Crude threats and bribery stir unease in Atlanta

The same went for the dead rodents that had been simultaneously placed on the doorstep of the contractor, Elvin R. Mitchell Jr., and the message: “ER, keep your mouth shut!!! Shut up.”

But in recent weeks, the brick, the rodents and the threat have become troubling symbols of a widening federal bribery and corruption investigation revolving around the granting of city contracts. The inquiry has already resulted in Mitchell’s and a second contractor’s guilty pleas to federal bribery charges, and it is spreading unease through the civic culture of Atlanta.

Municipal contracting here has served a historically important role in the effort to spread wealth to minority businesses, but it has also, at times, been a source of explosive scandal.

On Tuesday, more tremors rippled through City Hall as Jenna Garland, a spokeswoman for Mayor Kasim Reed, said in an email that city’s chief procurement officer, Adam Smith, had “been relieved of his duties effective immediately.” Federal investigators also removed some items from Smith’s office Tuesday. Justice Department representatives declined to comment on the matter.

None of the evidence has implicated Reed, the city’s term-limited Democratic mayor and one of the South’s most prominent African-American politicians. But the situation has prompted Reed to forcefully defend himself — in part because an individual has surfaced in connection with the federal investigation who worked on Reed’s 2009 election campaign and later at City Hall, and in part because of the memory of similar scandals that have rocked the city in the past.

“I have never taken a bribe,” Reed said as he made public 406 boxes of documents that he said federal investigators had demanded from the city. He added: “Day in and day out I have poured myself into this job. I wanted to be mayor of Atlanta since I was 13. And you think that I would throw my life away for some short-term gratification?”

The brick and the rodents at Mitchell’s home were detailed in a police report Sept. 11, 2015. In it, officers responding to a damage-to-property call said Mitchell had told them the incident had to do with “a federal case.” He also told them he was going to contact the FBI, which he said would be investigating.

In January, Mitchell, 63, the owner of several Atlanta-area construction companies, was arraigned on conspiratorial bribery and money laundering charges of paying more than $1 million to win city contracts. As part of a guilty plea, Mitchell agreed to cooperate with federal investigators.

On Feb. 8, the second contractor, Charles P. Richards Jr., 64, was arraigned on charges of paying $185,000 in bribes. Authorities said Richards had conspired with Mitchell in the pay-to-play scheme from 2010 to August 2015.

Last week, Richards also pleaded guilty in federal court and is cooperating with investigators. In both cases, authorities said, the men gave money to an unidentified individual on the belief that it would get them city contracts.

“It’s a big deal,” said Angelo Fuster, a longtime political consultant who worked for three of Atlanta’s mayors. “And the mechanics of it, the way that this seems to have been developing since — what is it, 2010? — is very unusual.”

City contracting here has long been both a source of civic pride and lingering suspicion. After his election in 1974, the city’s first African-American mayor, Maynard Jackson, sought to combat decades of economic injustice by increasing minority participation in city contracts to more than 35 percent from less than 1 percent.

But high-profile contracting scandals have also resulted in prison terms for several Atlanta politicians and business executives. In 2006, a five-year federal investigation of William C. Campbell, a former mayor who served from 1994 to 2002, ended with a jury finding him not guilty of charges of bribery and racketeering. He was, however, found guilty of tax evasion and sentenced to 30 months in prison.

The targets of the previous investigations were a multicultural group, as are those involved in the current scandal: Mitchell is black, and Richards is white.

It is unclear where the evidence will lead, but court documents suggest that investigators have been paying attention to a woman named Mitzi Bickers, a pastor, political consultant and former president of the Atlanta school board.

In January, soon after Mitchell’s arraignment, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on the threatening attack on his home. In November, Atlanta police arrested a man named Shandarrick Barnes in the incident. He has been charged with terroristic threats and criminal damage to property.

State records show that Barnes had business ties with Bickers, who worked on Reed’s election campaign and in the city’s human services department from 2010 to 2013.

A subpoena that was discovered among the 406 boxes of City Hall documents showed that federal officials have asked the city to turn over all correspondence to and from Bickers. Bickers has not been charged with any crime.

State records show Barnes spent years as the chief financial officer of the Bickers Group, a political consulting company. And when Bickers led the Chateau Land Co., she designated Barnes as the corporation’s secretary.

Efforts to reach Barnes and Bickers were unsuccessful.

Reed, a lawyer, has said he plans to enter the private sector after finishing his term in January. While many here believe he would like to seek statewide office, his chances do not appear great in a state that remains a bastion of Republicanism. But he has also said he could return to politics someday.

Reed has earned wide praise as mayor for reining in a ballooning, unfunded pension system and argues that he has presided over a building boom and plummeting unemployment and crime rates. (The city, however, has been struggling with a spike in homicides: Last year there were 111 here, the first time it had more than 100 since 2008.)

Steve Fennessy, editor in chief of Atlanta Magazine, said there was often an “unfair pressure” on African-American mayors here. “It’s like there’s a portion of the community that is waiting to say, ‘Gotcha,'” he said.