Fulton County Tax Commissioner Ferdinand

Ethically challenged Arthur Ferdinand is the current Fulton County Tax Commissioner and he has a lot of baggage as you will see at http://isarthurferdinandacrook.blogspot.com/.

He was appointed Tax Commissioner for two 4-year terms (1996 and 2000) and elected to the position another three terms (2004, 2008 and 2012). The referenced blog will report on him and his activities, including how he uses his office to retaliate against his critics.

Fulton County Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand, a Democrat and Black, 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, receiving his own substantial salary and also taking advantage of extremely questionable fees for the sale of Tax Liens to Vesta Holdings, frequently using them for such tax lien purchases and reportedly denying sales to other similar firms who are available and wish to make, such purchases.

The most recent criticisms about his conduct revolve around his office's purchase of a $39,000 top of the line 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 'Doctor' 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.

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 $88) 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 'Doctor' 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 'Doctor' 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 'Doctor' 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.

FYI,  just where is this 'London University, England' where 'Doctor' Ferdinand
got his Ph.D?  I can't find any such institution in the UK or elsewhere.