The state ethics commission meets Friday for what will be a milestone meeting: The first time since the upheaval of the past year that the panel actually considers major cases against public officials.
The docket includes probable cause hearings against former Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, former Gov. Roy Barnes and the lobbyist who treated House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, to a European trip. The board will also receive status updates -- and could act -- on complaints against Gov. Nathan Deal.
During a probable cause hearing, the commission's staff lays out its findings to commissioners, who then decide whether reasonable grounds exist to believe a violation occurred. If so, the case is forwarded to an administrative hearing.
Friday's hearings before the public are the first since Holly LaBerge was named the commission's executive director in August. All the cases were affected to some degree by the prolonged and public spat in June 2011 between the commission's former director and its former chairman.
Then-executive director Stacey Kalberman accused then-Chairman Patrick Millsaps of forcing her ouster and that of her deputy Sherilyn Streicker to sidetrack their investigation into Deal's campaign. Millsaps said a budgetary crisis required changes at the agency. Kalberman and Streicker filed separate lawsuits against the commission last week.
Now, although the lawsuits are still pending, Friday's hearings are a public sign that the commission is emerging from the fog of the past year and is again doing more than serving as a clearinghouse for campaign paperwork.
Commission Chairman Kevin Abernethy, who took over in December, said the commission never stopped working.
"It is true over the past 18 months, from a public perspective, it may not have always appeared this was taking place, but it was," he said.
But compare the past 18 months to the 12 before that. In 2010, the commission fined former House Speaker Glenn Richardson, R-Hiram, and signed consent orders with then-Sen. Ralph Hudgens, R-Hull, and Carol Porter, a Democrat who ran for lieutenant governor.
It is a positive sign that the commission is prepared to act, said William Perry, executive director of Common Cause Georgia. Common Cause filed the complaint against lobbyist Christopher Brady, who sponsored Ralston's trip to Europe over Thanksgiving 2010. The trip was a $17,000 fact-finding mission on high-speed rail.
Common Cause alleged that Brady did not file required lobbyist expenditure reports on time and hadn't registered as a lobbyist until after the trip. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first revealed the trip in January 2011.
"I am extremely pleased that the commission is moving forward on these cases," Perry said. "It has been unfair both to the people of Georgia and those whom the complaints were filed against for such a long period of time to pass without resolution."
Still, Perry said, the complaint was filed in February 2011 and the other cases have been open for more than two years in some cases. That, he said, "should never happen."
Efforts to reach Brady were unsuccessful.
The Oxendine case involves 10 political action committees and two Rome-based insurance companies that used the PACs in 2008 to funnel $120,000 to Oxendine's campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. The AJC first disclosed the contributions in 2009.
Oxendine's attorney, Stefan Passantino of the McKenna Long law firm, said he expects to "have the opportunity to explain that these unsupported allegations have been before the commission long enough and it is my hope that the commissioners will agree."
Barnes, the former Democratic governor, is accused of not filing lobbyist disclosure reports. Barnes, a lawyer, was a registered lobbyist for part of 2007 and represented a client before a local zoning board. He never filed lobbyist disclosure forms and said at the time that he asked the ethics commission for an advisory opinion on whether he had to file the reports and was told he did not.
Efforts to reach Barnes and his attorney were unsuccessful.
If administrative hearings are recommended for Brady, Oxendine or Barnes, a ruling against any of them at that level could produce fines up to $1,000 per violation. The case also may be forwarded to law enforcement for criminal action. If an administrative hearing is recommended, however, those accused of violations have 30 days to settle the matter.
The status of the Deal complaints are less clear. The commission is scheduled to receive a status update on the cases, but LaBerge told the AJC this week that they could still be brought up Friday for probable cause hearings. It won't be clear until the meeting, she said.
The five complaints pending against Deal, a Republican, involve his successful bid for governor in 2010 and are largely based on reporting by the AJC. They accuse Deal of personally profiting from his campaign's aircraft rentals, of improperly using state campaign funds for legal bills related to a federal ethics investigation and of accepting campaign contributions that exceed limits.
Deal's lawyer, Randy Evans, also of McKenna Long, could not be reached for comment, but in May said he and the commission staff were working toward a resolution. "We're pushing really hard, as they are, to get all of this done," Evans said.
Friday's hearings will begin at 9 a.m. in Room 606 of the Coverdell Legislative Office Building.
Continuing coverage
The state's ethics commission will consider several high-profile cases Friday. Probable cause hearings are scheduled for former Gov. Roy Barnes, former Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine and lobbyist Christopher Brady. The cases involving Oxendine and Brady are largely based on reporting by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The commission also will receive a status update on five complaints against Gov. Nathan Deal that can also be traced to AJC reporting.
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