Atlanta Officials May Have Broken the Law in Fight Over Diversion Program

The City of Atlanta may have violated its own ordinance in its apparent attempts to undermine a pre-arrest diversion program’s pending contract with the city. 

After an open bidding process for pre-arrest diversion services, the Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiative, known as PAD, was notified in July that they had been “recommended as the top ranked supplier.” The group was the only organization to submit a bid. 

For years, PAD has contracted with the city to provide short- and long-term care to community members living in extreme poverty and those experiencing mental health or substance abuse-related crises. The group responds to requests from law enforcement, as well as calls to 311 and 911.

To continue providing these services, PAD needed the Atlanta City Council to approve the new contract and send it to Mayor Andre Dickens for his signature. In October, however, Councilmember Alex Wan delayed a planned vote on the contract, telling the council’s Finance/Executive committee that the mayor’s office had initiated a 14-day special, closed procurement process for pre-arrest diversion services. PAD’s director told The Appeal that they were not informed of the process or invited to apply.

The city’s procurement code requires a written justification, known as a special determination letter, for using a special procurement process, but it appears the city did not follow its own rules. In response to The Appeal’s request for a copy of the special determination letter, the Department of Procurement said in an email earlier today, “It has been confirmed the City does not have the additional information requested and no special determination letter exists.”

The Appeal did not receive a response from the mayor’s office by the time of publication.

Community members and civil rights groups, such as the Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR) and the ACLU of Georgia, have blasted the Dickens administration’s apparent attempts to block PAD’s contract with the city.

“We appear to be returning to an era in Atlanta where officials openly shirk laws intended to protect the public from abuse and corruption,” Tiffany Roberts, public policy director at the Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR), told The Appeal in a text message. “The fact that the special determination letter does not exist unfortunately suggests that the Dickens administration unlawfully used the special procurement process to block the commencement of PAD’s contract, despite PAD complying fully with the procurement code.”

She said that the SCHR has retained “outside counsel after the city also failed to provide us with the special procurement file and written determination letter per an open records request.” 

On Nov. 13, the city canceled the special procurement after it failed to receive any bids for the services, according to a memo from the city’s Department of Procurement The Appeal received the memo in response to a public records request and was the first to break the news. 

Finally, on Nov. 18, after months of community pressure, councilmembers approved PAD’s contract in an 11 to 2 vote. The contract then went to the mayor’s office for his signature, but PAD confirmed to The Appeal that the city has not yet executed the contract. The group’s current contract goes through the end of the year.

Roberts said that if PAD’s contract is not signed by the new year, it “may result in the interruption of PAD’s life-saving services.”