DeKalb CEO's calls caught some vendors off guard
CEO REMOVED DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis, right, listens as attorney Craig Gillen responds to a 14 count indictment at a hearing to determine if the charges against Ellis will interfere with his job running the state's third largest county,
ugg sale, Monday, July 15, 2013, in Atlanta. David Tulis / AJC Special
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DeKalb County had just awarded 's company a $140,000 contract when the call came in. And he wasn't going away easy.
Ellis says DA abuses should halt prosecution
"He was just a sales guy from hell," said Konenkamp, general manager of the alarm and special hazards division for Century Fire Protection. "Won't leave you alone. Keeps knocking at the door. Keeps calling. Now, I never flat out said no. Because, here again, we're working for the guy so I'm trying not to be mean to him."
Konenkamp's name and phone number are on a list that is central to the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office's criminal case against Ellis. A June indictment accuses Ellis of ordering county staff to compile special lists of vendors signing the latest county contracts so he could solicit them for donations.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution obtained the lists, created from the county commission's agendas, and contacted more than 125 vendors. More often than not, the vendors declined to comment or did not return a reporter's message.
However, Konenkamp is one of nearly a dozen vendors who told the AJC they were contacted by Ellis or his campaign staff to donate to Ellis' campaign. Aside from limited information provided in Ellis' indictment papers, this is the first ever glimpse into how the CEO apparently made use of the custom made vendors lists.
Most vendors interviewed by the AJC say Ellis called them personally. Several said they were taken aback by Ellis' solicitation, considered it a conflict of interest or felt pressure to give. Others indicated they were happy to donate and said Ellis is not the first elected official to come calling for cash.
Ellis has denied any wrongdoing. He could not be reached for comment. But the spokesman for his defense team, Jeff Dickerson,
ugg boots, offered a refrain previously mentioned by Ellis and his attorneys: Asking businesses for campaign donations is standard fare in the political realm.
"It's a fairly common practice among elected officials who are attempting to finance their campaigns to call people and ask them for donations," he said. "It's done all the time."
But one of the vendors, Deric Cox, a sales representative for Action Tire in Forest Park,
ugg outlet italia, said he was shocked that Ellis would call him to solicit a donation.
"I knew, sooner or later,
ugg uk, that was going to come out," Cox said. "If you call enough people, somebody's going to squeal Is it right to call a vendor? My personal opinion, it doesn't seem ethical to call a vendor and say, 'I was wondering if you would donate to our reelection campaign.'"
Offended or not,
cheap ugg sale, feeling pressured or not, most of the vendors who spoke with the AJC gave to Ellis. Of those who didn't,
ugg sale, none reported that Ellis threatened to keep them from getting county work if they didn't donate.
In the indictment Ellis is accusing of doing just that to three companies. A DeKalb County grand jury indicted him on 15 criminal counts, 14 of them felonies. The charges include theft, conspiracy and extortion, stemming from campaign donations Ellis allegedly sought from companies whose names are on those lists. Ellis' indictment alleges he instructed the county's purchasing director to keep two of the three companies that he had threatened from getting future work.
Dickerson said it reflected well on Ellis that none of the vendors who spoke to the AJC reported that Ellis threatened to take work from them.
"You're not finding anyone who says there was a threat of a loss of business if they didn't give," Dickerson said. "And that, to me, seems to me to go to the heart of the indictment."
'He could make problems for us'
Konenkamp, whose company has an office in Duluth and maintains the fire alarms and security systems at DeKalb's government buildings, described Ellis as "very pushy. He was on a mission."
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