- The Cost of the Latest Incompetence at County Elections Office: $327,000
Posted December 26, 2008
It's news stories like this
that has led many citizens to believe that Fulton County Government is just a big, wasteful employment agency rather than
a functioning local government.
- County's Housing Department Squanders Millions of Federal Housing Dollars
Posted November 18, 2008
And of course the county official
responsible is still on the county payroll.
And county commissioners claim to wonder why some people insist that seceeding from Fulton County
is the only certain remedy for the chronic mismanagement of county (and, in this case, federal) taxpayer dollars.
- Investigations Expose Longstanding Problems with Two More Fulton County Agencies
Posted November 14, 2008
More depressing news about Your County At Work was reported yesterday in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Constant themes in these AJC news stories (see below): high salaries for those responsible for
(numerous) dysfunctional agencies, and the surprised, indignant reactions of the county's commissioners, the official
(and also highly-paid) overseers of county operations.
- Fulton Voting Office Could Be Fined for Poor Planning, Rule Infractions
Posted November 9, 2008
We can now add the Elections Office to the list of incompetent county agencies.
Details from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- Latest Development in the "We've Got the County Jail Under Control" Myth
Posted October 30, 2008
Great work over
there at the jail, Fulton County. As if the murder trial of Brian Nichols hasn't cost the county (and the state's) taxpayers
plenty already. The latest victim of that incident probably has grounds for his own expensive-for-the-county lawsuit. Even
if this prisoner doesn't file suit, do county managers think they can afford more bad publicity these days?
- Continuing Problems at Tax Assessor's Office Plague Fulton Homeowners
Posted October 28, 2008
As usual, someone had to file a lawsuit to force the county to do the right thing. And of course the huge amounts of
money involved will negatively affect the county's operating budget, either this year or next year, or for both years.
Details in today's story published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- Why Citizens Have Given Up on Fulton County Governance
Posted October 7, 2008
The problems at the county-operated 911 call center are worse than you ever imagined. We hope the County Manager isn't so
deluded that he thinks yet another "customer service initiative" is going to take care of problems
like these, reported in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Note to County Manager: The 911 center isn't the only county department whose employees include individuals whose daily
worse-than-poor job performance and impenetrable customer-oblivious attitudes make a mockery of the county's "customer
service" mantras.
- Failed Lawsuit Against Fulton Sheriff to Be Appealed
Posted August 27, 2008
No details in this Atlanta Journal-Constitution
story about the cost (so far) of defending the county's sheriff's officers in federal court. Whatever this lawsuit (one
of several) has already cost the county (or its insurance company) in court and lawyer fees, this case apparently isn't over
yet, as the plaintiff is appealing the verdict ( = additional costs).
- The High Cost of Incompetent Security Guards
Posted August 8, 2008
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported today that the county is
paying $5.2 million to the widow of the judge killed in his county courtroom by a trial defendant who managed to
wrest a gun from a county security officer.
It's good to learn that most of this money is coming from an insurance policy the county holds, but
we wonder how much that insurance policy (and all the others like it) costs county taxpayers every year.
- Prediction: A Lawsuit about the County-Operated 911 Service
Posted August 8, 2008
Apparently the county can't do this well either.
Details from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Another avoidable tragedy, another probable lawsuit to be filed by the furious relatives of the victim.
- Continued Incompentence, More Cost Overruns at the Fulton County Jail
Posted July 10, 2008
The dreary
details published by Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- Former Fulton County Magistrate Judge Charged With Human Trafficking
Posted June 19, 2008
Although not a story about wasted taxpayer dollars, this
indictment of a former county legal advisor who was on the county payroll a few years ago makes you think twice
about the effectiveness of the so-called "merit system" designed to persuade citizens to trust Fulton County
officials.
Found via NorthFulton.com.
- Dept. of Bread and Circuses: Commissioners Vote to Build $6 Million Concert Venue
Posted April 4,2008
...despite the fact that the county doesn't have enough money in its coffers
to properly maintain the facilities it already owns, despite the the fact
that a county revenue shortfall is expected this year, and despite the fact
that the construction estimates for the concert arena are three years old.
Details from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- $74,000 Fulton County Contract for Not Doing Any Work
Posted February 11, 2008
So much for the county's careful monitoring of its lucrative contracts.
In
this case, you have to wonder why this never-done work was ever deemed worthwhile
in the first place, especially its price tag is as big as this one.
Even more infuriating: the county's officials don't seem to have in place
any regulations that would allow the county to recoup this money for county
taxpayers.
- The New Yorker's Take on the Nichols Case
Posted January 31, 2008
The Brian Nichols murder trial has caught the attention of the New Yorker.
Jeffrey Toobin,
writing in the magazine's February 4th issue, sums up the bumbling of
county employees both before and after Nichols' March 11, 2005 killing
spree at the Fulton County Courthouse:
"After the shanks [the home-made weapons] were discovered [on Nichols while
he was in the county sheriff department's custody during Nichols second
trial for an alleged rape], [presiding] Judge Barnes said he wanted the
sheriff's department, which handles security at the courthouse, to provide
Nichols with additional guards, yet he was escorted to court [on the morning
of the 11th] by a single female deputy sheriff. Part of [Nichols'] attack
on the deputy was captured by surveillance cameras, but no one was
monitoring them....During a subsequent investigation, five sheriff's
deputies were found to have lied about their actions with regard to Nichols.
Eight deputies were fired for misconduct, all but two of whom were
later rehired." [Emphasis ours.]
If lost revenues from the several cities that have defected from county
government, plus the county's share of the cost of prosecuting Nichols
don't bankrupt the county, the settling of several lawsuits filed against
the county by the relatives of Nichols' victims probably will. The
almost unbelievable fact that the county re-hired negligent county
employees whose actions or failures to act (or even to be at their assigned posts
on March 11, 2005) probably strengthens the arguments for wrongful death
that have been made in those lawsuits. Higher taxes, anyone? And does
everyone having business at the county courthouse feel safer, now that
the security staff there assumes they can get their jobs back if they
ever (temporarily) lose them through incompetence? And yet commissioners
continue to deny that Fulton County government is beyond reform.
- Newspaper Headline Reminds Taxpayers of County Funds Squandered in 2004
Posted January 21, 2008
The relevant statement - "Fulton [County] eventually recovered all but $500,000 of the $7.2 million in
improperly invested funds" occurs at the end of this Atlanta Journal-Constitution story.
- Nichols Case Cost County Taxpayers Another $125,000...
Posted January 17, 2008
...and that's before the inevitable legal settlements arising out of
multiple lawsuits filed against the county by Nichols' victims' families.
The $125,000 is also in addition to the $1.5 million Nichols' lawyers
have already spent on their client's defense.
Details from today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- County Taxpayers to Pay Less for Smaller Government? Not in Fulton!
Posted January 16, 2008
More than one county commissioner
publicly denies there's any relationship between the salaries of
several of its department heads and the now-diminished extent of their
previous responsibilities.
How come the logic of higher-salaries-for-more-extensive-responsibilities
doesn't work in reverse, we wonder? But then, logic is always the
first casualty when an entrenched power bloc, like the Fulton County
Commission, loses - through it repeated incompetence and refusal to
sanely steward taxpayer dollars - the confidence of the people who
elected them.
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