Rick Badie's Gwinnett: Mayor manned up to mistake

By Rick Badie

It’s been an interesting week for news in North Georgia.

In Kennesaw, Jonathan Escobar, a 16-year-old, likes to dress like a female in school. He withdraws from North Cobb High after an assistant principal told him he should dress more “manly.”

In Rome, Berry College junior Nathan Mallory allegedly rids a former student of the devil by performing an exorcism off the main campus.

And in Lawrenceville, Mayor Rex Millsaps finds himself in a pickle because he took part in two votes to give city business to his employer, a local architectural and engineering firm.

Millsaps serves as an accountant and reviews financial statements for Precision Planning Inc. He’s a part-time employee.

As mayor, he only votes to break City Council ties. One vote was to break a deadlock on a proposal to have Precision Planning design a $2,250 sidewalk for an alley in downtown Lawrenceville. The second vote was to award Precision Planning a $108,000 contract for a water treatment facility project.

Initially, the story appeared in Sunday’s AJC. An above-the-fold headline highlighted a quote from the mayor: “Well, I’m guilty, I guess.”

I don’t know Millsaps, but I read about his life on the Lawrenceville city government Web page. He’s a Marine veteran, a father of four, a grandfather, a Baptist. He served in the Georgia House of Representative in 1983 and 1984. He’s a former member of the Gwinnett County Board of Elections and the Lawrenceville Planning and Zoning Board.

And he was appointed by the Lawrenceville City Council to fill the unexpired term of Mayor Bobby Sikes, who died shortly after the 2006 mayoral election.

All that political experience got me thinking. Surely somewhere along the way, Millsaps partook in a session or two with an attorney who explained government ethical conduct — its do’s and don’ts.

He’s got to know the rules. That Lawrenceville’s ethics code says city officials are prohibited from “participating in the deliberation of, or voting on, any matter involving his financial or personal interest.” And that a similar state law says public officials can’t vote on matters in which they are “personally interested.”

Still, the questionable votes he cast appear so minuscule, so sexless, so pointless for him that they hardly merit a reprimand, must less removal from office. Yet one of the two could happen.

Alas, the matter has already been settled. One of the Millsaps votes favoring Precision Planning was wiped out after City Attorney Tony Powell raised the issue. The council re-voted a month later; Millsaps abstained.

On the other, his employer earned $2,250 for the design of a sidewalk. So it’s not like Millsaps, his bosses or their buddies, made off like bandits.

In this county, we’ve seen all this before with the Gwinnett County Commission and the questionable park land deals that District Attorney Danny Porter wants to look into.

On Tuesday, the Lawrenceville City Council voted 3-0 to investigate Millsaps. Council members, it seems, want to show that City Hall is beyond reproach.

Gut feelings can tell you a lot if you listen. And in this instance, I’d imagine some of the city officials feel the way other Gwinnettians do. We’re pleased this issue has been exposed. Government should be transparent.

Millsaps never hid his employer’s identity. Moreover, after the issue was unveiled, he told AJC reporter Tim Eberly he’d “screwed up,” was guilty and needed to avoid such brain lapses in the future.

He’s no devil. No exorcism is necessary.

Rick Badie, an Opinion columnist, is based in Gwinnett. Reach him at rbadie@ajc.com or 770-263-3875.