The DeKalb County Board of Ethics met via videoconference Wednesday, marking its first gathering in more than two years.
It was likely the existing board’s final meeting as well.
“It’s good to see everyone after a couple years of being on hiatus, or a vacation, or however you want to say it,” chairman Bob Tatum said with a laugh.
The ethics board, which investigates complaints against DeKalb officials and employees, had been effectively dormant since Aug. 2018, when the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the process of using private, non-elected entities to appoint some of the panel’s members was unconstitutional.
After a controversial legislative fix was shot down by voters in a 2019 referendum, DeKalb’s General Assembly members went back to the drawing board and drafted a new, far less contentious bill.
This year’s effort — led by state Rep. Viola Davis — fixed the appointment issue by giving three appointments apiece to DeKalb’s House and Senate delegations. The seventh and final appointment was given to the county tax commissioner. The legislation also added a new “ethics administrator” position, a nod toward the checks and balances some critics had clamored for without eliminating the current ethics officer position.
Voters overwhelmingly approved the changes in a November referendum and, by law, the new ethics board will be seated by Dec. 31.
The new appointing entities opened a joint application process for potential board members about two weeks after the election. The application period closed at noon Tuesday.
It was not clear Wednesday how many applications had been received. Finalists were scheduled to be interviewed next week.
The existing board, meanwhile, opted to have one last meeting — despite the arguments of some.
The litigation that neutered the ethics board was brought by now-former — and now-indicted — DeKalb County Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton. Her attorney, Dwight Thomas, had tried to get Wednesday afternoon’s virtual gathering cancelled.
In a motion filed last week, Thomas argued that any meeting prior to the new board’s formation would be “in violation of the law, this Court’s order, and the Open Meetings Act.” He asked Superior Court Judge Asha Jackson to schedule a hearing.
That didn’t happen.
Attorney Kurt Kastorf, the ethics board’s litigation counsel, pointed out during the meeting that the newly ratified legislation specifically states that existing board members would serve through the end of the year. He also said that earlier court rulings held only that future board members should be appointed by elected officials.
“It doesn’t mean that the board members who were appointed when everyone thought they were [legally appointed] can’t continue to act,” Kastorf said.
Despite that, the board took little official action. Members approved the minutes from their most “recent” meeting (now nearly 28 months in the past). Ethics officer Stacey Kalberman briefly discussed the status of 23 pending cases that will carry over to the new board.
As the meeting closed, Tatum thanked his colleagues for their service on what he called “one of the most important entities within the DeKalb County government.”
“I’m hoping that the new board that comes in is allowed to function the way that I think it’s expected to function,” Tatum said.
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