The appointment of a new ethics officer to oversee Atlanta employees, elected officials and commission members sailed through City Hall on Monday afternoon.
Atlanta's City Council approved Nina Hickson, the interim city manager for East Point, as the ethics officer by a 12-1 vote. Councilman Howard Shook of Buckhead voted against her nomination.
"I had hoped for the opportunity for a further vetting," Shook told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The appointment for the $116,000-per-year job is still subject to the approval of Mayor Kasim Reed, who has not publicly commented on the appointment.
It is the latest turn in a long and tangled search for a leader of the independent agency.
Stacey Kalberman, Georgia's former ethics officer, took her name out of contention in March after several delays in moving her nomination forward. Kalberman said she was concerned that members of City Council indicated that they wanted to exercise more control over the choice of an ethics officer.
Hickson, formerly the city attorney for East Point, was the ethics board's second choice, according to members of the board.
Hickson is a graduate of Howard University and Emory University's law school. She worked as a corporate lawyer and an assistant U.S. attorney and became a Fulton County juvenile court judge in 1999.
In 2000, Georgia's Department of Revenue filed a nearly $48,000 lien against Hickson for unpaid state income taxes and various interest, penalties and collection costs covering the period 1993-1997.
In 2004, Hickson's attorney said she actually owed the state only about $1,800. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that she paid the state with a cashier's check on March 17, 2004.
Also that year, a child-neglect controversy involving Hickson's adopted daughter forced her to step down as chief juvenile judge.
The four-year old child was found on an East Point street one night in late November 2003. Hickson said she thought her daughter was sleeping when she went to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to get a piece of luggage, according to police reports.
Georgia's Division of Family and Children Services called it a one-time case of neglect and closed the case within a week.
On Monday, the chairwoman of Atlanta's ethics board said the ethics board was "very comfortable" with Hickson.
"We are convinced that she will serve the city very well," said Caroline Johnson Tanner.
Hickson called herself a committed public servant. "My fidelity is to the law," she said.
Staff writer Steve Visser contributed to this article.
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About Atlanta's Ethics Office
Fiscal Year 2012 Budget: $341,165, three fulltime employees
Highlights: Issued one formal advisory opinion and 92 advisory emails in fiscal year 2012. Responded to 90 percent of inquiries within one week. Completed two ethics investigations and collected $4,300 in fines. Since last July, 95 percent of the 1,538 people required to file city financial disclosure forms have done so, one of the best rates in years.
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