An ad hoc ethics board is being appointed to hear a complaint that alleges Gwinnett County Commissioner Matthew Holtkamp used a county bus and county-funded printouts last fall to urge voters to reject a proposed transit sales tax on the November ballot.
“Basically, he took a position on the referendum and was using government resources, not his personal capacity,” said Mulberry resident Benjamin Culberson in the complaint.
Holtkamp in October posted at least three videos to his social media pages asking Gwinnett residents to vote against the penny sales tax for transit expansion. In one video, he stands on a Ride Gwinnett bus. In another, he stands in front of a bus. In two of the videos, he displays county-funded materials related to the transit plan.
“I’m Matthew Holtkamp, your District 4 county commissioner, and today, we need to talk about transit,” Holtkamp said in the video on the bus. “You see, we have a big decision to make for Gwinnett County, and I’m going to explain to you why we need to vote ‘No’ in November.”
Culberson, a Georgia Gwinnett College student who is active in the Gwinnett County Young Democrats, filed the initial ethics complaint in February and an amended version in March. An independent attorney then verified the complaint met the technical requirements for an ethics board investigation.
State law prohibits the use of public resources to influence the outcome of a referendum. The Gwinnett ethics code forbids county officials from using county resources to further their individual goals and interests and prohibits individual commissioners from giving orders to county staff.
“As a bright line rule intended to avoid even the appearance of impropriety and to defend against any claim that you violated this restriction, I have advised that you should not tell voters how to vote on the transit referendum,” a county attorney wrote in a memo to commissioners days after Holtkamp posted two of his videos.
In an email, Holtkamp told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he did not notify the bus driver he was a county official so no special accommodations would be made for him.
“I boarded a normal Gwinnett bus route, paid my fare and shot a video,” Holtkamp said. “The materials seen in the video were provided to all riders as you entered the bus. It was a sales sheet to sell the $17 billion tax.”
Holtkamp, at the time, posted a mobile receipt for bus fare on Facebook.
The only Republican on the County Commission, Holtkamp’s videos prompted an immediate outcry from county Democrats.
County commissioners of both political parties have, for decades, refrained from campaigning for or against ballot questions such as sales tax or cityhood referendums, said Gwinnett County Democratic Party Chair Curt Thompson, who is also the attorney representing Culberson.
“The commission has always maintained, and the ethics always were, that you’re not supposed to take a position on referenda,” Thompson said. “He chose to do that in spectacular fashion, using government resources.
“If a movie studio had wanted to film a TV commercial using a Gwinnett County transit bus, they would’ve had to pay more than the bus fare to use that bus.”
County Attorney Mike Ludwiczak sent letters on May 9 asking for appointments within 30 days to the ethics board. Holtkamp, the Board of Commissioners, the district attorney, along with the county and state bar associations will each appoint one person to hear the complaint.
The five-member board will judge whether Holtkamp violated the Gwinnett ethics code and make recommendations to the County Commission. Potential penalties include a reprimand and initiation of proceedings for removal from office.
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