Ethics hearing involving Cobb commission chairman set for Thursday

What: Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee’s ethics hearing.

Where: Cobb County commission chambers, 100 Cherokee Street.

When: Thursday, 6 p.m.

Applause, hoots and hollers greeted last month’s vote by the Cobb County Board of Ethics to move forward with a hearing that will determine if there were ethical breaches in Commission Chairman Tim Lee’s handling of negotiations to lure the Braves.

"Finally," shouted Ben Williams, president of the Cobb Southern Christian Leadership Conference, who, along with others, has called for Lee's resignation.

Tonight, Lee will have a chance to defend himself against allegations that he improperly hired an outside attorney to negotiate with the Braves, and used private email accounts to dodge the state’s open records law. Lee has said consistently that he did nothing wrong in handling the Braves deal.

Lee’s attorney, Cobb Chamber of Commerce chairman Ben Mathis, did not respond to a list of questions emailed to him for this story.

The current complaint is the third filed against Lee this year over the Braves deal. The initial two were dismissed but, by a 5-1 vote, the board agreed in October to proceed with a trial-like hearing into the complaint filed by west Cobb resident Tom Cheek.

“In my opinion, there are volumes more than what appears in Mr. Cheek’s complaint,” Williams said in explaining why he exalted after the ethics board decision last month. “This chairman has built this whole endeavor upon a series of unethical and possibly illegal actions on his part. That’s the foundation of it all.”

John Loud is rallying Lee supporters.

Loud, who in May encouraged dozens of stadium supporters to show up hours early and take all of the speaking slots during at a commission meeting at which several Braves agreements were approved, sent an email Tuesday encouraging them to attend the hearing.

The email says Cobb is a “growing thriving community because Tim put himself out there to support us.”

“Chairman Lee has done so much to move Cobb County forward,” Loud’s email says. “I certainly appreciate his vision, tenacity and courageous leadership. Cobb County is lucky to have Tim Lee in the critical leadership position.”

Loud said in an interview that his group will have a “quiet presence” at the meeting.

“It’s not a time for T-shirts and signs. It’s just a great time to stand in the rows behind him just to … display we’ve got your back,” he said.

Lee has been repeatedly criticized about the Braves deal since it was rolled out in November 2013 — over issues ranging from the speed with which the preliminary agreement was approved to his attitude toward people who have questioned the amount of the public investment and the level of transparency with which it was handled.

In a written apology last week, in which he acknowledged Cheek’s criticism is “sincere,” Lee said, “I believe much of that criticism is politically inspired or is being used as a subterfuge to attach the Braves project merely because they disagree with the decision.”

Cheek said he did not drop his complaint after the apology because “there are issues concerning the chairman’s lack of response to open records requests that still need to be addressed.”

The ethics board will have to deal with several issues tonight before the hearing, including a motion by Mathis to have the complaint dismissed, to have his ex-wife recused from the hearing, and to have the hearing delayed if it does move forward.

If the hearing takes place, it will be conducted like a trial, with both sides calling witnesses for sworn testimony, and making arguments to the board.

If found guilty of an ethical breach, the board can sanction Lee with either a censure or reprimand.

But Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, says Lee has a lot more at stake politically.

Lee is up for re-election in 2016, and both the stadium and the a majority of the Braves mixed-use development are scheduled to open in 2017. Bullock said the controversy surrounding various aspects of the Braves deal, combined with an ethics finding, could spell trouble for the chairman.

“Something like a rap on the knuckles by the ethics board is probably not fatal,” Bullock said. “Certainly, the person running against him will use it as an issue. What will be difficult to disentangle (is) an ethics finding with the general disgruntlement over … the public investment in the stadium.

“They may all come together.”

Cheek’s complaint largely mirrors reporting in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which found Lee hired attorney Dan McRae to negotiate with the Braves without the knowledge or consent of County Attorney Deborah Dance, who is the only person authorized to hire outside legal counsel.

Also wrapped up in the continuing controversy, and the ethics complaint, are questions about Lee’s truthfulness.

For example, in the AJC’s first story about McRae’s involvement, Lee at first denied that the attorney negotiated for the county, then issued a statement two days before the story was published saying: “It is now my understanding that McRae was acting on the county’s behalf.”

Soon after that article, Lee snapped back to his former position that he didn’t hire McRae — despite an email sent on his behalf that confirms “the attorney-client relationship” between the county and McRae’s firm, and says the firm will be the county’s bond and project counsel for on the Braves deal. The firm was removed from both positions after Dance became involved.

If the hearing takes place Thursday, the ethics board is expected to make an immediate ruling.