Officials failing to disclose finances

By Jim Walls

For the AJC

As Georgia’s inspector general, Elizabeth Archer roots out waste, corruption and favoritism in state government.

So, Archer said, it was a bit of an embarrassment last month to learn she hadn’t filed her 2008 disclosure of personal finances. The one required by state law.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve always done this,’ ” she said. “It’s just one of those things.”

Archer filed the disclosure Jan. 14, shortly after a complaint was lodged. But hundreds of other government officials — legislators, department heads, men and women serving on boards and commissions — still haven’t submitted disclosures that were due last July. Countless politicians also failed to report their campaign finances on time — or at all.

The disclosures are supposed to help Georgians figure out whether an official’s business or investment interests — or those of campaign supporters with deep pockets — might conflict with his or her public duties. Without that information, voters who care about such things are casting ballots in the dark.

DeKalb County school board member Gene Walker, for example, raised about $20,000 in 2008 from campaign donors associated with the Sembler Co. as it sought a multimillion-dollar tax break from another county board that Walker chaired. Walker disclosed those donations two days after winning the school board seat.

Georgia lawmakers, following the resignation of House Speaker Glenn Richardson, are tossing around dozens of ideas to toughen ethics laws and penalties for violators. Perhaps most important, good government groups say, is setting aside enough money to make sure the law has teeth.

“It doesn’t really matter what the laws are if they can’t be enforced,” said Bill Bozarth, executive director of Common Cause of Georgia.

The State Ethics Commission, which is responsible for enforcing Georgia’s disclosure laws, is much more judicious in pursuing violators since lawmakers slashed its budget by one-third last year. The agency had to lay people off, move into tighter quarters and cancel a contract with a vendor that mailed out collection notices.

Today, the agency opens an investigation when it gets a complaint of a disclosure violation. But, unless the issue is one of significant public concern, it is less likely to open one on its own, interim executive secretary Tom Plank said. “Whether [legislators] meant it that way or not, it’s essentially a way to neuter the enforcement capability,” Bozarth said. “If the commission had the resources, they could really bring a lot more people into compliance.”

Now, Plank said, if candidates don’t disclose the required information, “we can’t even mail them a letter.”

The Ethics Commission e-mails delinquent filers — if it has a valid e-mail address for them — and lists them in an online database. Plank said that public disclosure, more so than financial penalties, encourages delinquents to get their reports in.

For local offices, the commission relies on city clerks and county employees to report non-compliance with disclosure laws. That practice requires some local election supervisors to turn in their bosses.

“Some are pretty good. Some are awful,” Plank said. Sometimes local officials take years to report late or missing disclosures, he added.

State law caps the late fee for violators at $75 — hardly a deterrent. What happens if you don’t pay it? Usually, nothing.

Court costs forced the commission to stop collection efforts for unpaid fines of less than $1,000, Plank said.

More than $229,000 in unpaid late fees had accumulated as of last summer, records show. Today, Plank said, the past-due amount is “probably about the same.”

Bozarth, of Common Cause, believes the current budget crisis demonstrates why the commission needs a dedicated revenue stream — fines, perhaps, or registration fees paid by lobbyists and candidates. Regardless, he said, Georgia must take ethics enforcers’ budget out of the hands of legislators.

Until that happens, Bozarth said, “the funding, of course, is controlled by the people who are being investigated.”

Jim Walls, retired investigations editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, runs the watchdog news Web site AtlantaUnfiltered.com.