Kasim Reed repays $12k after AJC asks for his city credit card bills

ATLANTA — Two months after leaving office, former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed reimbursed taxpayers nearly $12,000 for charges made to his city-issued credit card over the past three years, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation has found.

The charges Reed repaid included a $2,300 political contribution to the Democratic Party; four continuing education courses for his law license; and a string of expensive restaurant bills, with a $906 tab at Atlanta’s Marcel steakhouse being the most expensive.

Reed made the payments with six checks from his personal account  — after the AJC requested his credit card statements under the Georgia Open Records Act.

RELATED STORIES:

The checks were all dated March 9, three days after a city spokeswoman confirmed to reporters that the credit card statements would be released later in the month.

Reed’s checks cover charges made in all three years, and are in addition to $13,400 he repaid from his campaign and personal accounts while still in office. The city also received about $4,600 in card reimbursements directly from institutions that hosted the mayor, typically for speaking engagements.

Reed said the AJC’s records request had nothing to do with him paying back the $11,851 on March 9.

Spokesman Jeff Dickerson said Reed began independently reviewing charges from 2015, 2016 and 2017 — the exact time period of the AJC’s request — shortly before leaving office.

“The former mayor was conducting his own review to ensure that these and all other finances relating to his time in office were in order,” Dickerson said in an email response to questions submitted for Reed. “In the event the mayor sought political office in the future, he knew his (credit card) purchases would be a matter of interest and wanted to ensure that they were in order.”

Cox Media Group