KEISHA LANCE-BOTTOMS INITIATES INVESTIGATION INTO $40K TRIP TO AFRICA BY FORMER MAYOR FUNDED BY INVEST ATLANTA

Two months ago, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms ordered an outside review of a payment by a city-tied nonprofit to cover luxury airfare for former Mayor Kasim Reed and staffers  who traveled to South Africa last year on a costly jobs mission.

At issue is a $40,000 payment by a dormant nonprofit group called Partners for Prosperity, the fund-raising arm of city economic development agency Invest Atlanta.

A federal grand jury subpoenaed the city in April seeking records related to the charity and Invest Atlanta CEO Eloisa Klementich. The demand for records came after the AJC and Channel 2 outlined an unusual transaction  in which the city donated $40,000 to the nonprofit, which later wrote a check for the same amount to the city to pay for the business class tickets to South Africa.

In spring of 2017, Reed and several staffers flew business class to South Africa to learn about filmmaking, urban agriculture and to recruit jobs. Reed caught flack for the high cost of the trip — about $90,000 — and promised to find nongovernmental funds to pay the $40,000 difference between coach and business-class airfare.

In April, after an open records request by the AJC, the city provided records showing the little-known Partners for Prosperity covered the airfare difference. It was the first check the nonprofit ever wrote.

But officials with Reed’s office didn’t inform council that the money would be used to pay for airfare he promised would be covered by private sources.