Atlanta IG resigns over 'threats, bullying, intimidation and harassment'

Riley Bunch, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Feb 17, 2025

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ATLANTA — Atlanta’s top watchdog, Inspector General Shannon Manigault, announced Monday she will resign from the role after a bitter feud with Mayor Andre Dickens’ administration over the office’s authority.

Manigault said she and her staff have faced “threats, bullying, intimidation and harassment at the hands of people who have been the subjects of our investigations.”

“However much the people of the city of Atlanta want us to be here and want us to be doing our job, city leadership has made it crystal clear for them a real, functioning, effective Office of Inspector General is not welcome in Atlanta,” Manigault said when she announced her resignation.

Last May, Manigault gave an unprecedented speech during public comment at an Atlanta City Council meeting where she described a “concerted effort” to block misconduct investigations internally by city officials.

Since then, Manigault and the mayor’s office have been locked in fierce battle where accusations have punctuated the debate. And legislation — spearheaded by the Dickens administration and expected to be passed by City Council today — would tamp down on the office’s independence and power.

“Pure and simple: it’s retaliation,” Manigault said early Monday morning. “The attacks have been systematic, sustained and savage. As we have uncovered more corruption, once again, at the highest rungs of City Hall, the attacks have gotten worse.”

The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The watchdog office was created in the wake of the 2017 federal investigations that shook City Hall and led to a number of criminal charges against former officials. Since, Manigault’s office has released reports that allege abuses of power by a commissioner, questionable city contracts with well-connected lobbyists, a bribery scheme in the city department of planning and unfair advantages given to vendors during the bidding process.

At the same time, the Dickens administration launched an effort to overhaul the policies and procedures of the investigatory office.

Legislative changes offered by the mayor’s office would have given the mayor power to appoint members of the inspector general’s governing board and remove her ability to investigate illegal activity, among a lengthy list of other revisions.

Atlanta City Council members opted to walk back a number of controversial changes proposed in the initial legislation, but are still expected on Monday to pass legislation that establishes “guardrails” during investigations and put parameters around the level of corruption the inspector general’s office has the power to investigate.

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