District 1 DeKalb County Commissioner Nancy Jester on Tuesday called for interim county CEO Lee May to resign from his position in the face of corruption allegations. Jester called for the resignation during a press conference, during which she said, “Corruption and ineffective management in DeKalb County can no longer be thought of as a rare instance. The reality is DeKalb County faces a crisis with the possibility of simultaneously wiping out our financial reserves and killing future jobs and economic development for decades to come. There is one way by which this crisis can be resolved. That act is for Lee May to resign as DeKalb Interim CEO.”
Jester joins State Senator Emanuel Jones as elected officials who have called for May’s resignation in recent weeks. Former U.S. Representative Bob Barr also released a statement calling for further investigation into the corruption allegations made in former state Attorney General Mike Bowers’ extensive report.
May, who has already said he has no plans to resign unless county taxpayers demand it, (which many of course, have) meanwhile hosted a town hall meeting later Tuesday evening, during which he defended his record and faced criticism from residents fed up with the county’s government.
“I’ve seen this county go from wonderful to worse than awful,” said DeKalb resident Sandy Morris at the meeting. “Why should I stay here? I have to fight to get services. I want to see some action or I’m gone.”
The DeKalb CEO faces a re-election campaign next year. It seems likely that he would lose that bid and leave the office in disgrace similarly to previous CEO Burrell Ellis, who is currently serving 18 months in prison following a conviction for extortion charges.
When an elected official can spend $850,000 on a county-wide investigation that turns up evidence of his own corruption and his hands are still notably cleaner than those of his predecessor, you know the county has a little bit of an ethics problem. The good news for whoever runs against May, (if he makes it that far) is that there’s really nowhere for the office to go but up from here.
