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Thursday, February 21, 2008
Cagle: Attack on Cousins Properties chief is ‘political nonsense.’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After reading today’s post about Senate approval of an amendment that would oust Cousin Properties CEO Tom Bell from the Grady Hospital Authority board, an angry-sounding Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle disavowed the action with this statement:
“Any allegation that Tom Bell and the other business leaders working to save Grady have done anything other than selflessly volunteer large amounts of time to save a critical indigent care hospital is ridiculous.
“Anyone spreading rumors to the contrary should be ashamed of themselves. This is exactly the kind of political nonsense that has plagued Grady for years, and it’s time for it to end.”
The amendment was to S.B. 353 sponsored by Sen. David Shafer of Duluth.
S.B. 353 is a conflict-of-interest bill that many thought was aimed at state Rep. Pam Stephenson (D-Decatur), who is currently acting as Grady’s CEO and is also chairman of the board that oversees the hospital.
The amendment affecting Bell was offered up by state Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta), a strong critic of the effort to push the charity hospital into private management. But Republicans knew what they were doing — the amendment was co-signed by Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams (R-Lyons).
Shortly after we got Cagle’s message, Shafer sent us this:
“I drew up the bill in consultation with the Lieutenant Governor’s office long before the names of any prospective nonprofit directors were announced. The bill lays out common sense principles and were absolutely not crafted with anyone in mind. I cannot speak to Sen. Fort’s motives, but it is hard to argue with the content of his amendment. I have confidence in Pete Correll and his team.”
Blogwatch: Explaining that vote to table H.R. 536
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This week’s vote to table H.R. 536, the proposed “human life amendment” aimed at overturning Roe v. Wade, was both volatile — and, in many quarters, anticipated.
Blog for Democracy came across evidence of both.
It’s a lengthy, well-written e-mail — which obviously took some time to compose — that state Rep. Ed Lindsey (R-Atlanta) sent to his constituents shortly after the House subcommittee that Lindsey chaired consigned the bill to limbo on Wednesday evening.
The Lindsey e-mail is worth reading in its entirety, but here’s part of it:
“Law professors from each of the accredited law schools in Georgia … testified that the Human Life Amendment will have no impact on Roe v. Wade and, instead, will itself likely be struck down.
“The problem is simple. The federal constitution takes precedence in this country over state constitutions and Roe v. Wade is based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the federal constitution. In other words, if you want to overturn Roe v. Wade by constitutional action, you need to amend the U.S. Constitution and not our state constitution….
“An attorney on behalf of the Georgia Right to Life eloquently and forthrightly acknowledged in the final day of the committee hearings that the purpose of HLA is to end all abortions in Georgia. This included abortions for rape, incest or most other reasons except for the life of the woman.
“I do not believe that most of our state’s citizens — including many of us who have deep moral concerns about abortion — are prepared to go that far in mandating state action on the subject.”
An attempt to remove the head of Cousins Properties from the Grady board
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A wave of legislation aimed at Grady Memorial Hospital passed the Senate on Thursday, including S.B. 353 sponsored by Sen. David Shafer of Duluth.
S.B. 353 is a conflict-of-interest bill that many thought was aimed at state Rep. Pam Stephenson (D-Decatur), who is currently acting as Grady’s CEO and is also chairman of the board that oversees the hospital.
But wait.
State Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta), a strong critic of the Grady transformation to private management, added a little ol’ amendment that breezed right through the chamber. His co-sponsor was Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams (R-Lyons), which helps explain the greased track.
“All this does is strengthen what [Shafer] is attempting to do,” Fort told his colleagues. In the Legislature, this is a loaded phrase that means the exact opposite. Kind of like a bull pawing the ground, or a rattler shaking its tail.
The amendment, now part of the bill, says:
“No individual shall be eligible to serve in a governing capacity of a public hospital if that individual is an employee or director of or has a financial interest in a competitor of the public hospital.”
That description fits Tom Bell, chairman of the board and CEO of Cousins Properties. According to the company’s web site, Cousins — with its partner Emory University — owns 50 percent of the Emory Crawford Long Medical Office Tower.
We asked Fort who his amendment targeted. He wouldn’t supply a specific name. But he said this: “How can anyone sit on a board when they have an interest in a competitor down the street?”
Ethics complaint filed against governor, Perdue PAC
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bobby Kahn, the former chairman of the state Democratic party, has filed a complaint to the State Ethics Commission, accusing Gov. Sonny Perdue of failing to file an end-of-year report for Perdue PAC.
Perdue PAC is a 527, which means it can accept contributions of any amount.
Kahn says an end-of-year report should show money from contributions from at least three givers, who have noted their gifts elsewhere on the web site:
— $10,000 from AirTran Airways;
— $1,000 from Survey and Mapping PAC;
— and $25,000 from Donald Leebern. who owns liquor distributorships in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. Leebern is a member of the Board of Regents, and has been a heavy contributor to Perdue’s political campaigns.
Seriously, about that border war: If we’re to raise troops, we’ll need stronger editorial support
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After the singing of “This Land Is My Land” was done, the paired resolutions — passed by the Legislature on Wednesday — that demand the Tennessee-Georgia border be moved one mile north landed with dull thuds outside Atlanta.
This paragraph appeared in an Albany Herald editorial:
It would certainly be a convenient quick fix for the Atlanta region, which is suffering from a drought that hasn’t ended despite some welcome rain this winter. For the average Atlantan, it certainly beats the starch out of concepts such as conservation, sending growth to other parts of Georgia and living within your means.
And the Athens Banner-Herald was even harsher, especially toward David Shafer, author of the Senate resolution:
As one man’s quixotic quest, the effort to get Georgia’s northern border moved one mile farther north was an entertaining diversion from the more routine motifs of pettifoggery and pandering that dominate the annual sessions of the Georgia legislature….
It’s possible that the Shafer-led bid for access to the Tennessee River isn’t, as he suggests it could be, a long-term solution to Georgia’s water problems. At best, given the likelihood of lengthy legislative and legal wrangling, the boundary initiative might be a long, long, long-term solution to those problems.
Yet, Wednesday’s vote gives Shafer and every other state senator the opportunity to go home at the end of the legislative session and start campaigning for re-election at least partly on the claim that they’re doing something to address Georgia’s drought-related issues.
The truth, however, is that Senate Resolution 822 isn’t likely to do anything at all about those issues.
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