ATLANTA — Fulton County is auditing the Hammonds House Museum in the historic West End after the new board president abruptly resigned.
Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Sophia Choi exclusively learned about the allegation of misspending taxpayer money.
The museum is now only open on the weekends with the leadership up in the air.
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The county is now internally auditing the museum after hearing allegations that some of the art and some of the money is missing.
“Fulton County, we own the building, we also own a lot of the artwork that’s in the building, and thirdly, we contribute about $200,000 a year,” Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts said.
The county bought the house and the artwork from the family of Dr. Otis Hammonds after he passed in the 1980s.
However, the county hired an outside company to run the museum with a Board of Directors, but the board now has no president.
In a resignation letter obtained by Channel 2 Action News, Lesa Adeboye, the former museum board president, said critical issues included a lack of care over the art and overspending of museum funds.
“Serious issues to include insufficient funds to cover the Museum’s expenses, inadequate financial reporting, and the use of restricted grant funds for other purposes,” she wrote in part.
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“Sometimes these things can be a misunderstanding, sometimes there could be truth,” Pitts said. “We just don’t know.”
The former president alerted Fulton County and then says she received a letter from her predecessor. That’s when she resigned.
“If you decide to continue these slanderous communications, I will immediately engage the services of legal representation,” the letter read.
Pitts says that if the audit finds the allegations are true, the county will take action, which could include withholding funds or pursuing criminal charges.
“That museum, it’s funded by taxpayer money. Bought with taxpayer money and now there are allegations of mismanagement of taxpayer dollars, and that’s what caught our attention and we want to find out,” Pitts said.
Fulton County says the audit should take a few weeks.
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