lying about it. Lundsten was arrested Thursday and is out on a $15,000 bond.
(Dunwoody)

Lundsten's arrest follows on the heels of  the admission of guilty by our former county commissioner, Elaine Boyer and her husband, John Boyer.  The sentencing hearing for Mr. Boyer is scheduled for May 6, 2015, at 2:00 p.m., before Judge Evans.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey W. Davis is prosecuting and it is being investigated by Federal Bureau of Investigation.                       
(Smoke Rise)

According to DeKalb County Police Officer blog, Commissioners Sharon Barnes-Sutton, Stan Watson and others had equally-questionable spending on their P-cards.  It says that "Barnes-Sutton has more than $60,000 in expenditures without receipts, while Watson put his campaign website on the county dime – an unambiguous no-no. Watson also had ties to a questionable land deal reported by Channel 2 recently."
(Decatur, Avondale)

Here's a little more about Chief of Staffer Bob Lundsten:  


Lee May, Interim CEO, is being investigated

But now, the man who was appointed to lead the county while our elected CEO Burrell Ellis was under investigation, has been the center of an FBI investigation regarding special treatment he received from a vendor who repaired damage to his home following a sewage leak. 


It remains to be seen whether or not the Interim CEO was actually the one who cashed the check for "overpayment," but his early claims are that his signature was forged and the money was not deposited into his own account. He says that he wants further investigation into the matter. 

Eyes are looking toward former purchasing director Kevin Walton, the same man who testified as the key witness in the CEO Burrell Ellis trial. That Trial ended with a hung jury and a mistrial declared by the judge.

Meanwhile, Lee May's former district, District 5, has now gone nearly a year without representation because he has only been appointed as "Interim" CEO and therefore has not vacated his former seat. The latest news reports say that Ellis will indeed give up his seat in a special election this June.   

Elaine Boyer's seat was put back up for election and won by a Dunwoody resident, Nancy Jester, who was also in trouble with SACS for her part on the DeKalb County School Board from 2012.  That's the one that the Governor had to remove from office after the district was placed on probation.  Governor Deal, also had his share of ethics complaints, but still won re-election and has a chance to takeover failing school districts in Georgia if a bill is approved by voters in November.

What's next for DeKalb?

The flies will continue to swarm until the FBI and the State Prosecutor's office, and probably several more grand juries, root out the real corruption in our government as the RICO charges would indicate we actually have...  an entire organization, not just one or two, but an organized, racketeer influenced organization.  

This problem doesn't just impact those living in Tucker, or Central DeKalb County.  It impacts everyone who lives here and new cities, so far, have done nothing to address the real problems or call for any real change that would prevent these same criminal acts from happening inside their own boundaries.  In fact, some people say that it could even make things worse. 

With all the effort going into forming a new layer of government that will only provide a few services and cost more, it would be nice if someone would actually try to stop the corruption and fix the things that are actually broken.  They should know which things to fix since most of the pro-city folks have long histories with those presently in charge.