Interim DeKalb CEO Lee May replaced the chairman of the county’s newly reconstituted, and powerful, ethics board Friday.
May described his selection of Lithonia businessman Terrance Thornton as simply filling a vacancy that has existed since chairman Isaac Blythers’ term expired Dec. 31. Blythers has been filling in.
But Blythers and some DeKalb observers question the timing of the move, which comes a little more than a week after an ethics complaint was filed against Commissioner Elaine Boyer, one of May’s staunchest allies on the commission.
“I would never interject myself in a way to shield someone, friend or not,” May said. “I think my record of securing the funding increase for the ethics board speaks for itself to my integrity.”
Blythers said he thought, from previous discussions with May, that he had already been reappointed as chairman of the ethics board. He worried that being replaced would appear politically motivated. Thornton has been appointed to be a member of the board, but the board decides who will be chairman.
“No sooner does one commissioner get in trouble and they try to put a band around the board,” Blythers said. “It gives the appearance he’s interfering with one of the entities that has the authority to do something about what’s going on.”
DeKalb has struggled under a cloud of scandal since CEO Burrell Ellis was indicted on political corruption charges last year.
Last month, an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found Boyer rang up thousands of dollars in personal charges on her county-issued Visa card.
She reimbursed most of the $12,000 — used for airline tickets, rental car charges other travel expenses — within days and paid another $4,000 back after the AJC began its probe.
Boyer has since suspended use of her card and ordered the same of her chief of staff, Bob Lundsten.
An April 6 complaint to the ethics board asks the board to remove Boyer from office and fire Lundsten, which the ethics board can do under state law, and to refer the matter to the District Attorney’s office for criminal investigation.
“It’s blatantly obvious they’re protecting themselves,” said Joe Newton, one of two men who filed the complaint. Newman lives in Norcross.
Thornton could not be reached for comment Friday. But May cited Thornton’s experience as an auditor for the Internal Revenue Service and DeKalb business owner – running a Smoothie King near May’s failed movie theater on Panola Road – as his qualifications.
John Ernst, a Brookhaven attorney, who will serve as acting chairman with Blythers gone, said the board would welcome Thornton but “not miss a beat” in handling complaints as early as its May 8 meeting.
“We are in a much better spot, because of Isaac, to act immediately on hearing these cases,” Ernst said. “The citizens of DeKalb want these crises of confidence resolved, one way or another.”
