Opinion could expand candidate disclosure requirements

By Christopher Quinn

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Questions of whether two north metro Atlanta political candidates listed all their real property in disclosure forms has spurred the State Ethics Commission to dig for an interpretation of the law.

State Rep. Calvin Hill (R-Canton) and Ralph J. "Pete" Amos, running for the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, own corporations that own commercial and home rental properties. In their disclosure forms, in which candidates must list personal holdings, both men list their companies. But Amos did not initially list dozens of homes and buildings his companies own.

Hill also does not list Cherokee and Fulton County properties owned by his companies, Gila Properties and Gila Distributing.

Georgia's Ethics in Government Act, written to make candidates be transparent, says they must list personal property or property in which they have "enjoyment of real or beneficial use."

Stacey Kalberman, Executive Secretary of the State Ethics Commission, said Wednesday afternoon she was parsing legal definitions of beneficial use in Georgia law.

"What is ‘beneficial ownership?'" she asked rhetorically. "I am trying to determine that. I can't answer that right now."

Hill also failed to list one rental house in Canton that tax records say belongs to him, though he said he thought he had deeded it to Gila Properties.

"I've never seen anything that says you need to provide a breakdown of assets of corporations you own," Hill said. "I have never seen anybody break down a disclosure in that way."

Hill said, "If there is a discrepancy, I will make it right. There is nothing to hide."

Someone filed an ethics complaint earlier this month against Amos because he did not list his business properties.

Amos said he got mixed signals from the State Ethics Commission on whether it required him to do so. Last week, he filed an amended disclosure listing all his holdings just to be clear, he said.

"We still say we were right," Amos said of not listing each property.

Tracey-Ann Nelson, Executive Director of the League of Women Voters of Georgia, said that candidates should not aim at the minimum standards of transparency required by the law, but should go above and beyond it to help engender voter trust.

" You can't just be shooting for where the bar has been set," she said. "Hopefully we want people who are better than that to represent us at all levels of government."