Dekalb County Goings On

Right now Dekalb County is getting a lot of attention because of the feud between the new CEO, Burrell Ellis, and the Chief of Police, Terrell Bolton.

Police chief, CEO feud embarrassing, familiar

No one other than Bolton and Ellis can say exactly what caused the dispute that erupted last week in a public relations disaster for DeKalb government.

Ellis fired Bolton’s top civilian aide and put Bolton on leave pending an investigation into unspecified allegations. He said he is not satisfied with Bolton’s practice of taking comp time, his frequent trips to his family home in Dallas or his job performance, including Bolton’s efforts to reduce crime.

Bolton labeled the investigation a “witch hunt” and asked the GBI to take over that probe and investigate Ellis as well. The GBI said Friday that it could not do so based simply on Bolton’s request.

Among Bolton’s complaints was the conduct of county sheriff’s deputies in Ellis’ security detail. The presence of those deputies — from the independent Sheriff’s Office rather than the county government’s own police force — has its roots in DeKalb’s history and Ellis’ political experience.

I know which side I'm on. I don't agree with the "you should all get along like adults" finger-wagging. So far, I have faith that Ellis is doing his best. He needs to clean out Dekalb, which is rotten with incompetent Vernon Jones cronies like Bolton. I read Dekalb Officers Speak so I get a sense of what's going on behind the scenes; yes, it's a highly biased blog, but I've followed their links to read what mainstream media in Houston has said about Bolton, and none of it is flattering.

Even though Bolton is really a Texas outsider, maybe he'll decide to follow an old Dekalb tradition and assassinate Ellis. I'm sure Ellis has had the same thought, which is why the separate security detail is an excellent idea. I just hope Ellis can fire Bolton as soon as possible and get further into the serious work of cleaning out Dekalb.