Complaint attacks Board of Ethics chairman
As an ethics case is pending against Bob Lundsten, the chief of staff for former DeKalb County Commissioner Elaine Boyer, he has brought his own complaint against the chairman of the Board of Ethics.
Lundsten's complaint, filed Thursday, accused Board of Ethics Chairman John Ernst of failing to be impartial. During an interview with Channel 2 Action News, Ernst compared unethical government employees to termites.
“Sometimes when there’s termites in the building, the homeowner doesn’t care how they get out,” Ernst said in the interview. “If they leave, they leave.”
Ernst said Friday he has no opinion on Lundsten’s case and hasn’t yet received an investigator’s report.
“I want to make it clear, however, that I in no way mentioned Mr. Lundsten in my comments about DeKalb employees who have already left,” Ernst said.
Boyer resigned and then pleaded guilty Sept. 3 to charges that she accumulated more than $15,000 in personal expenses on her county-issued Visa card and engineered a $78,000 kickback scheme.
Lundsten has continued to work since her departure, and voters will decide on a new commissioner in Tuesday’s election.
The pending ethics complaint against Lundsten alleged he too misused his county purchasing card for personal expenses.
About the Author
Mark Niesse is an enterprise reporter and covers elections and Georgia government for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and is considered an expert on elections and voting. Before joining the AJC, he worked for The Associated Press in Atlanta, Honolulu and Montgomery, Alabama. He also reported for The Daily Report and The Santiago Times in Chile.
