GBI investigation of Carrollton Mayor ends with no charges

ATLANTA (FOX 5 Atlanta) - After a yearlong GBI investigation, the Carroll County District Attorney has decided not to seek criminal charges against the Carrollton Mayor.

Last year the FOX 5 I-Team reported Mayor Walt Hollingsworth’s family concrete company did business with the city and that Hollingsworth voted on projects in which the winning bidder later hired his family company

“I was thrilled. Relieved,” said Hollingsworth. “Didn't feel like we'd done anything wrong.”

In early 2018, then Carroll County District Attorney Pete Skandalakis asked the GBI to investigate whether the Mayor violated his oath of office by "selling more than $800 worth of concrete per quarter" or "voting on contracts in which he knew Hollingsworth Concrete was a sub-contractor."

“We were looking at the type of business that was being solicited, how that was going about, we wanted all that looked at,” Skandalakis told us at the time.

Skandalakis left to run the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council. And new District Attorney Herb Cranford took over the case.

The GBI investigation of Hollingsworth concrete's contracts with the city is now over. District Attorney Herb Cranford says he doesn't have enough evidence to file any criminal charges.

Cranford said the GBI found what the I-Team found. That Hollingsworth concrete did business with the city on a variety of projects either directly or as a sub-contractor. But, he discovered the Mayor's mother - who began the company with her husband in the 1950's - is the sole shareholder of the company.

“We learned he is just a salaried employee. So he did not get commissions or bonuses for sales of concrete. And, he's not a shareholder,” Cranford told us.

Cranford found no evidence that Mayor Hollingsworth pressured any city employees to hire his family's company directly. And Hollingsworth also bid on construction projects in which he ended up as a subcontractor for the winning bidder.

Cranford said Hollingsworth didn't always get picked to deliver concrete on those jobs. In fact, Cranford found winning bidders picked the Hollingsworth family business to provide concrete in only 4 of 12 contracts he examined.

“There was no evidence to show his vote had any relationship to Hollingsworth contracting making any money,” said Cranford

With a clean slate, Mayor Hollingsworth says he has learned some lessons about future construction projects in the city of Carrollton.

“If there is a construction project coming up, I need to be out of it. (So you won't vote on it) I won't vote on it,” he told me.

Mayor Hollingsworth says he is still researching whether his family business would continue to do work for the city directly.