Georgia’s ethics commission took the unprecedented step Thursday of hiring an outsider to oversee the agency roiled by bitter infighting and an intensifying federal investigation amid claims it’s too cozy with Gov. Nathan Deal.
The five-member board voted unanimously to tap Robert Constantine, a one-time lobbyist and former administrative law judge with the worker’s compensation system, to assist the organization charged with holding the state’s elected officials accountable. It was tantamount to a vote of no confidence in the leadership of the troubled agency, which one commissioner says is mired in “a legal morass.”
Commission Chairman Kevin Abernethy said Constantine would be paid $4,000 a month to work between January and May and ensure “the agency is operating at a high level” ahead of a busy campaign season. He said the funds come from the existing budget and he’s confident that there are no conflicts of interest that would complicate the decision.
“It’s plain to everybody that the agency has had a number of challenges the past six to nine months, and the receiver will be in place to carry out the duties they need to,” Abernethy said.
Speaking about Constantine, Abernethy said, “He is truly an outside person who has expressed a desire to help us.”
Yet it was clear that Constantine was unknown to some of the board’s members, including Commissioner Hillary Stringfellow, who said she hadn’t even seen his resume. A description of his duties has also not yet been drafted, though Abernethy said he would report directly to the commission and serve as a consultant, an intermediary and even a referee in the agency’s matters.
It’s the latest turn in a saga that has implications far beyond the ethics agency. The commission oversees the dozens of campaign finance and lobbying issues that arise each election year, and staffers are seen as a state-sanctioned watchdog to spotlight abuses.
The commission’s decision comes a week after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the two top staff members on the commission have received federal subpoenas demanding documents related to a probe into Deal’s 2010 campaign. Three former staff members have also been subpoenaed for documents to produce records for a grand jury.
The scope of the investigation is unknown, but it comes after a former computer specialist for the commission told the AJC that he was ordered to destroy documents related to the Deal investigation by Holly LaBerge, the commission’s executive director.
The AJC also reported that staff attorney Elisabeth Murray-Obertein said in sworn testimony that LaBerge bragged that the governor “owed” her after the commission dismissed the most serious charges against Deal. LaBerge has denied both claims, and the governor said he and his staff have not improperly interfered with the inquiry.
“This is a good step in the right direction to make sure an adult is monitoring the playground,” said William Perry, who heads Common Cause of Georgia, the transparency advocacy group. But he added that he was concerned the commissioners seemed to know so little about Constantine, who did not return calls from the AJC on Thursday seeking comment.
“We need to trust they made the right decision,” Perry said. “I’m concerned they haven’t even had the chance for a conversation, but I’m hopeful it’s the right one.”
LaBerge was insistent that the move wouldn’t change her role, as she would still report directly to the board. She added, though: “I did not ask for any of this.”
Constantine, 66, is a University of Georgia law school graduate who served as chief deputy insurance commissioner in the 1970s under longtime Insurance Commissioner Johnnie Caldwell.
Constantine worked as a lawyer for insurance companies and was a well-known lobbyist at the statehouse when Deal, then a Democrat, served in the Legislature. Constantine represented health care and insurance clients. In 2008, the state Department of Revenue filed a $3,600 income tax lien against Constantine. He settled the lien in January 2009.
A few months after Deal took office in 2011, Constantine was hired as an administrative law judge with the Georgia State Board of Workers’ Compensation. Governors appoint the leaders of the workers’ compensation board and, historically, have also influenced the hiring of some administrative law judges. Constantine left the job this past August. Records show he was paid $100,000 last year.
The appointment of Constantine comes weeks before the start of the legislative session, when lawmakers are expected to debate legislation that could bolster the agency’s funding and make other changes to its structure. Commissioner Heath Garrett characterized legislative fixes as crucial.
“This legal morass is a symptom of the bigger structural flaws in the law,” he said, adding: “We are doing everything within our legal and financial authority to try to bring independence. But we need to engage with the Legislature to get structural reforms.”
The governor said those changes are up to lawmakers. But he said in an interview Thursday with the AJC that he’s hopeful that an outsider could help put an end to the “finger-pointing” and help the agency function properly once more.
Said Deal, “I think it’s a signal that they’re ready to stop some of these things that have occurred in the past and hopefully have a solid direction for the future.”
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