After 21 years working for DeKalb County, Sanitation and Beautification Director Tracy Hutchinson is resigning the day after Thanksgiving. But Hutchinson said she was forced out Aug. 8 and has not been working since.
The county’s public works director, Rick Lemke, is acting as sanitation director, said a county spokesperson, who declined to comment further.
Hutchinson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week that the county’s chief operating officer, Zach Williams, called her into his office Aug. 8 and gave her two options: be terminated or resign under the terms of a “transition agreement” the county had drawn up. Hutchinson chose the latter.
Hutchinson said she was not given a reason for being ousted. She said Williams told her DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson, who took office in January, wanted to go in a different direction.
Hutchinson said she was not evaluated or disciplined prior to the meeting. In response to an AJC request under the Georgia Open Records Act, the county said it had no evaluations or disciplinary records for Hutchinson in the past five years.
“I sacrificed 21 years of my life to DeKalb,” Hutchinson said. “It’s just so disrespectful.”
In Williams’ office, Hutchinson said, she cried and asked if she could work normally through the transition period, announce her retirement toward the end and keep their conversation confidential. She said she never received an answer and the county cut off her access to email that day.
Her account is similar to that of former DeKalb County Police Chief Mirtha Ramos, who said she was pushed out in February with no reason given.
Hutchinson will be paid her regular salary through Nov. 28, according to the transition agreement, which the AJC obtained under the Georgia Open Records Act. Her annual salary is about $202,000, county records show.
Hutchinson, 55, worked for 10 years for the national corporation Waste Management before joining DeKalb County in 2004. She was promoted in 2017 to sanitation director, becoming the first woman to hold the position in DeKalb.
Hutchinson had 640 employees as director. A countywide operations assessment released this summer by the advisory firm Mauldin & Jenkins gave the sanitation division a rating of 4 out of 5, calling it “efficient and effective.”
“Staff are pleased with division leadership and feel that they have the support of management,” the audit said.
Hutchinson said many of the sanitation workers have little education, and the division was known as a “second chance” employer for people with criminal records. She said she established a program to help workers earn high school equivalency certifications and made calls on her own time to help them get housing and food.
“I look at sanitation employees as a priority, being their voice and advocating for them and having the most respect for them,” she said. “That’s why I love my job, so that’s why I was so hurt.”
The division landed in the County Commission’s crosshairs two years ago as recycling collections plummeted while residents reported workers dumping recycling and trash simultaneously into the same truck. Recycling more than tripled soon after the AJC witnessed a crew commingling trash and recycling and wrote about the problem.
Years earlier, as COVID-19 decimated the division’s ranks, Hutchinson said she told workers to collect everything from the curb on time so recyclables didn’t sit out for weeks. She said she didn’t explicitly tell them to mix recycling with trash.
Hutchinson told commissioners in 2023 she didn’t know why recycling collections had dropped by more than half in the prior two years. She didn’t inform them of her previous directive.
“I can probably own that one,” she said.
Hutchinson said the department two years ago re-educated work crews on the process. The county also added six trucks, which can be driven by people without a commercial driver’s license, exclusively for recycling.
DeKalb County’s independent auditor found last year that 38% of recycling material collected by the county was contaminated, a higher-than-average rate. The Mauldin & Jenkins assessment recommended the county come up with plans to address the findings.
The external assessment listed two high-priority recommendations for the sanitation division: continued implementation of technology to optimize routes and monitor driving practices, and a study to compare pay against the private sector.
Hutchinson said she will retire from DeKalb County but she is not sure her career is over. She said she used to work more than 60 hours a week. Her alarm still goes off at 5 a.m. every day.
“It’s been a hard pill to swallow,” she said. “Every morning I wake up, there’s a little piece of my mind that goes to DeKalb sanitation.”
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
