Atlanta City Council members will hold a Jan. 30 public work session to go over proposed changes to the Office of Inspector General.
The Committee on Council and Finance Executive Committee will hold the work session from 10 a.m. to noon at Atlanta City Hall. Representatives from the OIG, the ethics office and the city’s law department will participate in the work session.
The bill to amend the OIG’s responsibilities, pushed by Mayor Andre Dickens’ administration, includes restricting the inspector general’s authority to conduct only administrative investigations, and not criminal probes. The mayor and council would also be able to make two appointments to the OIG governing board.
The proposed revisions have sparked outrage from critics who say they would hinder the OIG from conducting effective investigations to root out fraud, waste and corruption. Adding political appointments to the OIG’s governing board would remove the watchdog’s independence, they argue.
Inspector General Shannon Manigault has been outspoken out against the changes as well, saying the proposed legislation “would cripple OIG’s ability to function, and in the process, would erode public trust.”
“With legislative provisions that serve to dismantle this oversight body, city leaders are turning back the clock on Atlanta’s progress to combat corruption,” she said.
Former Atlanta City Council President Felicia Moore, who lost to Dickens in the 2021 mayoral runoff, is among the critics of the proposed changes. She and others have urged the council to hold public work sessions before making significant changes to the OIG legislation she helped author five years ago.
But Dickens and members of his top staff say the Office of Inspector General has overstepped its bounds in investigations and harassed city employees. The OIG has denied the allegations.
A task force created by Dickens to review the OIG’s procedures has also recommended more oversight of the office.
The full council was expected to vote on the bill at its Jan. 23 meeting. But newly-elected Council member Eshe’ Collins, chair of the Committee on Council, said it was clear a work session was needed based on feedback by council members and residents.
Changes to the OIG have to be made by amending the city charter. Doing so requires the bill be considered twice by the Committee on Council and Finance Executive Committee. The city council also must vote twice on the bill.
The OIG was approved by the city council in 2020 following recommendations by a task force created by former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. The task force was created in the wake of a City Hall procurement corruption scandal involving former Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration.
