Georgia Senate backs eliminating pay for indicted officials

The Georgia Senate voted overwhelmingly for a proposed constitutional amendment to keep taxpayers from having to pay public officials who are suspended from their jobs while facing felony indictments.

Senate Resolution 134, sponsored by Sen. Larry Walker, R-Perry, passed the Senate on Monday by a vote of 51-1.

Walker filed the measure a few weeks after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that by June 30, the state will have paid about $400,000 in salary and benefits to suspended Georgia Insurance Commissioner Jim Beck.

Beck was indicted a few months after taking office on charges alleging that he swindled his former employer out of $2 million, in part to fund his campaign for office. He has denied the charges.

“As elected officials, we have a public duty to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ money,” Walker said. “In the business world, we would not pay two people to do one job. If we had to remove an employee for misconduct or whatever, failure to do the job, we wouldn’t continue to pay them.

“I feel like this is a commonsense measure.”

If the House backs the proposal, it will appear on the 2022 ballot.

Wes Burleson of the state insurance commissioner’s office told a Senate committee earlier this month that as of now, Beck has been paid $343,000 since he was suspended in mid-May 2019.

“To put that in perspective, we could have used those funds to hire building inspectors, who make $41,000 a year starting (salary), insurance fraud investigators at $46,000 or fire arson inspectors at $52,000,” he said.

A companion piece, Senate Bill 218, which also passed 51-1, deals with local officials, such as district attorneys. Paulding County District Attorney Dick Donovan was recently indicted on charges of bribery, violation of oath by public officer, and two counts of false swearing. The allegations stem from his relationship with a top female staff member. He has denied the charges. Gov. Brian Kemp suspended him from his office.

Under state law, the Legislature can stop pay of indicted local officials without a constitutional amendment.

SR 134 would apply to state officials who are indicted on charges related to their performance in office.

Indicted officials who are exonerated would return to their jobs and receive back pay.

Even if SR 134 passes, it would have no impact on Beck’s case. Beck is expected to go to trial this year on his charges, which involve activity before he took office. Plus, the law would apply to future cases.

Beck was indicted in May 2019, five months after taking office, and suspended by Kemp.

Since he didn’t resign but was suspended, the state is paying two insurance commissioners: Beck and Kemp’s choice to replace him, John King.

Beck won election in November 2018 and took office the next January. By May, then-U.S. Attorney BJay Pak was announcing the indictment of Beck, a former leader of the Georgia Christian Coalition, alleging that he stole money to pay personal credit card bills and taxes, and pump money into his 2018 campaign for insurance commissioner.

Three former Department of Insurance employees later sued the state and Beck, saying they were ousted as retaliation because he thought they provided information about him to state and federal officials and the media.

The insurance commissioner’s job will be back on the ballot in 2022. If Beck is cleared of the criminal charges, he is entitled to take back the post and stand for reelection. In the meantime, the state will continue paying two commissioners.

The state faces a similar situation with state Court of Appeals Judge Christian Coomer, who is suspended. The state is paying his salary — he earned $196,000 in 2020 — and paying for another judge to fill in and do his job.

Georgia’s judicial watchdog agency filed ethics charges just after Christmas against Coomer, alleging he violated the code of judicial conduct and campaign finance and lending laws.

The 60-page filing covers a range of alleged misconduct. Some charges involve Coomer’s representation of 79-year-old Jim Filhart when Coomer was a private attorney in Cartersville. That relationship, the charges allege, “involved dishonesty, deceit and misrepresentation.”

The filing accuses Coomer of repeatedly violating state campaign finance law by transferring funds from his campaign account to cover his law firm’s bank account when it was about to be overdrawn. It also states that Coomer, before qualifying for election to the Appeals Court seat he held, reported on disclosure forms a $50,000 loan to his campaign account that never existed.

Coomer has denied the charges.