Gwinnett County's ethics board will meet Thursday to consider a case filed against Commissioner Marlene Fosque.
The board is not expected to make a recommendation Thursday, but will hear evidence regarding a complaint about comments Fosque made in a public meeting.
It’s the second time the ethics board has considered whether a county commissioner’s remarks constitute an ethics violation.
In 2017, county commissioners publicly reprimanded fellow commissioner Tommy Hunter for calling Rep. John Lewis a "racist pig" on Facebook.
That process revealed questions — that still remain — about whether the ethics board should be policing speech and personal behavior.
Fosque has said, in response to the complaint, that she was exercising her free speech when she called D.A. King "someone known for spewing hatred and bigotry and racism." King is the controversial founder of a group called the Dustin Inman Society which is opposed to illegal immigration.
The remarks came after King participated in a forum that Fosque organized to discuss the Gwinnett sheriff’s participation in a federal immigration enforcement program known as 287(g).
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