Newspaper Page Text
The Champion, Thursday, October 22 - 28,2015
Page15A
More than 250 people attend a town hall meeting by interim DeKalb County CEO Lee May at the Lou Walker Senior Center on Oct. 13. Photos by Travis Hudgons.
CEO
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the county’s former chief of
staff for the board of com
missioners and later May’s
deputy chief operating of
ficer over public works and
infrastructure. The report did
not disclose the amount of
money allegedly borrowed,
the circumstances or the date.
“They asked me, ‘Has [Wil
liams] ever loaned you any
money?”’ May told his con
stituents. “And I said, ‘Well,
I borrowed money over [the
span of] nearly a decade.’”
May said, “It wouldn’t
count up to about a couple
hundred dollars over a de
cade. In my mind I’m think
ing [about] $20 for a meal
here [or there]..., but not a
loan. There’s a difference
[that and] between some
body giving you thousands of
dollars.”
May said he might have
borrowed money to pay for
a meal when he was having
lunch with someone and did
not have cash on hand.
“I’m talking about this
more than any lawyer would
want me to talk about it, but
I need the [people] that I’m
serving right now to hear
from me,” May said. “Regard
less of what you think about
me, I’ve never taken any
money, I’ve never stolen any
money, never lied about any
money.
“You might want me out,”
May said, “but I don’t want
you to want me out because
you think I have taken some
money. I’m dead serious
about that.”
May said the county’s at
torney is “combing through
the [investigators’] report”
and will give legal opinions
and advise the board of com
missioners and May about
certain high level things that
“You might want me out, but I don’t want you to want me out because you think I have taken some money,” said interim DeKalb County CEO Lee
May during a town hall meeting.
are in that report.
One area she will address
is the practice of commis
sioners giving money from
their budgets to nonprofits.
May said he believes the
county attorney will eventu
ally opine that the board of
commissioners as a whole
must approve donations to
nonprofit groups.
“We give about $1 mil
lion to nonprofits every year,”
May said. “But that million
dollars through human de
velopment is done through
a process and ultimately ap
proved by the board [of com
missioners].
“What many commis
sioners were doing... [was]
taking money from their
[purchasing cards] or their
budgets and giving monies
to...nonprofits that do some
good,” May said.
The report questions that
practice, May said.
“If it’s wrong, is it really
corrupt?” May asked. “And if
it’s wrong, let’s fix it.”
May said the fallout af
ter the investigators’ report
strengthens his support for
a county manager form of
government instead of the
county current CEO form.
“If this two weeks have
proven anything else to me
it is my position of changing
is correct,” May said. “Our
CEO position is so strong, it’s
so out there, it’s so visible for
people that if something hap
pens, if something goes down
with the CEO, it becomes the
attention forever and ever
and ever.”
Instead, the county
should have a professional
county manager with a
countywide elected chairper
son, he said.
“That’s the model for the
state,” he said. “That’s the
model really for the lion’s
share of counties in the coun
try and I believe it would
help to [reduce] some of the
[politics] that are rampant in
our form of government.”
Imogene Archer and her
husband Harvey of Clark-
stonwere among the May
supporters at the meeting.
They held up banners of sup
port. One sign read, “Stay
Strong May.”
“I support Lee May and I
believe you’re innocent until
you’re proven guilty,” Imo
gene Archer said. “He has
taken this county in the right
direction. He has handled
millions of dollars. Now
there’s this... little squabble
over really nothing. It’s prob
ably a little error that has
been made.
“He’s been accountable
for millions. You don’t see
there being a problem with
that,” she said.
South DeKalb resident
Barbara Lee said, “There are
many of us here who do not
want you to resign.”
May said, There’s “going
to be a whole lot of people
saying that I should step
aside. And I’m going to listen
to every single one of them.
I’m not running from any
body or anything, but I will
explain my side of things.”