Former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed is under fire for a variety of reasons, but lately it’s for spending $518,000 of the taxpayers’ money on bonuses for highly-paid staffers and for “party gifts.” City Council is outraged, the new mayor hasn’t had much to say except for a staffer who admitted it was excessive and the now the police chief and perhaps others refuse to take the bonus.
Amid the chorus of criticism from various quarters, the liberal Common Cause Georgia is demanding that Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms end the practice of bonuses to city hall executives and staff.
“Atlanta deserves to know that Mayor Bottoms will end the practice of bonuses and employee gifts for winning lip sync contests,” said Sara Henderson, executive director of Common Cause Georgia. “The citizens of Atlanta should be able to have faith that their municipal government isn’t mishandling their money. The fact that this was done in a previous administration is moot. Mayor Bottoms campaigned for and claims to support transparency and ethics at City Hall. Let this be her first test of that campaign pledge. End the unnecessary gifts and bonuses to city employees,” Henderson said.
Bottoms talks about transparency, ethics and reform, and this jolt from a liberal member of her political base of support adds more pressure on her (as well as on City Council) to act.
