Fresh Loaf

Atlanta City Council District 6 candidate Alex Wan has resigned from the Atlanta Development Authority Board to clear up any perception of a conflict of interest and focus his energy on the crowded race to represent the Midtown, Candler Park and Virginia-Highland neighborhoods.

From a Wan campaign press release:

“Before officially qualifying, I wanted to further demonstrate my absolute commitment to the people of District 6 and ensure there was no perception of a conflict between my ADA service and my City Council campaign,” he says. “It has been a privilege and an honor to serve ADA and the city of Atlanta since my appointment by City Council in 2006, working for the economic improvement of the city of Atlanta. I have learned so much from my fellow Board members and the incredible ADA staff, and I intend to put that experience to work for our great city’s future.”

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Wan’s decision to resign from the ADA’s board was clarified by legislation passed by City Council on August 17, stating that candidates for citywide office cannot serve on the boards of entities such as ADA.

In July, some district residents voiced concerns that Wan and Liz Coyle, one of his opponents in the Nov. 3 election, served on the ADA and Atlanta Beltline Inc. boards while also running for office. Coyle resigned from her post last week.

Wan faces Bahareh Azizi, Steve Brodie, Tad Christian, Liz Coyle and Miguel Gallegos.

(Courtesy Alex Wan For Atlanta)

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CL reported last month that some residents of political minefield District 6 expressed concerned over City Council candidates Liz Coyle and Alex Wan’s positions on the boards of Atlanta Beltline Inc. and the Atlanta Development Authority.

Some residents of the district — which includes Midtown, Candler Park and Virginia-Highland — thought the candidates’ service posed a potential conflict of interest. There was also confusion about the city’s rules regarding city candidates who sit on such boards. But the rules said there wasn’t a problem for either political hopeful, and that was that.

At Beltline CEO Terri Montague’s going-away party on Aug. 17 (she steps down at the end of the month), Coyle told ABI boardmembers that she was resigning from the board.

Coyle told CL at last night’s Beltline quarterly briefing that she made the decision several weeks ago so she could focus her energy on the crowded City Council race. The debate about the conflict of interest was also a factor, she said.

“While I believe it in my heart there was no conflict, [the issue] was a concern for me,” she said. “But truly the main motivation is focusing my energy on running for City Council District 6.”

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Leading up to Liz Coyle’s jump into the District 6 race for Atlanta City Council, there were questions as to whether the Atkins Park resident would have to resign from her position as community representative on the Beltline board of directors.

Candidate Liz Coyle

At first Coyle planned to step down from the post, a nonpaying, citywide gig to which the Council appoints a community member. Then, at a monthly meeting of an advisory board tasked with overseeing how taxpayer dollars are spent on the 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit, Coyle told members she was advised by the Atlanta Development Authority’s counsel that she didn’t have to.

Neither does Alex Wan, one of Coyle’s many opponents in the District 6 race. He serves on the ADA’s TAD and finance committees. (Here’s a list of ADA board members.)

Some residents, however, are raising questions in the politically active district (and in the comments of Fresh Loaf posts). Some of them deal with confusion over the candidates’ status on the boards, others involve concerns that candidate still serving on boards could pose a potential conflict of interest.

Can Coyle and Wan run for office and serve on the boards? Yes, they can. To understand why, you’ve gotta examine ADA’s organizational structure.

(more…)

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Dr. Charles Nemeroff

Documents released in a U.S. Senate Finance Committee hearing in September suggest that Emory University officials tried to downplay the controversy surrounding an esteemed but embattled faculty member.

Dr. Charles Nemeroff, one of the nation’s leading depression researchers, is under Senate investigation for allegedly failing to disclose $1.2 million he received from pharmaceutical companies from 2000 to 2007. In some cases, Nemeroff gave talks or published research that bolstered the companies’ products.

In July 2006, the Wall Street Journal published an article stating that Nemeroff failed to disclose payments he received from a company, Cyberonics Inc., whose product he wrote favorably about in a prestigious medical journal where he served as editor. Nemeroff later said he submitted a detailed disclosure about his relationship with the company, but it didn’t make it into print.

The day after the WSJ story ran, Nemeroff received an e-mail from Claudia Adkison, executive associate dean of the Emory University School of Medicine. The e-mail was released several weeks ago by the Senate committee:

“In working on handling the reporter, I tried to make this story go away because Emory’s name is in the middle of it. I have been grateful that the reporter was not sophisticated enough to ask all the right questions.”

Adkison also wrote that the reporter “was mostly right. He just doesn’t know all the facts.”

(more…)

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