The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Indicted official had role in valuing county property
Longtime member of board of assessors charged with bribery.
The indicted former head of Lilburn’s Downtown Development Authority was also a prominent member for more than two decades of the Gwinnett County board that determines land values.
Norman Nash, who was indicted on bribery charges involving land deals in Lilburn, is still listed as chair of the county Board of Assessors. A member of the board, Burt Manning, said Friday that Nash had not been at the last meeting and had resigned from his role.
Steve Pruitt, Gwinnett’s former chief appraiser, said Nash had been on the board since at least 1998, when Pruitt came to the county. Pruitt described Nash as “a very nice guy and very professional.” Pruitt said he did not think any member of the Board of Assessors, including Nash, had the ability to manipulate land values.
“He’s just one of five members,” Pruitt said.
But others had concerns about Nash’s influence.
Nash, along with broker David Kennedy and Doug Stacks, the former assistant city manager in Lilburn, were indicted on 16 counts of bribery among them, as part of a scheme that allegedly defrauded the city.
The charges includes deals that took place between Novem
ber 2014 and December 2018. While the incidents laid out there total more than $228,000, an Atlanta Journal-constitution investigation shows the group appears to have netted more than $640,000 through land deals, much of it at the city’s expense.
Hugh Wilkerson, a member of the Lilburn Downtown Development Authority, said Nash’s role on the county board had always bothered him — even before the indictment. Nash’s family owned a lot of land throughout the county, Wilkerson said, and he always thought Nash’s position on the board that values property in Gwinnett was a conflict of interest.
“I don’t know if he did anything bad or wrong,” Wilkerson said. “I just thought that was not good . ... In light of what has all happened, it makes you think about it.”
Mike Beaudreau, a former Gwinnett County commissioner who beat Stacks in a 2008 runoff, said he trusted Pruitt — but that there was
“obviously a concern” with Nash’s tenure on the board.
“It begs the question,” Beaudreau said. “It’s just an accusation, but certainly it’s a troubling accusation.”
Part of Nash’s alleged plan — buying land then reselling it to the Downtown Development Authority the same day, for a profit — echoes a scheme that ensnared some of Beaudreau’s former commission colleagues. The former chair, Charles Bannister, was also a former mayor of Lilburn. Bannister was close with Nash’s son, Jim Nash.
“There’s an awful lot of connections,” Beaudreau said. “You’d think folks would learn. It’s awful. It’s just another stain on our community.”
Danny Porter, the former Gwinnett County district attorney who investigated Nash and others, said he did not know about Nash’s county role, but that others in his office might have. He said as far as he knew, any dealings with the Board of Assessors were not part of the investigation.
The current district attorney, Patsy Austin-gatson,
said she is aware of Nash’s role there, but didn’t want to comment because there is an ongoing investigation.
Lilburn City Manager Bill Johnsa said he was not “unconcerned” by Nash’s county role, but that he thought land values would be hard to manipulate.
Manning, the member of the Board of Assessors, said he hadn’t seen Nash taking advantage during his three years on the board.
Like Pruitt, Manning said Nash would not have been able to control other board members as they decided whether county employees had appropriately valued land across Gwinnett.
“I hadn’t even considered it,” Manning said. “Nothing’s come to light. I am truly not expecting anything we need to look at in that manner.”
Such boards have layers of checks and balances to ensure there is no wrongdoing, said Salma Ahmed, a member of Fulton County’s Board of Assessors and its former chair.
“You’d have to convince other people on the board,” she said. “You’d have to subvert it at every level.”
When NBA referee Tom Washington told his mom, Mildred, a North Carolina A&T graduate, that this year’s All-star Game would feature HBCUS and he’d be working the game, she was blown away.
“It’s almost like traditionally, we’ve carried that HBCU torch, and I told her about it, and she was ecstatic to find out about it and said, ‘That’s awesome,’” Washington said.
In his 30th season, Washington, a graduate of Norfolk State, will be officiating his third AllStar Game, joining two other HBCU graduates: Courtney Kirkland (21st season), an alumnus of Southern University, and Tony Brown (19th season), an alum of Clark Atlanta University. Kirkland and Brown will work their second All-star Games.
The NBA is featuring HBCUS leading to and throughout this year’s All-star Game, which will take place Sunday at State Farm Arena. Combined with several corporate partners, the league announced it will provide more than $3 million in funds to HBCUS via the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), UNCF (United Negro College Fund) and Direct Relief ’s Fund for Health Equity.
For Washington, it’s special for the league to highlight HBCUS in this way and reinforce how important they are as institutions.
“It’s really pretty special, when you stop and think about it,” Washington said. “I think the importance of HBCUS, historically, is the opportunity that it’s given a lot of people of color to educate themselves and prepare themselves for life that the history of it is, they didn’t always
‘It’s not Black history, it’s American history, and we’re all in a big melting pot ...’
Tony Brown
NBA referee
have those opportunities. So arose these schools to be able to give them opportunity and to continue that.
“I think sometimes what gets lost in it, there’s really the same quality of education that’s still going on in these schools. They may have been at one time thought of as being lesser, and I think that has dissipated so much now. … Keeping that tradition and keeping them relevant even in these times is very cool.”
There are a few different ways the league will tie in financial contributions to this year’s All-star night, with all activities, including the game, compressed into a onenight affair.
During the All-star Game, the Western Conference and Eastern Conference teams will play for either TMCF (47 publicly supported HBCUS) or UNCF (37 member colleges), which will provide scholarship funding (each organization will receive $500,000, the leading team’s organization will receive an additional $150,000 after each of the first three quarters, and the fourth quarter will be worth $300,000).
Similar donations will be made throughout the night, with participants in the dunk contest paired with HBCUS, and through the TMCF COVID-19 HBCU Emergency Fund, financial support will be provided “that will benefit students, faculty or programs that address emergency aid, technology needs, food insecurities and mental-health services exacerbated by the pandemic.”
Those resources are crucial, Kirkland said, so HBCUS can have critical resources and infrastructure in place.
“I’m prideful because I’m prideful of being part of two organizations,” Kirkland said. “I’m prideful of being part of an organization that is on the receiving end of such an endowment, but I’m also proud to be a part of an organization that is on the giving end of it, and I think that’s what this is all about. I think it is about being able to give. … But sometimes there are those that need. So when you’re in need and you receive, then you’re next responsibility is to then give, and I think that’s how this world should operate.”
For Brown, the NBA highlighting HBCUS will give them a bigger platform so they can be appreciated and understood by a bigger audience.
“I know for me, and just speaking from being a Black male, it’s empowering to know and believe that for one, what Clark instilled in me is that I could do anything, and it provided such a learning and a socializing environment that I was able to interact with people who look like me, and culturally are like me, and it was a positive experience,” Brown said.
“I think the thing, what makes what’s the NBA doing so special, is that they just want to bring attention that this is all American history. It’s not Black history, it’s American history, and we’re all in a big melting pot, and I just think it gives an opportunity for people to have a light shed on something different than what they know, because it’s clearly about not knowing. You have to know in order to appreciate it, and unfortunately, a lot of the HBCUS have not been given the opportunity to be spotlighted and showcased, and I think this is a step in the right direction.”