Ethics chief placed on administrative leave with pay

Coming Sunday

The AJC takes a deep look at Holly LaBerge’s tenure as head of the state ethics commission and asks: What does it take to get fired as its director?

Holly LaBerge, the head of the state ethics commission, was placed on administrative leave two days after a judge said she had been “dishonest and non-transparent.”

Commission Chairwoman Hillary Stringfellow told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she has the power to unilaterally make the move, which came just hours before the full commission met Friday afternoon to discuss litigation and personnel.

The commission took no action Friday afternoon and instead will reconvene at 8:30 a.m. Monday. LaBerge will remain on leave at least through the weekend.

LaBerge’s personal attorney did not immediately comment. LaBerge will continue to receive her $100,000 annual salary.

Stringfellow told the AJC that she informed LaBerge by phone at 8:15 Friday morning of the decision to place her on administrative leave with pay "until further notice." Stringfellow said Judge Ural Glanville's order sanctioning LaBerge and fining her $10,000 on Wednesday was the tipping point.

“I think we need some time to sort out our response to the order and the allegations that she has raised,” Stringfellow said.

The sanctioning involved a memo LaBerge wrote that the judge said should have been shared with plaintiffs in a whistleblower lawsuit against the commission.

As chairwoman of the commission, formally known as the Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, Stringfellow said she has the authority to place LaBerge on leave but not to fire her.

“That cannot be done without a meeting of the commission,” she said. Stringfellow then noted that the commission had called the special meeting about personnel matters Friday.

Stringfellow said LaBerge chose not to come to work Thursday and left early Wednesday. Placing her on administrative leave was the best option, Stringfellow said.

“She has the flexibility to not be in the office but not be using vacation time,” Stringfellow said.

Stringfellow said no single person will take over for LaBerge in her absence.

“We have a flow chart for who is responsible for certain things in the office when she is not there,” Stringfellow said.

Glanville also sanctioned the Attorney General’s Office and fined it $10,000.

Glanville said former commission director Stacey Kalberman was entitled to evidence that showed top aides to Gov. Nathan Deal texted and called LaBerge in July 2012, days before the commission ruled on complaints against Deal's 2010 campaign. Kalberman claimed in a lawsuit against the commission that she had been forced out of her job for investigating the governor's campaign too aggressively. A Fulton County jury in April awarded Kalberman $700,000 in damages plus $450,000 in back pay and attorneys fees, a verdict that prompted the state to settle three other cases involving the commission and LaBerge for an additional $1.8 million.

LaBerge chronicled the communication from Deal’s aides in a July 17, 2012, memo, saying she felt pressured by the contact and that the agency had been threatened. More than a year later she turned the memo over to the Attorney General’s Office as part of Kalberman’s lawsuit.

Lawyers in the AG’s office determined that the memo did not have to be given to Kalberman’s attorneys. They apparently never asked LaBerge whether she still had copies of the texts referenced in the memo. It was revealed last month that she did.

Attorney General Sam Olens and LaBerge have waged a public battle since the AJC reported the existence of the memo in July. Each has blamed the other for causing this latest skirmish in what has become a three-year saga involving the ethics commission.

In his order, Glanville was particularly tough on LaBerge, writing that she “has repeatedly proven herself to be dishonest and non-transparent.”

LaBerge plans to appeal the ruling, said her attorney, Lee Parks. Olens said Thursday that he has yet to decide whether to challenge Glanville’s ruling.

Deal on Friday said he had no input in the decision to put LaBerge on leave, but he said he hopes the commission seizes new momentum moving forward with the shake-up.

He said the commission is working on finalizing new rules and regulations that lawmakers empowered them to write, and he pointed to two attorneys that the agency recently hired to vet cases.

“We have seen activity there in recent months from a commission that was very dormant for a long period of time,” he said. “I’m glad to see they are beginning to tackle the backlog of cases that have accumulated over a long period of time — and that’s good for the commission to show they are actively working.”

Asked whether the commission’s reawakening is too long overdue, Deal stuck to a typical line.

“I’m encouraged by the signs of life that I’ve seen,” he said, “but I’m like everyone else: I’m an outsider.”

It was Deal Chief of Staff Chris Riley and executive counsel Ryan Teague who called and texted LaBerge the week before the commission voted to dismiss the major charges against the governor’s 2010 campaign. Deal instead agreed to pay $3,350 in fees for technical defects in campaign reports.

It was Teague, too, who called LaBerge to see whether she was interested in the commission job before Kalberman was forced out. Deal himself wrote a letter of recommendation for LaBerge to Leadership Georgia, although she was not accepted into the business development program.

Common Cause Georgia has twice this summer called on the commission to fire LaBerge, most recently following the controversy surrounding the memo she and the Attorney General’s Office failed to produce in Kalberman’s trial.

Executive Director William Perry described placing LaBerge on leave as a modest beginning for a state office in need of serious reform.

“I think it gives us a ray of hope, but frankly we will not be satisfied until she resigns or is terminated,” he said. “Giving someone a paid vacation isn’t exactly the kind of discipline we are looking for.”

Perry said Deal is too kind in his assessment of progress at the commission.

“What’s going on has been a joke, and what he is talking about are baby steps,” he said. “There needs to be major reform happening.”

Perry said Deal’s plans to reshape the commission “slightly change the appointment process when so much more is needed.”