Former DeKalb Superintendent Indicted
Decatur Metro | May 27, 2010 | 10:15 amThe AJC reports…
Former DeKalb County schools superintendent Crawford Lewis and three others, including former chief operating officer Patricia Reid, have been indicted on charges they ran a criminal enterprise that sent millions of dollars to Reid’s then-husband and others.
In exchange for steering school construction work to Reid’s former husband and other vendors, the school officials and Reid’s secretary received cash, sports tickets or other perks, DeKalb District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming announced Wednesday.
More HERE. And even more on Atlanta Unfiltered.
From all I’ve heard, including from some insiders, this Superintendent was a capable educator administrator until this position. Why can’t capable top level public officials and politicians follow some simple rules instead of firing themselves with stupid behavior:
A) Don’t do anything with money that might look bad. Nothing. In case it’s not obvious, that means be beyond scrupulous with travel, gifts, contracts, grants, promotions, car allowances, purchases, and office furniture and decor. Fill out the stupid government request forms and get them signed and approved in triplicate just like everybody else in your organization.
B) Don’t let your relatives or in-laws work anywhere near you organizationally. Period. No exceptions. Doesn’t matter if you work in a town of 800 and government is the only employer.
C) Just for the period of time that you are in office, no fooling around. None. Period. Never. With no one. You can be a stud muffin later.
Why can’t people give constructive criticism without using the word “stupid”?
Ms. Kuebler at Westchester Elementary used to fine the kids a dime for using the “s” word. I owe you 20 cents and I’ll use the thesaurus more.
It’s not hard to understand the “don’t commit fraud” rule. Based on the allegations, some people just don’t want to follow it.
I have met Lewis only once over the past thirty something years in the education biz but I have followed his career. During all that time, I have never heard anything bad about him until now. Even the DeKalb Republicans, at their Saturday breakfast meetings, spoke very highly of him. There is something not quite right about this. Maybe I will change my mind as more details come out but for right now, I want to believe that he is innocent until proven guilty.
They usually don’t Grand Jury your butt unless there’s some evidence and from the looks of the indictment there’s a bunch. Prosecutors hate to look stupid.
Wouldn’t be surprised if everybody copped a plea and whoever could torpedo the most of the others would get the least time.
Anyway you look at it the kids really took it on the chin from these clowns.
How much of the money that went to line their pockets could have gone towards a better education for Dekalb kids.
I think they should be forced to work as janitors at the schools until they pay every dime back.
Sad.