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Former ethics commission deputy director Sherilyn Streicker is close to a deal with the state to settle her lawsuit for $1 million, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.
A person with direct knowledge of the proposed settlement said the two sides have agreed to an amount and are finalizing details and paperwork. The person was not authorized to speak on the record. Channel 2 Action News reported that a second person involved in the negotiations also confirmed the details.
Attorneys on both sides of the case declined to comment Thursday. Once finalized, the Streicker settlement will bring to more than $2 million the total cost to the state from lawsuits against the ethics commission, now known as the Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission.
Streicker’s job was eliminated in May 2011 after she and then-commission director Stacey Kalberman investigated Gov. Nathan Deal’s 2010 campaign for governor. Weeks after the pair presented commissioners draft subpoenas for records related to the investigation, Kalberman’s salary was cut deeply and Streicker was fired.
The subpoenas in the Deal case were never issued. The commission ultimately cleared Deal of major violations after Kalberman was replaced, and Deal agreed to pay $3,350 in fees for technical defects in his disclosure reports.
Both Streicker and Kalberman filed whisteblower lawsuits in Fulton County Superior Court. Kalberman’s case went to trial and, in April, a jury awarded her $700,000 in damages plus legal fees. When finalized last month, the Kalberman case cost the state $1.3 million.
A third whistleblower suit is tentatively scheduled for trial in October. John Hair, the commission’s former computer specialist, claims he was fired because he refused to remove or alter documents from the Deal investigation file. Hair claims current commission director Holly LaBerge also ordered him to alter records related to Kalberman’s lawsuit. He says he was fired shortly after refusing the order.
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