Smith tries to cut off 2nd government check

By Jim Walls

For the AJC

Rep. Bob Smith may be the Maytag repairman of the Georgia General Assembly. He’s taken on the lonely task of trying to cut off the second government paycheck collected by some of his colleagues.

If lawmakers are truly interested in passing ethics reform bills, says the six-term Republican, “this has to be one of them.”

Smith is the one and only sponsor of HB 1116, which would forbid lawmakers from receiving any compensation from local governments in their districts. (School boards would be exempt.)

The intent, he says, is to prevent the perception that cities or counties can exert “undue influence” by hiring a lawmaker.

Smith offers this hypothetical example: “I’m a legislator [and] I go to my county at home and say I want to be on the payroll for whatever reason. ... They may think, ‘He may not carry local legislation the way we’d like it to be carried if I don’t hire him for this position.’ ”

Officials often need local lawmakers’ consent for pay raises, new powers or other changes in local government. Generally, those bills will pass the full Senate or House as long as members who represent that jurisdiction support them.

Smith, a real estate broker from Watkinsville, refrains from singling out anyone who would be affected by the bill. But, he acknowledges, “I’m coming to find out there’s a lot of angst on this.”

Legislators earn a little more than $17,000 a year for part-time service. Per diem can add up to another $10,000 or so.

Many members are lawyers with private practices, some of which work for local governments. Former House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s law firm, for one, was on retainer for years as attorneys for Paulding County.

But it’s not just lawyers:

● Rep. Tim Bearden (R-Villa Rica) pocketed about $100,000 during the past four years as a consultant to the city of Carrollton, which is not in his district. (The mayor, former state Sen. Wayne Garner, happens to be a lobbyist at the state Capitol.)

● Rep. Howard Mosby (D-Atlanta) serves as a vice president of the parent organization over Grady Memorial Hospital, which collects millions in subsidies from Fulton and DeKalb counties and about $300 million a year from the state. His House colleague, Pam Stephenson (D-Decatur), ran Grady as CEO for seven months in 2008 under a $600,000-a-year contract.

House Judiciary Chairman Wendell Willard, a key figure in ethics reform, also serves as city attorney for Sandy Springs, which pays his firm $396,000 a year plus litigation costs as needed.

Willard said he’s not convinced of the need to restrict that income.

“If I had a conflict there, I’d be the first one to step back and say we ought to re-examine this,” he said. “Frankly, I haven’t seen what the wrong is that needs to be rectified.”

Currently, there’s no easy way to know if a legislator is on a local government’s payroll. Lawmakers must disclose annual payments of $20,000 or more from state agencies, but officials say nothing compels them to reveal transactions with cities or counties. The State Ethics Commission in January dismissed a complaint that Bearden failed to disclose the Carrollton payments.

City Manager Casey Coleman acknowledged last week that Bearden, a former Douglasville police officer, worked without a contract or any written work product.

“Did he build a house for us? No,” Coleman said in an interview. “Did he create some good will in community policing and do some good projects for us? Yes.”

Willard noted that former Attorney General Mike Bowers issued an opinion that a legislator’s work for a local government did not necessarily constitute a conflict.

But Smith believes his colleagues should heed another point of view.

“Many times, the court of public opinion far outweighs any legal opinion you may hear,” Smith said. “The perception outweighs the truth sometimes.”

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