Opinion: All in the family, nepotism the Atlanta way

When Atlanta’s inspector general recently released a scathing report on nepotism in the city, I shrugged.

You see, I’m from Chicago, where the late Mayor Richard J. Daley summed up the role of government when he was accused of helping his sons in the insurance business.

“If I can’t help my sons, then they can kiss my (Irish rump),” Daley responded angrily. “If a man can’t put his arms around his sons, then what kind of world do we live in?”

In her report, Inspector General Shannon Manigault found that Atlanta Human Resources Commissioner Tarlesha Smith’s daughter needed a job and there weren’t any, so Smith had a job created a position.

The report states that officials at the notary’s office, where the girl was to be placed, were unhappy with the procedure. But no one wants to anger the human resources commissioner. She is a powerful person and could make work life uncomfortable.

It turns out the girl wasn’t necessarily bad at learning the job, but the report says she was uncooperative and disrespectful to her boss and began missing work after she was told she couldn’t work from home. The supervisor wanted to fire her.

Was Smith upset that her daughter apparently wasn’t up to par? Instead, according to the report, “the girl was not fired; instead, DHR opened an investigation into the supervisor.”

Smith, who I was told was a competent administrator, was allegedly heard telling Deputy Commissioner Candace Kollas, “I need you to check and figure out why they keep (playing) with my child!”

Ultimately, that investigation recommended firing the girl’s supervisor.

After the inspector general’s report was made public, Smith was placed on leave while the city conducts a new investigation. It’s like an episode of “The Office,” at least if Quentin Tarantino directed it.

The Inspector General summed up the situation: “…The DHR Commissioner’s actions perpetuate the perception of an uneven playing field and reinforce the idea that one must be “friends and family” to succeed.

Ah, the old “friends and family” system of nepotism has been discussed for years, not only in Atlanta but in many other entities.

There’s nothing wrong with that in itself, I suppose. I had union carpenter uncles who helped my brother and a few cousins ​​get into the trade. Whenever they worked for them, my uncles treated them harsher than other carpenters and made them work harder.

I searched Atlanta’s ethics disclosure forms to see who had or had relatives working for the city. It is filled out by elected officials, board members and certain city administrators.

Three municipal court judges, at least four city commissioners or managers, two city council members and Mayor Andre Dickens have relatives who work — or have — worked for the city in the past three years.

Of the dozen department heads and managers mentioned in the inspector general’s report, six of them have — or had — family members working in the city.

Kollas, the deputy human resources commissioner charged with investigating the supervisor who wanted Smith’s daughter fired, has two children of her own who work for the city, one in the police department and the other in “executive offices,” according to the documents. She did not return a call for comment.

All reports note that the people dropping them off were not monitoring their loved ones.

Former Mayor Andrew Young said government jobs gave a few generations of black Atlantans access to middle-class lives. He told me that his wife’s nephew worked in the water department.

“He started at the bottom and worked his way up,” Young said.

“It’s inevitable that there will be relatives,” he said, adding: “If they mess up at work because they are someone’s relatives, well, we should get rid of them “.

My uncles would agree with that.