Anti-cityhood group in DeKalb fined by campaign finance agency
A group that fought the effort to create a city of LaVista Hills in DeKalb County is being fined $125 by the state agency that oversees campaign finance laws.
DeKalb Strong, an advocacy group, failed to file a document to register as a ballot committee as required by state law, according to a consent order approved by the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission on Wednesday.
DeKalb Strong, which reported $24,018 in contributions, should have registered as a ballot committee before raising money to oppose the referendum on LaVista Hills.
Voters defeated the proposal to form a city of LaVista Hills during a referendum held Nov. 3, 2015. The complaint against DeKalb Strong was filed after the referendum by Kevin Levitas, a supporter of LaVista Hills.
“We were grassroots activists who didn’t know what forms we had to file at exactly which time,” said Marjorie Snook, the chairwoman of DeKalb Strong. “Every bit of money that we received was always reported.”
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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.
