Beltline Chief Let Go After Probe Uncovers Questionable Expenses
Decatur Metro | August 17, 2012Not sure that “all publicity is good publicity” in this case. From the AJC…
The Beltline’s board voted unanimously on Friday to end Brian Leary’s contract at the end of the month. The meeting came days after an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation revealed Beltline staffers charged taxpayers for wedding gifts, a parking ticket, a dry cleaning bill and other charges that infuriated watchdog groups and frustrated City Hall.
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Had to be done. Hopefully this is the first in a long line of politicians and office holders being held accountable for taxpayer’s money. It’s public service, not access to a trough.
If only they had TSplost money the wedding gifts could have been even more grand.
Great comment!
It is so frustrating to hear of excesses like this. It tarnishes an otherwise good activity that needs political and financial support. Ditto for DeKalb County Schools. While teachers in this state don’t even have money for basic supplies for their classroom and have to beg from parents, CEO-wannabees are getting high salaries and perks. The least they can do is demonstrate responsible use of the funds they get.
Hey, it’s good for us… Only bad thing is they didn’t report how much money he is being paid to go away. AMB certainly put it eloquently!
And what’s up with ending his contract at the end of the month? Why isn’t he out on his butt immediately and being charged with a crime?
What crime would that be? Some of these purchases may be questionable, but not illegal. Sheesh.
I don’t know. How about misappropriation of funds or violating the public trust?
How about theft? It doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch.
Does an article in the AJC mean there was a criminal inditment?
AHID – CEO wannabe is spot on description.
Skeptical thought here:
To me this stinks of AJC yellow journalism for the headline effect. Almost none of what I read in the expenses seem to be egregiously out of line. One article makes it seem that $106 wine cooler was a personal gift from the dude to his wife. Actually it reads more like an office gift to a family member. Many offices do that kind of thing for special occassions out of petty cash. Birthdays, Births, Deaths etc. Would a $100 fruit basket been so sensational? No, but because it was a wine-thingy it’s newsworthy. Probably the beltline staff wanted to put a bit more create thought into the gift than a fruitbasket.
AHID: Those kegs and the braves game bill are entirely in-line with what you have to do to entertain and fundraise.
I realize the board probably had no choice with the AJC coverage, but c’mon? Report on a $7 dry cleaning bill? Probably pulled the wrong card out of his wallet in a bit of a rush. (It would be different if every dry cleaning bill were paid…). Just pay it back and be careful. That isn’t news worthy.
And to my point about the sensationalism, quote from earlier article: “Now, Beltline officials are scrambling to reiumburse the city for some of the 2010-11 costs in the wake of the newspaper’s inquiry” Really? Scrambling to send back that $7?
I know, here comes the moral challenge: “Well if you’ll take pens from the supply cabinet, what stops you from embezzling funds?”
Disclosure: Interested, but no association whatesoever with any Beltline people. Just hope to see them get to laying track someday. This scrutiny does more distraction than good.
Skeptical thoughts here:
To me this stinks of AJC yellow journalism for the headline effect. Almost none of what I read in the expenses seem to be egregiously out of line. One article makes it seem that $106 wine cooler was a personal gift from the dude to his wife. Actually it reads more like an office gift to a family member. Many offices do that kind of thing for special occassions out of petty cash. Birthdays, Births, Deaths etc. Would a $100 fruit basket been so sensational? No, but because it was a wine-thingy it’s newsworthy. Probably the beltline staff wanted to put a bit more create thought into the gift than a fruitbasket.
AHID: Those kegs and the braves game bill are entirely in-line with what you have to do to entertain and fundraise.
I realize the board probably had no choice with the AJC coverage, but c’mon? Report on a $7 dry cleaning bill? Probably pulled the wrong card out of his wallet in a bit of a rush. (It would be different if every dry cleaning bill were paid…). Just pay it back and be careful. That isn’t news worthy.
And to my point about the sensationalism, quote from earlier article: “Now, Beltline officials are scrambling to reiumburse the city for some of the 2010-11 costs in the wake of the newspaper’s inquiry” Really? Scrambling to send back that $7?
I know, here comes the moral challenge: “Well if you’ll take pens from the supply cabinet, what stops you from embezzling funds?”
Disclosure: Interested, but no association whatesoever with any Beltline people. Just hope to see them get to laying track someday. This scrutiny does more distraction than good.
Re fundraising on public funds and accidental drycleaning expenses: Got to be particularly careful with public funds. That’s one of the limitations of working off of public vs. private funding. Annoying but true. Conferences funded with federal or state dollars are not allowed to even serve coffee and rolls except under special circumstances that require hours of justification and paperwork. A well-respected, well-liked CDC scientist was fired and prosecuted a few years ago on the charges that they sometimes used their government credit card for personal use even though they paid off all the personal charges with their personal, not government, funds. When using public funds, not being squeaky clean can trip you up. There’s a price for public funding.
Now I see online that there’s something called the Atlanta Beltline Partnership that is a non-profit supported only by private funding. That entity may have more leeway with how they fundraise.
I also want the Beltline to lay track. That’s why I want them to be squeaky clean so detractors don’t have ammunition.
Why should taxpayers be responsible for his dry cleaning and parking tickets, no matter what they cost? He’s getting a salary of $200k a year, and there’s no legitimate reason for tax payers to foot the bill for those expenses for him.
I heard another news report that said the Braves expenses were a staff outing. I think that’s fine for a private business, but I’m over seeing government officials go balls to the wall with their spending simply because they have access to this money. The AJC said they hadn’t received all the records yet, and that some of the “retreats” were deemed acceptable. I’d like to know why these type of overnight retreats for staff are even necessary. If property taxes are rising and education is being cut, this absolutely sounds frivolous compared to what is actually necessary.
And sure the amounts are a drop in the bucket, but perhaps this will send out a message to the head of every other department that this type of spending is no longer acceptable.
+1,000 Most of these charges fall under the “petty cash” category. And a $7 dry cleaning charge seems more like a mistake than a pattern of malfeasance.
I’m am an honesty and integrity champion. I’m also a champion of not living in a wag the dog zone either. The headline is so far over the top in relation to the amount of money in question that it’s mind-boggling. This investigative report IMO falls more in line with someone calling a reporter and having him/her finish off someone they want removed versus a real “scandal.” It’s clear they knew about the “misappropriation” because they indicated that they had made changes to ensure greater checks and balances going forward.
If the AJC wants to impress me, do a month-long investigative report on the malfeasance of GDOT contracts. The mark-ups and the Gang of Five who have a strangle hold on transportation money in GA. THAT would be worth the ink it’s written on. This, not so much.
Agree completely with your points, and with Chewey. To me this smells like the AJC trying to make itself look good over a dry-cleaning bill, a gift from pottery barn and a parking ticket. I mean, really? That’s what you call a waste of taxpayer dollars? This is your excuse for investigative journalism?
Over the past three years the Beltline has built more buzz and excitement in the community than in the previous 5+ years of it’s existence. They’ve got a solid team, but a lot of that success should be attributed to their leadership. I guess the board did what they had to do, but I think it’s a bunch of B.S.
All valid points until you take a job with the government. Any public employee would tell you that this sort of stuff is strictly forbidden. As to the comments about the real waste happening at the contract level – I couldn’t agree more. However, this guy should have known better.
Just noticed in the “How we got the story” section of Aug 12th Scoop that AJC reported that they found Beltline had bought birthday cakes for staffers. Combed through 100’s of expenses and came up with Birthday Cakes and $7 dry cleaning bill.
Seriously, who among us is going to deny Milton his hard earned last piece of Birthday Cake??
Where I work we have birthday parties all the time. Someone bakes a cake at home or buys one and then brings it in. If they want, they ask co-workers to chip in. Ditto for bigger events like baby showers, going-away parties, etc. We don’t use work funds to buy birthday cakes. Maybe I’m naive. How many workplaces fund birthday cakes and drycleaning for their employees?
I don’t know. I’ve seen a mix of things.
For the record: I don’t steal office supplies…
…but if you try to take my stapler I’ll set the building on fire.
Is it a red Swingline?
It is! It doesn’t bind up as much as the Boston.
If you could go ahead and try to remember to do that from now on, that’d be great
I uh, I don’t like my job, and, uh, I don’t think I’m gonna go anymore.
Exactly. I worked for the federal government in Washington, DC. Our budget covered salaries, office space, work-related travel, and a spare assortment of office supplies. That’s it. As it should be when your job is a function of the public trust.
Had this article sent to me by 5 different people whom I (admittedly) browbeat for a YES vote on TSPLOST!
“See! I told you! This is what we’re afraid of!”
It sucks to have such immediate confirmation. Ohhhh Atlanta!
For me, it’s the staple remover and 3-hole punch. I only use them for business purposes but I do put my initials on them. That way I save money by not having to order new ones when an irresponsible borrower misplaces them.
This was supposed to go up under the Chewey post that referenced a stapler at work. Either Word Press or my brain are misfiring today.
I think there’s some bad judgement here, and I can’t argue with there being some kind of sanction but I really hate that this becomes part of the “all government is corrupt” and “government spending is rife with waste”. Where I work, I see far more of a tendency of people to pay for things that probably should be reimbursable, but because this is public money, the concern as always about how the particular expense might look when it shows up on a brief expense statement. Therein is the issue. Context is important and generally speaking, the people that I see working with taxpayer money are a pretty cautious and honest lot.
So, he was an idiot, but don’t use this to too broadly generalize.
All government is not corrupt, I would agree. However, government spending is indeed rife with waste.
And at the end of the day, isn’t this the voting public’s fault? Blaming officials for waste seems a lazy way of explaining away the problem. (Wo)men are no angels, and to expect them to be so is THE basic failure of a nation’s voters, because everyone basically knows this. But apparently the failure isn’t impactful enough for anyone to really care. In that case, is it really a failure at all? And/or how much failure should be tolerated or expected in a functioning republic (more often described as a democracy)?
This isn’t really directed at Keith. Just pontificating.
And that is exactly why we should have the smallest goverment possible.
And, nicely pontificated it was! You’re right, in part, that it’s the voting public’s problem, however the waste in government is rarely addressed and not usually what we base our votes on. Talking about slashing budgets and cutting programs to me isn’t about getting rid of waste. I’m talking of true waste. On a daily basis, too much is spent on things. I’m not saying we spend on too many things, I’m saying that we pay too much for those things that are bought. This conjures memories of $700 hammers and $1500 toilet seats.
My hunch is that by cleaning up government procurement processes, the amount of savings would be staggering and could pay for so much of what we all argue about. Some of the problems I see are that those spending the money see their jobs as being one of a simple buyer and never one as a negotiator. Buying stuff is easy. Buying it at a right and fair price takes work.
Many companies are bad at procurement as well, and they generally fail or improve their methods (or get bailed out). Government spending seems lazy to me. The money too often isn’t spent like it’s their own and even more rarely spent in order to please their shareholders (voters). That’s a big difference in government vs business. A CEO can lose her job immediately if the shareholders get up in arms. Voters have to wait years to right a wrong and our memories are so short that it only really matters what happens in the few short months before an election to sway our votes.
That reminds me, I bought a replacement type ribbon for my old IBM Wheelwriter 5 at Progressive Methods. The guy there says “well, IBM finally discontinued these ribbons so the ones we have left are $24.95. But I’ve got a generic one for $6.95.” I asked him what the difference was, and he said that with the exception of typing on glossy paper they perform the same.
I then asked “so who actually buys the IBM ones over the generics” and his response was “really nobody, except any government entities I deal with.”
I don’t think that the answer is less government. Why shouldn’t we expect people to rise above their worst selves? To strive to be better than they are?
We need transparency, oversight, and a robust and free press to keep people honest (and expose those who aren’t).
I almost always think the answer is less government.
Side Note – Most of the Gov’t Waste that everyone so loathes is not in the day-to-day operations of most gov’t entities. The waste lies where most people will never see it: in the Gov’t Contracts.
That’s why you rarely see a REAL story on the breadth and depth of gov’t contracting. Only the anecdotal stories of the $1,000 light fixture or the $5,000 ink jet printer. That’s chump change in comparison to the real waste.
I suspect you are on to something here…
Right on. In fact, the move under Bush to contract out a lot of work being done by federal employees totally backfired. The cost of contractors was way higher than what a federal employee plus benefits plus payments into federal retirement cost. The contracting firms didn’t pay the contract employees any better than federal employees but took a huge amount of overhead for the firm. And contract employees had to do exactly what the contract said, no more, no less. No flexibiity. If the government agency buying the services needed something different all of a sudden, that was a contract change, kaching, kaching.
Well, let’s try an example. HHS has about 65,000 employees and a budget of over $700 billion. You might think that some large number of those folks would be working hard to stop Medicare from paying out billions in fraudulent claims. But, not so much:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/03/medicare-fraud-is-incredibly-easy-congressional-panel-hears.html
So here you have an estimated $60 billion in complete waste in the course of HHS’ day-to-day operations. Just one example. There is waste and graft in contracting too, of course, but the waste is ubiquitous throughout a government that is simply too large and complex to oversee. Not that it’s getting any leadership from the top, as we are on year four of operating without a budget, in plain violation of federal law.
I think there is a big difference between fraud and waste.
And hey — The article you cite does not say HHS is not working hard to stop Medicare fraud. It just says that Medicare fraud is easy to commit.
The REASON (as your article states) that Medicare fraud is easy to commit is that the agency must pay out most claims FIRST and then fight to get the money back later. HHS does this because if it intensively screened every Medicare claim before sending payment, then providers would have to wait a very very long time before getting paid. The article you cite suggests changing that system of paying claims first. It does NOT say that the U.S. is not working hard to stop fraud.
Gee whiz. If you’re going to cite an article, it should at least support your argument.
If you are interested in some accurate information about the United States’ efforts to stop Medicare fraud, here is a good link:
http://www.stopmedicarefraud.gov/heattaskforce/index.html
•Florida – March 13, 2012 – Miami-Area Resident Pleads Guilty to Participating in $200 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme – Read More
•Florida – March 9, 2012 – Area Halfway House Owner Sentenced to 24 Months in Prison for Participating in Fraud and Kickback Scheme – Read More
•Texas – March 9, 2012 – Owner of Houston Health Care Company Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison in Connection with Medicare Fraud Scheme – Read More
•Texas – February 28, 2012 – Dallas Doctor Arrested for Alleged Role in Nearly $375 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme – Read More
•Texas – February 8, 2012 – Assistant Administrator of Houston Hospital Indicted for Alleged Role in $116 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme – Read More
•Louisiana – February 6, 2012 – Louisiana Patient Recruiter Pleads Guilty in Health Care Fraud Scheme – Read More
•Louisiana – February 3, 2012 – Louisiana Medical Equipment Company Owner Pleads Guilty in $21 Million Fraud Scheme – Read More
•Michigan – February 2, 2012 – Rehabilitation Agency Owner in Detroit Found Guilty for Role in $2 Million Therapy Fraud Scheme – Read More
Geez whiz, they’re working so hard to stop fraud that it is (a) easy to commit and (b) there’s about $60 billion worth of it, annually. They must really be burning midnight oil over there at HHS. The prosecutions you cite add up to what, less than 1% of the annual fraudulent payments? Are you calling that success?
The fact that claims are paid first is no excuse for paying $60 billion of fraudulent claims. Lots of entities are required to make prompt payments to service providers. That doesn’t mean they get bilked out of millions every day. Go ahead and make a fake bill for medical equipment and send it over to Northside Hospital, see if they pay it. Now do the same for Medicare . . .
But hey, $60 billion for services that were never provided isn’t “waste,” right? Taxpayer dollars well spent?
The point of my response was to demonstrate that the article you cite did not stand for the proposition you cited it for. HHS works hard to combat fraud and abuse. I think I’ve proven my point.
If you have anything constructive to add regarding how to combat fraud, I am all ears. But if (as it seems) you would just prefer to throw rocks, I am done with this conversation.
Did you hear the interesting report on NPR this morning about HHS efforts to reduce fraud? They are using the same or similar computer programs that banks use, with much success.
look up Bunny Greenwood – whistle blower that was run out of doing her job! Really crappy stuff and very disheartening.
I had a buddy who worked on an Air Force based and was in charge of the fiscal year budget. The stuff about how that worked was enlightening to say the least. “Basically, we meet last year’s budget and tack on 5%. If we ask for less, we may never get more. So, we always use this +5% formula and back into it.”
Re government waste: One problem is that we all want oversight and accountability. But the same adminstrative bureaucrats that cannot figure out that a toilet seat doesn’t need to cost $700 are the ones who implement measures to ensure oversight and accountability. They impose so many policies, forms, and levels of approval in their frantic effort to prevent anything from going wrong (or more correctly, appearing to go wrong) that government workers (substitute in teachers here if you want) cannot get anything done efficiently. I thought the Clinton era delayering and empowerment of the frontline federal workforce had some merit but it was followed by the massive centralization and contracting of the Bush era. State and local governments aped what the feds were doing, just a few years behind. As a result of the management whiplash, topped off by budget cutbacks which trickle down irrationally, it’s to the credit of government employees that they can get anything done well.
Brining this back around to the Beltline indiscretions…so while hardworking government employees are carefully not serving coffee and rolls at conferences, careless errors in spending attract negative attention. It hurts the Beltline and isn’t worth it, fundraising or no fundraising.
*sigh* SMH.
Guess I can’t disagree with the moral high ground that one has to be squeaky clean with public funds. My issue is more that the apparent “scandal” here doesn’t rise to any level of hidden conspiracy that the headlines and text suggest. Another case in point:. The AJC’s use of double quotes in describing the Braves game “community engagement event”. Sounds like a reasonable expense description to me, given that is what is likely was.
I do feel for public sector employees who can’t have a comfortable or normal working environment because of this excessive oversight. Find the recurring big $ stuff. Not the “misuse” of petty cash.
It’s not watergate level but I think the AJC is responding to the arguments of the anti-T-Splost people, who turned out to make up a huge majority of the voters in our region. How do you go back to those voters for another shot at transit funding when the head of a project for which great skepticism abounds is taking his buddies to Rathbun’s and charging the city? Being a flashy executive on the taxpayer’s dime is not particularly wise when teachers are being laid off. Frankly I think this was a valid investigation and an appropriate response.
Where is he “taking his buddies to Rathbun’s and charging the city”?
That’s the embellishment that happens when stuff like this breaks into the news. Next it will be that he was taking South Pacific junkets and buying cars… (and to be clear, there’s no evidence for any of that…)
“Flashy executive”?
Frankly, these kinds of reactions to stories like this is why working lunches are often given budgets that work out to $5 per person, because everyone is afraid of ending up in the papers for lavish $10 per person lunches.
He took his top male lieutenants to regular meals at Rathbun’s. If you’ve followed the stories it’s in there. I’m sticking by the “flashy” comment. He was labeled some sort of boy wonder and believed his own hype. Bad idea when you work for the public. Sorry, that’s my opinion.