Fulton Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr.’s crusade against the county Board of Ethics has, once again, gained no traction with his fellow county commissioners.
Toward the end of Wednesday’s meeting, the commission voted down three resolutions by Arrington targeting the ethics board in quick succession: an “external review” of the ethics board; revoking all the board’s actions since the start of 2014; and disbanding the board altogether, replacing it with a slate of ethics hearing officers.
All three failed by the same 4-2 vote, supported only by Commissioner Natalie Hall and Arrington himself. Commissioner Bob Ellis was absent.
Before Wednesday’s vote on the first item, Arrington repeated his denunciation of the ethics board, accusing its members of violating every standard — from their own rules up to the U.S. Constitution.
“They are violating every rule around the world,” he said.
Arrington says an ethics complaint against him should have been automatically dismissed nearly three years ago. He sued the board over that complaint’s non-dismissal and subsequent revival. Arrington told fellow commissioners that the county will have to pay his legal costs and damages when the suit is concluded. Arrington, an attorney, said his former legal client Corwin Monson will file suit as well.
Hall, Arrington and Commissioner Dana Barrett quizzed County Attorney Y. Soo Jo on the ethics board’s actions. She confirmed observing that the board has not followed its own rules, appears to have violated the Georgia Open Meetings and Open Records acts, and failed to provide due process.
In December, the ethics board released a brief statement on the situation.
“The Fulton County Board of Ethics is a volunteer board of citizens obligated to investigate matters brought before it involving employees of Fulton County,” it says. “The board is currently looking into a matter; the details of which it will not be discussing publicly. At times, the duties of the Board open it up to criticism and threats — this is a problem not foreign to ethics boards nationwide.”
Bad blood between Arrington and the ethics board dates to November 2020, when state Rep. Mesha Mainor, R-56, then a candidate, filed an ethics complaint against Arrington. He was an attorney for Monson, a former campaign volunteer for Mainor who was convicted of stalking her.
Mainor alleged Arrington had a conflict of interest by representing defendants against the Fulton County District Attorney’s office, which he oversees as a commissioner. She also alleged he abused his power as commissioner in dealings with the DA’s office.
Arrington dismissed those claims as frivolous. He subsequently withdrew as Monson’s attorney.
In January 2021, recorded calls between Monson, his wife, and sometimes Arrington were leaked to local media.
The board held a hearing on Mainor’s ethics complaint in March 2021, and a majority concluded there was not probable cause that Arrington violated the county’s ethics code, according to Arrington’s court filings. That should have led to the complaint’s immediate dismissal, he said.
But the board met again in June 2021 — Arrington said he wasn’t notified — and essentially revived the complaint because of more “potentially relevant evidence.” That referred to the recorded phone calls.
In April 2022, the board filed a sealed complaint in Superior Court against Arrington and Monson, seeking to review the calls. The board dismissed its own suit last January before the court ruled, but Arrington argues the board is not legally capable of filing suit in the first place.
Arrington filed his own ethics complaint against board members last February, alleging they violated the ethics code themselves.
On Nov. 1 the board sent Arrington’s lawyer a letter saying it would review the recordings and inviting him “to seek any legal remedy you deem appropriate within the next 90 days.”
Arrington’s response was filed in Superior Court last month, saying the calls are protected by attorney-client privilege or spousal privilege. He seeks an order for the ethics board to drop its action, and pay his fees and costs of at least $150,000.
Two days later, Judge Craig Schwall recused himself from the case. On Dec. 27, Judge Robert McBurney recused himself as well, specifying that judges face a conflict because Arrington, as county commissioner, helps set the court’s funding. McBurney hinted that Chief Judge Ural Glanville might likewise recuse all Fulton County Superior Court judges from the case.
The ethics board is scheduled to consider Mainor’s complaint against Arrington, and Arrington’s complaint against the ethics board itself, at its next meeting Jan. 18, according to the meeting agenda.
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