In 2020, former Atlanta Mayor Kiesha Lance Bottoms called the creation of the Office of Inspector General a step to ensure the city has “the strongest safeguards possible to prevent corruption in City Hall.”
Officials were reeling at the time from investigations into the city’s innerworkings by multiple federal agencies. And the former mayor stressed that the new office would serve as an “independent set of eyes, ears and teeth to root out misconduct … separate from any political influence.”
But almost exactly five years later, city leaders are poised to overhaul the watchdog office with so many changes that Atlanta’s Inspector General Shannon Manigault said she would considered resigning…