Atlanta Unfiltered

Ethics reform effort won’t get help from House speaker On state DNR board, no future for a ‘green conservative’ Airport concession winners linked to city officials Common Cause: Airport bids need more time for review Newly recovered court files cast doubt on Gingrich’s version of first divorce Ga. among states where workers can pad pensions […]

JQC report outlines case against ex-Columbus judge Sitting Columbus judge says local attorney at center of corruption probe Augusta city officials grilled over retroactive pay raises Calls come for independent redistricting APS turning over confidential material in cheating probe Ads for airport concessions contracts target passengers Former Crawford Co. chairman sues county officials

Fired Atlanta arborist Tom Coffin settled his whistleblower suit against City Hall on Tuesday, just before his case was scheduled to go to trial, his lawyers say. Under the deal, the city admits no blame and Coffin gets his pension back and $165,000 in damages and fees, lawyers Gerry Weber and Brian Spears announced today. The City Council still must approve the settlement.

Kasim Reed hasn’t even been sworn in as Atlanta’s next mayor, but one of his key supporters has already been promoted. Scott Kreher, the police sergeant who was on desk duty four months ago for talking about wanting to tenderize the mayor’s head with a baseball bat, is now a lieutenant. Kreher runs the Atlanta police union, which endorsed Reed two weeks before he won a Dec. 1 runoff election.

Blown deadlines and sloppy contract oversight may cost Atlanta another $3.9 million in federal housing money. Atlanta messed up $6.8 million in funding commitments, or nearly two-thirds of all funding examined, federal auditors say. Planning and Community Development Commissioner James Shelby asked HUD to take extenuating circumstances into account, but HUD’s Inspector General was unmoved.

(UPDATE: Jurors got the case Thursday and deliberated for three hours or so. They’ll resume at 9:30 a.m. Friday.)

More than a year ago, the city of College Park rejected settling a fired employee’s reverse-discrimination lawsuit for $740,000. Now the city is in federal court, where a jury’s pending decision will determine whether that was a good call. Christopher Jones, the city’s former director of economic development, sued in 2005 after a three-member majority of the City Council voted to let him go.

Congressman Sanford Bishop’s campaign spent another $30,000 on legal fees last month, presumably related to a GBI investigation of his stepdaughter’s job with a federally funded program, federal election records show. The campaign account paid Greenberg Traurig $25,000 in March, shortly after the investigation made news.

Wayne Garner, the mayor of Carrollton, may be the only lobbyist in Georgia who has a legislator on the payroll. Garner also has a funeral home, and the legislator, state Rep. Tim Bearden, had a funeral home bill this year. (It didn’t pass.) Hmmmm.