DEKALB COUNTY, Ga.,None — Angry taxpayers were already fed up with DeKalb County's $45,980 severance agreement for former communications director Sheila Edwards, who resigned July 30.
Now, Channel 2 Action News has obtained a memo, signed a month later, which authorized an extra $4,000 for a car allowance Edwards never received in 2009.
"This is gasoline on a fire, for the CEO to have policies like this, we need to cut this type of activity out," said taxpayer Viola Davis.
In a joint investigation with the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Channel 2 uncovered the $500 per month car allowance was paid to Edwards and 26 other county officials. She was eligible for the payments when she began her job in January 2009, however she did not receive the first payment until November 2009. In a memo, the county authorized a lump sum payment from September through December. There was no mention of any earlier months until a separate memo in August 2010, a month after Edwards had resigned.
"Especially if you're no longer here, you're no longer providing a service to DeKalb County government. Should you be receiving funds beyond that? I don't think so," said Commissioner Lee May.
He and other commissioners said they had no knowledge of the retroactive payment for January through August 2009 paid after Edwards' departure.
"I think there's a frustration among the commission that these are the kinds of things that keep being brought to us and we didn't have control over," said Commissioner Elaine Boyer.
Now May wants the commissioners to set a county-wide policy for severance packages and car allowance payments.
The chief operating officer who authorized the Edwards payment, Keith Barker, was fired last month for an unrelated matter. His severance agreement gave him $100,000.
"I wouldn't be giving away the money, but clearly I'm not the CEO," added May.
A spokesman said CEO Burrell Ellis wasn't available but acknowledged the Edwards settlement negotiation could have been handled better. Burke Brennan said a retroactive car allowance payment won't happen again, "We're not perfect. We can always make improvements and that's what we'll strive to do."
But with more than $100 million in budget cuts this year, and no raises for police and firefighters, Davis questions it all.
"If these executives want their transportation subsidized, and they're not public safety, then they need a MARTA card," said Davis, "Sheila Edwards should have never received any money cause she quit."
The county said Edwards was entitled to receive the car allowance for her first eight months on the job. But there's no record of her asking for it or anyone discussing those payments until she'd already quit. Edwards did not return calls.