A now years-old lawsuit questioning DeKalb County commissioners’ controversial 2018 vote to raise their own pay is still bouncing around the court system.
The suit brought by Ed Williams, leader of the local advocacy group Concerned Citizens for Effective Government, challenges the legality of the vote that raised commissioners’ to more than $64,000, an increase of nearly 60%. The item was quietly introduced — and approved — during a Feb. 2018 meeting, without being listed on the agenda and without going through the commission’s normal committee review process.
In legal filings, county officials have since said that the vote had to be rushed because they learned at the last moment that a similar item in the state legislature wasn’t progressing and such a measure had to be adopted before qualifying fees were set for upcoming elections.
Williams is not an attorney but brought the lawsuit himself. He’s had the assistance of law students from the University of Georgia’s Appellate Litigation Clinic as the suit — and different aspects and arguments therein — have bounced from DeKalb County Superior Court to the state Supreme Court and back, making other pit stops along the way.
A new ruling issued last week by the Georgia Court of Appeals was a partial victory for Williams.
The court upheld a previous ruling that Williams did not have standing to sue DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond for implementation of the pay raises (a decision that Williams has already asked the state’s highest court to reconsider).
But it did sent Williams’ claims of Open Meetings Act violations against individual commissioners who voted for the raise back to DeKalb Superior Court to be reconsidered.
“Everything alleged against the commissioners is still alive and can be pursued,” Williams said.
About the Author
