Schools

Gwinnett DA May Probe GCPS Land Deals

Top prosecutor may do his own investigation or ask a grand jury to look into the purchases.

The Gwinnett County District Attorney said Thursday that he may do a preliminary investigation of land purchases by the or see if a grand jury wants to look into the matter.

Danny Porter, the county's top prosecutor, said that news reports showing that GCPS deals gave some developers large, quick profits—as much as $1 million in one day, in one case—might warrant a check of possible bribery.

"I'm considering my options," Porter said. "One is to open my own investigation. I was hoping the school system would open their own investigation, but it looks like they are not willing to do that."

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He said another option is to "do nothing, but that is not viable." Porter also could ask the current grand jury to look into possible criminal misconduct, or ask a Superior Court judge to impanel a special grand jury.

Porter would be looking at whether there was some type of collusion involving land developers to raise the price of the parcels that the system bought. That process would involve someone in the school system releasing information about possible land deals. Noting that such information theoretically could come from anyone in the system, Porter said it could be a matter of "where do I start."

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The land-deals report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution also has prompted GCPS Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks to ask the Gwinnett school board to review the system's site acquisition policy. Currently, GCPS does not allow its five-member board to vote on individual land purchases. It allows Chief Operating Officer Jim Steele to buy the "most suitable" piece of land after he presents the board with three possible sites.

Porter said he will approach the 23-member grand jury next week to see if it is interested in investigating the matter.

Three of the land purchases in the news report fell in the district represented by GCPS board member Daniel Seckinger. The fourth was in the district represented by board member Carol Boyce.

Steve Burns is the local editor for Suwanee Patch


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