The DeKalb County Board of Ethics on Thursday unanimously dismissed allegations that Commissioner Larry Johnson used his taxpayer-backed charge card for personal purposes.
Board members said they didn’t see a problem with Johnson using his purchasing card to donate $12,000 from his office’s budget to the Porter Sanford Performing Arts Center from 2012 to 2014.
“I just wish some of the other elected officials who have used their P-cards to wine and dine people would have used the funds … to help a community organization,” said Bobbie Kennedy Sanford, a member of the Ethics Board.
Johnson said it was appropriate for him to financially support the Porter Sanford Center after it underwent budget cuts.
“That was a good investment to our children and our seniors,” Johnson said.
An attorney for Rhea Johnson, the DeKalb resident who filed the ethics complaint, said he didn’t believe the commissioner should have funded the Porter Sanford Center outside the county’s regular budgeting process.
“He’s violated the budget procedures of the county,” said attorney Stephen DeBaun. “The transfer of funds from an individual commissioner to a county agency bypasses that and therefore would not be legal.”
The vote to dismiss the complaint was 5-0, with Sanford abstaining because the Porter Sanford Center is named for her late husband.
Mawuli Mel Davis, an attorney representing Commissioner Johnson, said he was worried that the ethics process was used to damage Johnson’s reputation.
“It’s those kinds of wild allegations that will cause people to lose faith in their public servants,” Davis said. “The only person who has suffered here is the commissioner.”
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