SCHR Open Records Request Reveals Mayor Dickens’s Special Procurement for Diversion Services Mirroring Terms of Stalled PAD Contract
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: [email protected]
ATLANTA – Nov. 12, 2024 – The Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR) announced today that records obtained from a November 1, 2024 Open Records Request reveal that the scope of services in Mayor Andre Dickens’s special procurement for diversion services is nearly identical in the scope proposed by the Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiative (PAD) in its winning bid to provide mobile response services in Atlanta. PAD was initially awarded a contract to offer these services after complying with the City’s standard public procurement process, but legislation authorizing the funding of that contract has been repeatedly stalled by the Dickens administration. Concerns were raised by several community organizations during recent Atlanta City Council meetings about PAD’s fate, with SCHR specifically citing concerns about Mayor Dickens’s office undermining PAD while attempting to circumvent laws governing competitive procurement.
At the October 30, 2024, Finance/Executive Committee meeting, Councilmember Alex Wan relayed that the Mayor’s Office defended their conflicting invitation-only special procurement by claiming that the recent opening of the Center for Diversion & Services changed the City’s needs. Given the nearly identical language found in the PAD contract and the special procurement documents, particularly as it relates to the Diversion Center, this justification is insufficient.
“The legal grounds for Mayor Dickens initiating a secret special procurement process were already questionable, but the strikingly similar language in these two documents should strongly signal to City Council that they must approve PAD’s contract and reject any pressure to succumb to a culture of corruption that only harms the people of Atlanta,” said SCHR Director of Public Policy Tiffany Roberts.
According to City law, the Chief Procurement Officer is required to document the grounds for special procurements, but SCHR’s request for this documentation remains unfulfilled by the city officials.
The City Council’s Finance/Executive Committee may vote on PAD’s contract as early as Wednesday, November 13. A favorable committee vote could move the matter to a full Council vote on Monday, November 18. The Finance/Executive Committee is chaired by Howard Shook, with Alex Wan serving as Vice Chair and members Liliana Bakhtiari, Dustin Hillis, Marci Collier Overstreet, Jason Winston, and Byron Amos.
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About the Southern Center for Human Rights
The Southern Center for Human Rights is working for equality, dignity, and justice for people impacted by the criminal legal system in the Deep South. SCHR fights for a world free from mass incarceration, the death penalty, the criminalization of poverty, and racial injustice.