Politics

Complaint targets DeKalb’s ethics spending

By Mark Niesse
July 31, 2014

An ethics complaint against all six DeKalb County commissioners accused them of infringing on the independence of the county Board of Ethics.

The complaint, filed Tuesday by Rhea Johnson, a DeKalb County resident, cited the commission’s vote to reserve $97,000 over the last four months of the year to supplement the Board of Ethics’ funding. Interim DeKalb CEO Lee May had proposed the money for the positions of a chief integrity officer, an investigator and an administrator.

Commissioner Jeff Rader said Wednesday that commissioners asked the Board of Ethics to make a plan for how it would spend the money, which he said preserves the board’s autonomy.

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.

More Stories