House lawmakers approved a bill Tuesday that largely removes the firewall between the Georgia Department of Natural Resource board and its fundraising arm.
Opponents said that will invite conflicts of interest; supporters said it will help prevent them.
House Bill 381 would require three members of the DNR board to have board seats on the Georgia Natural Resources Foundation, a nonprofit created in 2010 to support DNR projects and programs.
Current law prohibits DNR board members from serving on the foundation board, which now has 11 members.
Sierra Club lobbyist Neill Herring, who opposed the creation of the foundation years ago, doesn’t like the latest move. “The only people who will give them money are the people they are regulating. They are trying to sway the board,” he said.
But a spokesman for Governor Nathan Deal, who proposed this legislation through Rep. Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin, said the bill aims to avoid potential conflicts of interest between two boards representing one entity.
“Having three DNR board (members) serve as ex-officio, nonvoting members ensures that board stays apprised of the foundation’s activities and that there’s an open line of communication between the two boards,” said Brian Robinson via email.
Hatchett introduced the bill Feb. 19, four days after Deal appointed new members to the DNR board. One is Bill Jones III, a Sea Island Acquisitions executive who had served on the foundation from September 2011 until he resigned from it Feb. 15. He declined a request for an interview.
Robinson said the legislation was not designed to accommodate any one member.
A previous version of the bill would have prevented public disclosure of donor names and addresses, but that was struck down in committee. The original bill also granted voting privileges to the foundation’s DNR board members and required that the chairman of the foundation be a DNR board member.
That didn’t sit well with Rep. Chuck Williams, R-Watkinsville, who in committee proposed striking the requirement that the foundation chairman be a DNR board member. Williams also requested the dual board members not have voting privileges. He said he believes those changes satisfy conflict-of-interest concerns.
Rep. Debbie Buckner, D-Junction City, disagrees. She said she worries about an appearance of impropriety.
She voted against the bill, which passed in the House by a 163-11 vote.
“All I know is two years ago we felt it needed to be separate,” she said. “I haven’t left that mind-set.”
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