A coalition of DeKalb County watchdog groups wants County Commissioner Elaine Boyer booted from office for abusing her county Visa card.
Two men lodged complaints with the Board of Ethics on Thursday against Boyer and her chief of staff, saying Boyer violated her oath of office and her top aide used his position for special privileges. The complaints were prompted by an investigation last month by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which found Boyer spent more than $12,000 on personal purchases, including airline tickets, rental cars and a ski resort booking.
Some of the purchases were made while Boyer and her husband were having financial problems.
The commissioner reimbursed many of the charges within days, weeks or months, but she paid back another $4,000 after the AJC began asking questions. She told Channel 2 Action News that “it never dawned on me that what I was doing was wrong.”
The newspaper also reported that she and her chief of staff, Robert Lundsten, spent more than $11,000 for restaurant meals at taxpayer expense in 2012 and 2013.
Thomas Owens, of Atlanta, and Joseph Newton, of Norcross, who filed the ethics complaints, say they have the backing of Joel Edwards of Restore DeKalb and Viola Davis of the DeKalb Unhappy Taxpayer and Voter group.
They are asking the ethics board to audit Boyer’s Visa card use, require her and Lundsten to pay back improper charges, find out if any other commissioners or their staffers have misused their cards, refer the case to the District Attorney for possible prosecution and request that the county’s purchasing card policy be revised to cover commissioners.
They also want Boyer removed from office — which the ethics board can do — and both she and Lundsten barred from ever working for DeKalb County again.
Lundsten said the complaints against him are the latest in ongoing personal attacks by Owens and Newton, who he has been sparring with for years. Boyer has not consented to interviews since the AJC published its investigation.
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