The director of the state's ethics commission agreed to resign Friday, avoiding a showdown with her bosses who she said were pushing her out.
Stacey Kalberman's decision has ethics watchdogs worried about who will want the job after a very public spat between Kalberman and the commission chairman over his move to cut her salary by 30 percent.
The commission launched an investigation into the Deal campaign in September. In May, Kalberman twice asked commission Chairman Patrick Millsaps to sign subpoenas involving the Deal investigation, which he did not. On June 9, Kalberman met with Millsaps and another commissioner and was told that for budgetary reasons her top assistant and investigator, Sherilyn Streicker, would be dismissed and her own pay would be cut. Millsaps says Kalberman resigned at that meeting; Kalberman disputed that. On Friday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Kalberman said Wednesday in an email to Millsaps that it was no coincidence that she and Streicker were being forced out while pursuing an investigation against Deal.
Now, William Perry, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, a government watchdog group, questions who the commission could entice to replace Kalberman.
"It took seven months for them to find Ms. Kalberman," Perry said. "Now they're reducing the salary by 30 percent and expect someone qualified to step forward and take this on? If you have a job that nobody wants that performs a pretty important function with the Ethics and Government Act, how much trouble are we in?"
But Debbie Dooley, an organizer of the Georgia Tea Party Patriots who has partnered with Common Cause to seek ethics reform at the Capitol, said she was less worried with filling the job than she is with the future of the investigation.
"We're going to be watching and make sure that the investigation continues," Dooley said. "The citizens of Georgia would expect this case to be thoroughly investigated to see if it has any merit."
Millsaps told the AJC on Thursday that the Deal investigation would move forward.
On Friday, Kalberman and the commission moved to publicly end their dispute as Kalberman told the panel that she would voluntarily leave her position after serving through a transition period. Kalberman was hired in April 2010.
"I have the greatest respect for the commission and the work that it does," Kalberman said in the meeting. "I am happy and look forward to working with the commission moving forward into a transition of my position and also helping the commission and continuing its work, which is in the public interest."
The dispute peaked when Kalberman sent the email to Millsaps, that the AJC obtained, linking the decision to eliminate Streicker's position and deeply cut her own salary to their requests for subpoenas of the governor’s campaign.
She also revealed in that email that the state attorney general’s office reviewed their work on the investigation and that the FBI offered to assist in it.
Millsaps said the staff budget cuts have nothing to do with the investigation into complaints filed against Deal’s 2010 campaign for governor but are necessary to deal with a depleted bank account and increased requirements levied by the General Assembly.
The complaints, filed in 2010, question how Deal paid for airfare for the campaign, whether he improperly used state campaign funds for legal bills related to a federal ethics investigation and whether he improperly accepted campaign contributions that exceed limits.
Friday at the commission meeting, Kalberman and Millsaps agreed to put their dispute behind them.
"I run a small business, my wife runs a small business, and the toughest decision anyone has to make is when budgetary issues cause the loss of very good people," Millsaps said. "And that is what has happened now. Not only has Stacey helped us with that, she agreed to help us with this transition."
Kalberman agreed that she and the commission had come to "mutual agreements on any misunderstandings."
After the meeting, during which the panel voted to eliminate Streicker's job and reduce the next executive director's pay from $120,000 to not more than $85,000, Kalberman declined to comment. Streicker said she will remain on staff through June 30, the end of the fiscal year. Commissioners also declined to comment.
Randy Evans, an attorney for the Deal campaign, said he stands ready to answer any questions the commission has and said subpoenas are not necessary.
"I've never had a client subpoenaed" by the commission, said Evans, a veteran ethics and election law attorney.
The commission's procedure, he said, is to request information from the subject of an investigation and only resort to subpoenas if necessary.
Kalberman could not be reached for a response.
The story so far
September: Ethic commission launches investigation into Deal campaign.
June 9: Stacey Kalberman, executive secretary of the commission, is told by commission Chairman Patrick Millsaps that her pay will be cut 30 percent and her top aide will be dismissed as budget cuts.
Wednesday: Kalberman links the budget cuts to the Deal investigation in an email to commission Chairman Patrick Millsaps.
Friday: Kalberman agrees to quit but will serve through a transition.
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