Dekalb County Case Study

I was fortunate to work as an intern in DeKalb County government at a very interesting time in the county’s history. The CEO of DeKalb County, Burrell Ellis was on trial for perjury and extortion and was found guilty, and as a result there was an interim CEO for the county that brought in his own staff. In addition, there was a special election held for the District 5 Commissioner vacancy. The county was going through a period of uncertainty both for its officials and residents. Although I was new to the organization, I could easily feel the unrest of all of the county staff members. I was strategic in forming positive relationships with all members of the Board of Commissioners central staff and all the staff members of each district and county division regardless of political affiliation or position. DeKalb County was a semi efficiently run government. In my particular office of District 3, the lines of communication were very clear and the operations flowed smoothly. However, throughout the entire county government office, it was very evident of the “game of politics” that was played among all on a daily basis. For example, on Tuesdays after the Public County Commission meeting, it was evident of which county officials were friendlier to another.

DeKalb County government has many departments that all serve the residents of the county, but most often work independently of each other. As I look at the county operations I did see issues of inefficiencies in the communication of the various departments. It seemed to me that often, different departments were behind or misinformed on information and not every agency was on the same page. I believe that a reason for the confusion between departments can be widely attributed to the lack of definite leadership from the county’s CEO office due to changes in office and uncertainty of the upcoming special