The Cobb County Board of Ethics voted to move forward with an ethics complaint against Commission Chairman Tim Lee over his handling of initial stadium negotiations with the Atlanta Braves.
With a 5-1 vote Tuesday night, the board decided to move forward with a full, trial-like hearing. The date of that hearing will be set later.
Tom Cheek, a West Cobb software salesman, filed the complaint against Lee in August alleging that he improperly hired an attorney to negotiate a preliminary agreement with the Atlanta Braves, was unresponsive to a request for emails that should be accessible to the public under the Georgia Open Records Act and used a private email account to skirt the open records law.
Cheek’s complaint was based largely on stories published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution related to Lee’s off-the-books hiring of attorney Dan McRae, who was the county’s primary negotiator in a preliminary agreement that secured the team’s move to Cobb County — and the $400 million public investment in a new stadium.
Lee, who did not attend the hearing, issued a statement through a private spokeswoman Tuesday night: “Tonight’s decision simply means the board wants to gather more information before rendering a decision. There is absolutely no finding of guilt and I am happy to work with the board to answer additional questions.”
The AJC reported in August that McRae, who is a partner in Seyfarth Shaw, spent more than six weeks negotiating the so-called Memorandum of Understanding on the county’s behalf with the Braves’ general counsel, without billing the county for his time. Lee, in an email obtained by the AJC, hired McRae, something only the county attorney can do.
One of the last versions of the preliminary agreement inserted Seyfarth Shaw as the county’s project and bond counsel for the Braves project — legal work that could have paid up to $4 million without being competitively bid.
Lee has denied any wrongdoing. If the ethics board rules against him, Lee could be reprimanded.
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