A week after government watchdogs criticized the Legislature for cutting the state ethics commission's budget, the Legislature on Thursday fired back.
Members of the House Appropriations General Government Subcommittee asked pointed questions about staff raises, office renovations and credit-card purchases. The questions were directed to Holly LaBerge, who replaced Stacey Kalberman as executive director of the commission last year, but the lawmakers' displeasure was aimed at Kalberman.
“If the accusation is made that the Legislature isn’t funding the ethics commission at the proper amount, it’s just as fair to say, ‘Are they spending it properly?'” subcommittee chairman Rep. Ed Rynders, R-Albany, said.
Rynders said the commission budget had increased 31.5 percent since 2006 and questioned some of the panel's more recent spending.
“We’ve also looked at your budget for the past two years and we have found things like excessive pay raises – large pay increases. We have found things like p-card purchases with no explanation, renovation of offices, some items adding up close to $50,000," he said.
Rynders said he was just repeating what he was told and did not have any specifics on the purchases, raises or renovations.
“What we’ve got to do is find that balance to what is sufficient funding, but you can’t do that unless what has been appropriated has been efficiently used,” he said.
Last week, William Perry, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, accused the Legislature of slashing the commission's budget by 42 percent since 2008. Perry said the cuts have resulted in a backlog of uninvestigated complaints and uncollected fines.
"The agency is not doing the job it is supposed to in processing fines and complaints," he said.
Both sides appear to be correct on the numbers. Budget documents show that the commission's budget has been cut since 2008, although it is above its 2006 level.
Lawmakers focused on the raises in the hearing. State records show most commission staff members received raises last year in the months before Kalberman left the commission under disputed terms.
Budget documents show raises under Kalberman ranged from 9 percent for a secretary to 59 percent for the office’s computer expert, who went from an annual salary of $59,650 to $90,074.
“Would you repeat that?” asked Rep. Lynn Smith, R-Newnan.
“Fifty-nine percent. Five, nine,” LaBerge said, noting that the employee makes more than she does.
Kalberman’s own $120,000 salary did not increase; in all, however, salary costs increased increased 23 percent – or about $93,000.
“Many [state] employees haven’t seen any kind of pay raises … and we’ve got 59 percent pay raises at the ethics commission,” Rynders said.
Kalberman, contacted after the hearing, defended the raises as coming when the commission's staff had been cut and its workload dramatically increased by new legislative requirements.
“I had 10 people doing the job of what 22 once did and a huge increase in the workload," she said. “I did think the people who were working for me needed to be fairly compensated.”
Kalberman said she processed the raises "by the book," taking them to the personnel department in the Secretary of State's office. Each position was analyzed according to the state formula and Kalberman said she set salaries in the middle of the pay scale.
Kalberman also denied making any unauthorized purchases with her office's state purchasing card.
“Do you know how much explanation you have to give the state before you buy anything?" she said. "There are like five forms you have to fill out.”
About the Author
