The Fulton County Board of Ethics Wednesday heard new accusations of wrongdoing against Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand even as it dismissed three other complaints involving him.
Real estate investor and one-time tax commissioner candidate R.J. Morris claims Ferdinand broke the law when he waived the property taxes on more than a dozen Atlanta properties without first seeking permission from the Atlanta Board of Education. Ferdinand says he did not do anything illegal.
The ethics board postponed action on the complaint, saying it needed more time to investigate. It also dismissed two other claims that Ferdinand had abused his authority and a third claim that one of its own members should not have voted when the board dismissed another complaint against Ferdinand in February.
Wednesday’s developments show Ferdinand remains a magnet for criticism over the way he runs his tax collection operations – and that his critics have a hard time reining in those practices or showing he’s broken any laws. Other ethics complaints against him have been dismissed, and efforts in the General Assembly to change laws to address perceived abuses also have failed.
Morris claims Ferdinand illegally waived school property taxes on 13 Atlanta properties. Ferdinand waived more than $100,000 of taxes on the properties at the direction of the Fulton County/City of Atlanta Land Bank Authority, which has the authority under state law to erase back taxes to spark redevelopment in blighted areas.
The properties were owned by the Historic District Development Corp., a nonprofit that formerly had ties to the family of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in 2012, the transactions were unusual because the land bank turned the properties back over to the nonprofit after the taxes were waived, instead of seeking new owners to develop the properties, as is typical.
Though the land bank has the authority to waive taxes, state law requires permission from the Board of Education before school taxes can be waived. Morris claims Ferdinand broke the law by waiving the school taxes without seeking the Atlanta school board’s permission.
In an interview Wednesday with the AJC, Ferdinand said he had not broken the law. He said he followed the authority’s legal order to erase the back taxes on the properties. He said it’s the land bank’s responsibility to seek the school board’s approval, not his.
“I think Mr. Morris is chasing the wrong tail,” Ferdinand said.
Morris said even if it is the land bank’s responsibility, Ferdinand overstepped his bounds by waiving the taxes without the school board’s permission.
Representatives of land bank and Atlanta Public Schools did not respond to requests for comment.
Ethics board Chairman Donald Edwards said the board had not had enough time to review the complaint, which will be heard at a later meeting.
The ethics board also dismissed these complaints involving Ferdinand filed by Rome, Ga., activist George Anderson:
• An accusation that Ferdinand abused his authority last year by revoking the registration of a vehicle owned by County Commissioner Liz Hausmann. Ferdinand also sent a memo to county officials questioning whether Hausmann lived in the district she represented.
Hausmann has said she was going through a divorce and moved in with her sister but never lived outside the district. She’s said she provided Ferdinand with numerous documents indicating where she lived as she tried to register a vehicle, but he refused to accept them. In a lawsuit filed in Fulton County Superior Court, she claims he revoked the registration in retaliation for public statements she made questioning his use of a take-home vehicle, among other things. Ferdinand has denied any wrongdoing.
Ethics board members said Superior Court is better suited to sorting out the facts of the claims and dismissed Anderson’s complaint. However, they said he could refile it after the lawsuit is completed and the court’s findings were available.
• An accusation that Ferdinand acted unethically by accepting federal farm subsidies for a small cattle farm he operates in south Fulton. Anderson claimed Ferdinand used “insider” knowledge of tax subsidies to benefit at the public expense. Ferdinand’s attorney, William Dodson, argued the subsidy is widely available to the public, and ethics board members dismissed the claim for lack of evidence that Ferdinand had violated any law.
• A claim that ethics board member JaDawnya Butler should have recused herself when the board dismissed another Anderson complaint against Ferdinand in February. Anderson claimed that because Butler and Ferdinand are both county employees – Butler is an assistant district attorney who investigates wrongdoing by county employees – she had a conflict of interest. Board members noted Butler does not report to Ferdinand and county ordinances do not prohibit county employees from serving on the ethics board.
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