The legacy of former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed continues to be tarnished with revelations that taxpayers were gouged some $275,136 charged to his city-issued business credit card over the past three years. Expenses ranged from chauffeur-driven vehicles to pricey trips, hotels and dinners. His endorsed mayoral successor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, to date has not condemned this abuse of public office.
Two months after his term ended, Reed did reimburse taxpayers nearly $12,000 for charges made to his city-issued credit card over those three years— but that occurred because he knew the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was questioning his purchases. The charges Reed repaid included a $2,300 political contribution to the Democratic Party; four continuing education courses for his law license and several expensive restaurant bills.
Particularly controversial was a $90,000 trip to South Africa last year for “economic development” taken by Reed and a nine-member entourage flying business class. Atlanta media kept requesting trip records, were initially told by Reed staffers that there were none, but– presto!– they were later discovered.
Anne Torres, Reed’s communications director (who still holds the same position in the Bottoms administration), said of the huge Reed expenses: “In every instance, these costs were legitimate city expenses incurred in the course of his role as mayor … and as a part of his administration’s efforts to bolster economic development.”
Insiders say that, for Bottoms to be credible regarding her pledge to adhere to ethics and transparency, she should fire Torres and city attorney Jeremy Berry. Berry delayed, for months, releasing the South African trips records. Furthermore, Berry recently hid from the public legal billing records for the federal probe into the city hall contract/bribery scandal. Billing was diverted into the account of a different case and fake documents were created to resemble invoices in response to open records requests.
Berry’s actions range from the unethical to being potentially criminal. With the FBI and GBI continuing to investigate Atlanta city hall corruption, those same insiders believe Berry – at the very least— should be removed.
