Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee’s chief deputy made a pair of calls on behalf of her boss Tuesday, seeking questions that would be asked during a candidate forum that night.
After being told the questions would not be provided in advance, Kellie Brownlow later called back to say the chairman was sick and would not attend the event.
Government employees generally are not allowed to work for the campaigns of elected officials during working hours. In an email exchange Wednesday, Lee denied that Brownlow made calls for his campaign, saying that she simply called to make sure the event was still being held.
“I asked my office to confirm that all of the information about the event was correct,” Lee wrote in an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “This was a routine scheduling followup.”
Debbie Fischer, an East Cobb resident who helped organized the candidate forum, received both calls from Brownlow. Fischer said Brownlow’s only question was whether she could get the forum questions in advance. She did not ask if the event was still happening, Fischer said.
Fischer also said there would be no need for Brownlow to confirm the event, because an email earlier in the day reminded the candidates about the forum.
“The first time [Brownlow] called she said the chairman was asking for the list of questions prior to the forum…and at one point said she wanted staff to be able to review them,” Fischer said. “I told her we were not going to do that. Then she called back and said the chairman had a terrible illness.”
Brownlow disputed that, saying it “sure looks like someone is playing politics here.
“In the afternoon, I made a routine phone call for detailed information for Chairman Lee’s schedule,” Brownlow wrote in an email to the AJC. “She said she had already sent it. Anything beyond this is simply not true.”
This isn't the first time Brownlow, hired in January of 2015 at $105,000 a year, has been involved in controversy. The AJC reported in August that a pro-police letter to the editor, credited as coming from Lee, was written by Brownlow and contained several passages that were lifted from a similar letter published in a Kentucky newspaper. The AJC then found a second instance of plagiarism committed by Brownlow.
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