Concern over where investigators will look, not a lack of cash, is holding up the DeKalb County ethics board’s request for $57,000 to boost its effectiveness.
DeKalb commissioners are moving slowly on the effort, saying that political vendettas could drive more complaints if the board is able to hire professional investigators.
“Who’s recommended for investigation has been used for political purposes before,” Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton said. “We are going to work through this and take time to make sure it’s done right.”
That explanation isn’t likely to win over residents, who have been bombarded with a near-daily stream of negative headlines about county operations for months, said Bill Baker, the interim director of the Burruss Institute of Public Service and Research at Kennesaw State University. DeKalb’s problems include indictments on corruption charges in separate cases against both the suspended county CEO and the former head of the school system.
Voters see ethics boards in the same vein as internal affairs offices of police departments, Baker said. When they ferret out problems, they gain public trust — and build good reputations.
“It can be used as a political tool, yes, but just for that, do you look away from ethics?” Baker asked. “Given the low level of trust in government in general and DeKalb’s experience in particular, it’s clear it’s time they have an ethics board in more than name.”
The county’s charter orders DeKalb to give the ethics board whatever it needs to ensure that elected officials and county workers are following the rules.
That makes the ethics board a state mandate. And state Rep. Mike Jacobs, R-Brookhaven, said he has been watching the issue closely and will gladly introduce specific language when the Legislature convenes in January if DeKalb officials don’t act soon.
“I think making it clear the ethics board can hire a law firm, which can provide a package of services to include investigators, would solve the problem,” Jacobs said. “I sense the public sentiment is very much in the ethics board’s corner on this one.”
In fact, pressure began mounting in August, when a special grand jury report alleged corruption is pervasive in DeKalb. One fix, according to the report, is an overhaul of the ethics board.
The panel has long struggled, both in getting members serious enough to commit to the quarterly meetings that review complaints and in getting support from the county, which spent years without appointing a full board. The commission appoints five of the seven members, while the county CEO is able to name the other two.
The county also gradually cut the board’s budget down to this year’s $16,500 — $12,500 of which is designated for attorney services.
The six seated members of the board wanted to grab the momentum of the grand jury report with their request for more money. Some of that funding would be for training for members to be more professional, acting Chairman Isaac Blythers said.
“Any enhancement out there, to help us do a better job, we hope we would get if the county is serious about improving,” Blythers said. “Don’t tell me we’re going to do this if there is going to be hesitation later.”
That hesitation has created unusual allies on the County Commission. As the board’s sole Republican, Commissioner Elaine Boyer rarely agrees with Sutton on policy issues but said she, too, is worried about the potential for investigators.
The ethics board should first get training, Boyer said, and hire an attorney to make them more professional before asking the county to “throw money” for possible probes.
“No one minds if there is a real problem to have an investigation,” Boyer said, “but why would we give them investigators when they can’t yet do the basics yet of determining if there is a violation?”
As the request lingers, interim CEO Lee May is working to broker a deal with the same commissioners he served with until being elevated this summer. His plan: put the funding request through the same commission budget review as used for other county departments. A commission committee is expected to consider the request this week, and it’s on pace for a vote by month’s end.
Movement would likely win over residents such as Lucille Horton, who sees value in a more visible and powerful ethics board. Horton said she supports hiring of investigators, if nothing else, to help DeKalb’s battered image.
“Things are really not that bad in DeKalb, but we definitely have a bad reputation with all that’s going on,” said Horton, a retiree who lives near Decatur. “So I say let’s try anything that makes that better.”
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