The state ethics commission dismissed Thursday a complaint accusing Gwinnett Commission Chairman Charlotte Nash of inappropriately advocating for the county's MARTA referendum.
Anti-transit activist Joe Newton filed the complaint against Nash in the weeks following the divisive March 19 referendum, which ultimately failed by more than an 8-point margin. Georgia law holds that public funds cannot be used to influence the outcome of an election, and Newton argued that Nash had improperly used county resources and her position as chairman to promote a yes vote.
Nash was, and is, undoubtedly a transit advocate. But she and the county’s legal team have maintained that she avoided telling residents how to vote and merely worked to educate them about what they were voting on.
If the referendum had passed, a pending contract between Gwinnett and MARTA would have been ratified and a multibillion-dollar transit expansion plan would have been funded by a new 1 percent sales tax. The county hosted several educational open houses and other events explaining the contract and transit plan.
“Chairman Nash understood the distinction between educating voters and engaging in advocacy in favor of the transit referendum,” attorney Bryan Tyson wrote in a response to Newton’s complaint.
Newton’s complaint argued that those meetings were “deliberately-slanted government propaganda” and claimed that he and his opposition campaign should’ve been treated equally. The state ethics commission — and deputy executive secretary Robert S. Lane — did not agree.
“There is no prohibition against officials acting in their official capacity speaking on matters of public concern,” Lane said during Thursday morning’s meeting. “That is actually what people are elected to do.”
In an emailed statement, Nash said she was "pleased to have the complaint resolved appropriately."
Newton, meanwhile, said the commission administratively dismissing his complaint “undermined the respect that their agency was designed to bolster.”
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