DECATUR — The chief executive officer of one of Georgia’s largest counties, who is facing multiple corruption charges made public Tuesday, says that he’s done nothing wrong. DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis made a brief statement Tuesday night, hours after a 15-count indictment alleged that he threatened to withhold county business from companies that didn’t contribute to his campaign. On Tuesday night, Ellis surrendered to authorities and was released on a $25,000 bond. “I do want to make one statement emphatically to the good people of DeKalb County that I’ve done nothing wrong as I’ve said from the very beginning,” he told reporters at his home in Stone Mountain. “I would never, ever, ever do anything to violate the public trust,” he added. The indictment accuses Ellis of trying to extort campaign contributions from companies and their employees. The indictment also alleges that Ellis instructed the county’s director of purchasing and contracting to prevent certain companies from getting business because they didn’t respond to his solicitations and didn’t contribute to his campaign. Ellis’ lawyer, J. Tom Morgan, said by email Tuesday evening that he was reviewing the indictment. The indictment is the latest in a series of challenges facing the county, which includes many of Atlanta’s eastern and northeastern suburbs. Earlier this year, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal removed six of the nine members of the DeKalb County school board following harsh criticism by the school system’s accrediting agency. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools had placed the school district on probation after a six-month investigation. The accreditation agency cited long-term leadership issues including nepotism, fiscal mismanagement, inappropriate micromanagement and intimidation within the district, which is Georgia’s third-largest. If Ellis is suspended, that would make him the seventh elected official in the county to be in that situation since March. According to the indictment, Ellis tried in February 2012 to get a campaign contribution from a company called Ciber Inc., and an employee there. Ellis allegedly threatened the employee, saying he would contact the company’s CEO to say the county wouldn’t be giving him their business anymore because of the employee’s poor customer service, the indictment says. A spokeswoman for Ciber said Wednesday the company is aware of the investigation and has cooperated with authorities. She declined to comment further since the case is ongoing. In another case, the indictment alleges, Ellis threatened to withhold county business from Power and Energy Services, Inc., after two company officers didn’t respond to his campaign contribution requests and a third said the company wouldn’t give money in June 2012. Then in September, the indictment says, he instructed Kelvin Walton, the county director of purchasing and contracting, not to give the company any more work and to put a note in its file saying the firm didn’t return phone calls. In October, Ellis told Walton to prevent the National Property Institute, LLC, from receiving work from the county because the company didn’t respond to his requests for campaign contributions and didn’t send money, the indictment says. Because the company didn’t respond, Ellis ordered a county employee to arrange for and attend a meeting with the company during her working hours, the indictment says. Representatives Power and Energy and NPI couldn’t immediately be reached. At some point between Nov. 1, 2011, and Nov. 30, 2012, the indictment alleges, Ellis ordered Walton to use county board of commission meeting agendas and county purchasing and contract information and data to create lists of vendors that had county contracts. Three county contract assistants helped him create those lists. Walton and the three assistants did these tasks during working hours while being paid by the company, but the lists were meant to be used by Ellis to solicit campaign contributions, the indictment says. Walton is not under indictment and he did not immediately return a call seeking comment Tuesday evening. Ellis faces a variety of charges, including criminal attempt to commit theft by extortion, conspiracy in restraint of free and open competition, and theft by taking, among others. The office of county Commissioner Elaine Boyer said the commissioners were meeting individually with the county attorney for briefings on the situation and to determine what their next steps should be. “This is a sad day for DeKalb County,” DeKalb County Commissioner Lee May said in a statement on Wednesday. “While every person is clearly innocent until proven guilty, this ongoing saga has been a distraction and continues to bring unwelcome negative publicity to our county and government,” May said. Ellis was elected to a second term as county CEO in November. If Ellis resigns or is removed from office, the county election superintendent will have to call for a special election to replace him within 15 days, according to the county organizational act. The special election would have to be held no fewer than 29 days and no more than 45 days after the call. The presiding officer of the commission would fill in until a new CEO is elected. If Ellis remains in office, state law requires the governor to form a three-person panel to consider whether he should be suspended once the district attorney’s office sends him a copy of the indictment.

The Associated Press NEW YORK — Men’s Wearhouse doesn’t like the way its founder looks anymore. The men’s clothier said Wednesday that it has fired the face of the company and its executive chairman, George Zimmer, 64, who appeared in many of its TV commercials with the slogan “You’re going to like the way you look. I guarantee it.” The company announced the move in a terse statement that gave no reason for the abrupt firing of Zimmer, who built Men’s Wearhouse Inc. from one small Texas store using a cigar box as a cash register to one of the North America’s largest men’s clothing sellers with 1,143 locations. The firing appears to end the career of one of TV’s most recognizable pitchmen. Zimmer’s slogan became almost a cultural touchstone, and his natty but down-to-earth charm made dressing sharply feel more accessible to men. Zimmer said in a written statement that over the past several months he and the company’s board disagreed about the company’s direction. “Over the last 40 years, I have built The Men’s Wearhouse into a multi-billion dollar company with amazing employees and loyal customers who value the products and service they receive at The Men’s Wearhouse,” he said in a statement. But he noted that “instead of fostering the kind of dialogue in the boardroom that has, in part, contributed to our success, the board has inappropriately chosen to silence my concerns by terminating me as an executive officer.” The bad blood spooked investors, who drove Men’s Wearhouse’s stock down 53 cents to $36.94. The stock is still near its 52-week high of $38.59 and ended Tuesday up about 20 percent since the start of the year. Beyond creating a successful company, Zimmer is known as something of a cowboy in the business world. He brought in spiritual leader Deepak Chopra as a member of the company’s board in 2004. He put his fortune to work behind California’s failed Proposition 19 in 2010, which would have legalized marijuana in California, where he lived. And Men’s Wearhouse didn’t conduct background checks on new hires because Zimmer believed that everyone deserves a second chance. “He’s one of a kind,” said Richard Jaffe, a Stifel Nicolaus analyst. “He’s an entrepreneurial visionary. ... He made looking terrific available for every man in America.” Zimmer declined to comment for the article through his personal publicist beyond the statement. Calls to company executives and board members were immediately referred to a company spokesperson, who declined to comment beyond the release. Jaffe speculated that Zimmer, who handed over his title as CEO to Douglas Ewert in 2011, may have had difficulty in letting go of the company’s reins. “Clearly, something happened abruptly and fairly dramatically,” he said. Jaffe also speculated that perhaps the company was looking for a new spokesman so it could target younger shoppers. Like many clothing retailers, Men’s Wearhouse saw its sales and profits battered during the Great Recession, but over the last two years the company’s business has been recovering. For the latest year ending Feb. 2, the company’s revenue rose 4.4 percent to $2.48 billion. Net income rose 5.3 percent to $131.7 million. The firing comes a week after Men’s Wearhouse reported that its fiscal first-quarter profit increased 23 percent. Three months ago, the company said it was conducting a strategic review of its K&G store division, which it acquired in 1999. The division, which accounts for about 15 percent of the company’s total revenue, is very promotional and has seen its business decline. Jaffe speculated that deciding what to do with that division could have been a point of contention. Still, a few other analysts and experts in executive recruiting said privately that the ousting could be something more than just wrangling over the direction of the company and pointed out that the timing of the announcement was odd. It happened the morning the company’s annual shareholder meeting had been set to take place. The company delayed the meeting but didn’t give a new date. The company said the purpose of postponing the annual meeting is to re-nominate the existing board of directors without Zimmer. It said the board expects to discuss with Zimmer the extent, if any, and terms of “his ongoing relationship” with the company, language that seemed to leave a small window open for him to remain an advertising spokesman. Also highlighting the suddenness of the firing: The company’s website still prominently spotlighted Zimmer for much of Wednesday, calling him “The Man Behind The Brand” and linking to YouTube videos of “the man in action.” The pages were still available by midafternoon, though a prominent link from the site’s front page had been removed. “This is very rare to fire a founder. Founders are generally entrenched in the company,” said Eleanor Bloxham, CEO of The Value Alliance, a board advisory firm. In 1971, fresh out of college, Zimmer made his first foray into the clothing industry, working in Hong Kong for six months as a salesman for his father’s coat manufacturing business, according to the company website. In 1973, he and his college roommate opened the first Men’s Wearhouse store, which sold $10 slacks and $25 polyester sport coats, in Houston. His personal car was a van with the company logo on the side and clothing racks in the back. The company aired its first TV commercial in the 1970s when commercials for clothing were rare. Zimmer starred in his first commercial in 1986, with the line “I guarantee it.” Men’s Wearhouse kept expanding, focusing on large markets where business was sluggish to take advantage of lower real estate costs. It also expanded beyond sports coats and trousers to casual sportswear in the 1980s and then went into the tuxedo rental business in 2000. The company went public in 1992, and the company has been cited by Fortune magazine as one of the top 100 best companies to work for. Zimmer owned 1.8 million shares of Men’s Wearhouse as of the company’s May 9 proxy filing, a 3.5 percent stake. The company, based in Fremont, Calif., also runs the Moores retail chains. It also sells uniform and work wear in the U.S. and U.K.