Just before he left office, former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed gave out more than $500,000 to staff in prizes at a holiday party and bonuses to senior staff. Members of City Council are questioning those payments.
Atlanta City Council President Felicia Moore said the payments, made with taxpayer money, violated the city code because the council didn’t approve them.
“There was no authorization, no notice, nothing,” she said at a finance committee meeting Wednesday.
Council member Howard Shook called the payments “unprecedented” based on his nearly 20 years on the council.
The city’s law department told the committee it’s still looking into the legalities and will hire an independent counsel to help. Moore questioned the necessity and cost of an outside counsel.
“How much is this going to cost us to have this outside, independent review? Because for me, it’s pretty cut and dry. I don’t know what all this review is going to get us.”
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ chief of staff, Marva Lewis, spoke to a City Council committee about the payments Wednesday.
“We have concerns, and I can honestly say it would not be the approach of this administration to hand out taxpayer dollars by way of raffles and prizes at a city holiday party,” she said.
She said giving out bonuses for performance or other job-related functions is normal city practice, but the number and volume of these payments were “excessive.”
Lewis said the mayor’s office found out about the payments the same day the news broke. The administration has promised not to give out any bonuses until a report on the matter is done.
