In a little more than an hour Thursday night, DeKalb County’s powerful ethics board showed it means business, launching investigations against two elected officials it could end up removing from office and two county staffers it has the power to fire.
The board’s first big action will be to hold preliminary hearings sometime in June on two outstanding complaints that date back to 2011.
But the six-member board unanimously agreed to let its advising attorney start investigating the cases against suspended CEO Burrell Ellis and County Commissioner Elaine Boyer as well as those against suspended Purchasing Director Kelvin Walton and Ellis’ former secretary, Nina Hall.
“We are moving the ball forward so we can hold a full hearing on these cases as quickly as possible,” said acting chairman John Ernst.
The ethics complaint against Ellis asks he be removed from office based on the allegations of political corruption in the 14-count indictment against him.
A separate complaint asks Boyer also be removed from office, citing a March investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that found she rang up thousands of dollars in personal charges on her county-issued Visa card. She reimbursed most of the money within months but the usage, and that by chief of staff Bob Lundsten, appears to have violated county policy.
The cases against Walton and Hall – whose sworn court testimony indicated they were involved in activities that led to the corruption case against Ellis could result in their firings. Interim CEO Lee May has suspended the pair, with pay, until the court case is settled.
By state law, the DeKalb ethics board has great power to fire and remove elected officials, though it has never exercised that authority.
This year, for the first time, the board has the funding to hire outside investigators to help decide complaints. The board has given its attorney, Gene Chapman, the ability to hire those investigators as needed.
A closer look at the cases and timeline will be on www.MyAJC.com Friday afternoon.
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