Lee asks ethics board to reconsider

The private attorney for Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee on Tuesday filed a request that the county’s ethics board reconsider its decision to proceed with a full-blown hearing in a complaint filed against him in August.

The complaint, filed by West Cobb software salesman Tom Cheek, claims that Lee improperly hired an off-the-books attorney to negotiate a preliminary agreement with the Braves, was not responsive to open records requests, and used private email accounts to skirt the open records law.

The ethics board ruled Oct. 21 that they would proceed with a full hearing because Lee had failed to avoid “the appearance of impropriety” with those actions.

The motion was filed by Lee’s attorney, David Cole, says the “appearance of impropriety” is not the basis for potential disciplinary action because the county’s code of ethics says only that elected officials “should” avoid such appearances, not that they “shall” or “must” avoid it.

The motion, which is backed by an affidavit by Patrick Longan, an expert in ethics and professionalism in the practice of law at Mercer University, says:

• The ethics board applied the wrong legal standard in its finding, using the appearance of impropriety standard "as opposed to one limited to conduct involving partiality in decision making."
• The term appearance of impropriety is "unconstitutionally vague because it … does not clearly define the conduct that it prohibits.
• The ethics board has not provided Lee with due process because it failed to identify the facts upon which it relied.