The highest paid Government official in Georgia (at $347,000) is Fulton County Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand, a Democrat and Black. He makes enemies easily. Seems he may have his own Nixionian enemies list which keeps growing.Saturday, May 25, 2013
Tax Commissioner and bully Dr Ferdinand gets sued by Hausmann
The highest paid Government official in Georgia (at $347,000) is Fulton County Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand, a Democrat and Black. He makes enemies easily. Seems he may have his own Nixionian enemies list which keeps growing.Not surprisingly it involves a lot of White Republicans who object to his using his elected position to coin money for himself, recieving his own substantial salary and also taking advantage of extremely questionable fees and for the sale of Tax Liens to Vesta Holdings *, frequently using them for such lien purchases and reportedly denying sales to other similar firms who are available and wish to make such purchases.
(* Vesta Holdings Rated by the BBB as 'F' 1737-G Ellsworth Industrial Blvd., Atlanta, GA 30318)
The most recent criticisms about his conduct revolve around his office's purchase of a top of the line $39,000, Ford Explorer, Limited Edition, for Ferdinand's personal use as a take home vehicle. Fulton County Commissioner Liz Hausmann, and a lot of others, criticized this misuse of taxpayer funds.
In an obvious retaliation Ferdinand made a bogus complaint to the County Attorney alleging that Hausmann did not live in the County.
This is the 2nd time this year that he has used his position to take a shot at Hausmann. Now Commissioner Hausmann has taken the offensive and filed the below suit against Ferdinand for his latest bit of stupidity. The Ferdinand/Hausmann conflict goes back as far as 2001 when Ferdinand sold a Tax Lien for $52 on property of County Commissioner Liz Hausmann. Other critics of his cozy relationship with Vesta Holdings have found that they had tax liens placed on their Fulton County properties for trivial amounts (as low
as $21) and many claim that no notice was ever given to them about any late taxes before finding themselves liened by Ferdinand's office.
The 'enemies list' clearly includes the Atlanta Journal Constitution, which has effectively been 'at war' with Ferdinand for years. While a relatively small part of the Cox Empire*, the AJC is the largest of the Cox publications and Ferdinand has repeatedly gone after Cox properties in Fulton County with mostly minor tax liens sold to his pals at Vesta Holdings.
In this chicken and egg drama there is no clear winner and the 'war' continues while the AJC keeps up their articles about Ferdinand and the Tax Office and Ferdinand watches for any opportunity to lien another Cox property or the property of anyone else his considers a threat to his Tax Office kingdom.
I have seen enough reports of Ferdinands' conduct over the past few years to come to the conclusion that he is a bully, misuses his office and will use his position to retaliate or embarrass those who question his ethics or try to pass needed legislation to curb his abuse of the lien process in Fulton County. The relationship between Ferdinand and Vesta Holdings needs to be looked into, it just smells bad. Real bad.
The terms 'Malfeasance' and Misfeasance' come to mind. This ethics lapse is something the Governor should be taking up.
(*Cox Media Group is in 17 markets. In Atlanta they own: AJC Newspaper, WSB 95.5FM and AM750 News/Talk WSB, WSB-TV - Channel 2, WSB-FM B98.5FM, WALR - KISS 104.1FM, WSRV - 97.1FM)
It is well past time for this out of control bully to get an ass kicking. Hopefully this suit will do the trick.
The 6 Count complaint runs 63 pages, inclusive of extensive exhibits, and you can view it at: http://pdfserver.amlaw.com/dailyreport/Editorial/PDF/Hausmanncomplaint.pdf
See blog site at: http://isarthurferdinandacrook.blogspot.com/
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