Georgia attorney general calls for GBI to investigate
former Atlanta mayor's press office
The Associated Press
Tuesday, March 13th 2018
ATLANTA
The Georgia attorney general's
office has asked for an investigation into a report that the press office of
Atlanta's former mayor obstructed requests made under the state's open records
law.
Katie Byrd, spokeswoman for the
office of Attorney General Chris Carr, confirmed in
an email Tuesday that the office had referred the matter to the Georgia Bureau
of Investigation.
WSB-TV in Atlanta reported last week that a string of
text messages showed an Atlanta city spokeswoman in 2017 advised a city
official to be "as unhelpful as possible" in responding to a request
from the television station for public records. The spokeswoman also advised
the official to "drag this out" as long as
possible and to provide information in the most confusing format available.
Kasim Reed was Atlanta's mayor at
the time.
WSB-TV had requested public records
in 2017 for a story that eventually revealed that several city council members
had failed to fully pay their water bills. The group included Keisha Lance
Bottoms, who was then launching her successful mayoral bid.
Garland, who no longer works for the
city, declined to comment to WSB.
Current city spokeswoman Anne Torres
said in a Friday statement to The Associated Press that "all employees are
expected to follow the letter and spirit of the Georgia Open Records Act."
The law states that
"frustrating or attempting to frustrate the access to records by
intentionally making records difficult to obtain or review" is illegal.
There's a "good argument"
that a conspiracy to violate the law could result in up to a year in jail, said
Clark D. Cunningham, a professor of law and ethics at Georgia State University.
"It would be appropriate for
those people to be prosecuted. Otherwise, where's the deterrent?" he told
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.