Grand jury seeks shake-up of Gwinnett commission

By David Wickert

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A grand jury that already has indicted one Gwinnett County commissioner and forced another from office wants to remake the commission and change the way the county buys land.

The jury’s 58-page report contains a host of recommendations to address problems that, the jurors say, allowed commissioners to reward political allies at taxpayers’ expense. They range from mundane suggestions like improving communication to more sweeping proposals like expanding the Board of Commissioners or making the positions full time.

The grand jury’s recommendations already are sparking debate among residents who say county government is broken. Some are organizing to ensure something changes.

“It’s up to the citizens to continue putting the pressure on [public officials] to follow through,” said Duluth resident Elise Whitworth. “After all, we pay their salaries. They work for us.”

The grand jury released its report Oct. 26 after a 10-month investigation, which was prompted by a series of Atlanta Journal-Constitution articles on questionable land deals last year.

Jurors probed five county land purchases, finding fault with four of them. The report claims commissioners used some purchases to reward political allies and punish rivals. It says the county routinely paid 10 percent above appraised value for land, even after the real estate market tanked.

The result: Taxpayers spent millions of dollars more for some land than it was worth.

The jury indicted Commissioner Kevin Kenerly for accepting or agreeing to accept $1 million to win the approval of one purchase. Jurors decided not to indict Chairman Charles Bannister for perjury after he offered to resign.

The report does more than detail allegations of wrongdoing. It offers 14 recommendations for preventing similar acts in the future. Among them:

Reorganize county government: The Board of Commissioners consists of a full-time chairman elected countywide and four part-time commissioners elected by district. A majority of the grand jury favors making all commissioners full time.

Full-time commissioners would be more engaged and could be “better informed and make better decisions,” the report states. Although it would cost more, “if just one of the land transactions we investigated could have been prevented by a wiser decision, that would more than pay for the salaries of full-time commissioners,” the report says.

Beth Brown, communications director for the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, said she is not aware of any Georgia county with full-time commissioners. Some, like Gwinnett, have full-time commission chairmen.

The starting annual pay for Gwinnett’s four part-time commissioners is $29,800. The starting pay for Gwinnett’s full-time chairman is $58,342.

A minority of jurors favored another approach: keep commissioners part time but increase the number of commissioners. Smaller districts would reduce commissioners’ workload and provide better representation of each district, jurors say.

End “district courtesy”: When commissioners consider land purchases, zoning changes and other matters, they usually defer to the commissioner representing the district in which the transaction occurs.

The grand jury report says the long-standing practice gives too much power to individual commissioners and is “at the root of the problems” with the land deals it examined. It recommends an end to district courtesy for park purchases and other large transactions.

Ethics reform: The county’s ethics ordinance has not been significantly revised since commissioners approved it in 1993. Jurors say it should be reviewed and updated as needed every two years. The ordinance should include “full disclosure of business interests and prohibitions against receiving gifts or other things of value,” the report says.

Among other things, the current ordinance prohibits county officials and employees from having a financial interest in county contracts. But there’s an exception for contracts that are awarded through competitive bidding. Public employees may accept gifts worth less than $100, according to the code, which does not require officials to report such gifts.

The report also contains recommendations for improving Gwinnett’s land-buying procedures, including an end to the practice of offering 10 percent above appraised value and recording commission executive sessions to document what takes place.

The proposal to reshuffle the commission is not a new idea. Nine years ago some residents led an effort to expand the commission to six members. The proposal died in the Legislature.

Staff writer Andria Simmons contributed to this article.

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Meet our reporter

Staff writer David Wickert covers Gwinnett County government. He came to the AJC in June from The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., where he worked for 12 years. Previously he worked at newspapers in Illinois, Virginia and Tennessee. He and his wife, Shelly, have two children and a cat named Muffin. They live in the Mountain Park area of Gwinnett County. You can reach him at 770-263-3062 or dwickert@ajc.com