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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has spent years following infighting, funding lapses and legal challenges plaguing the state’s ethics commission. To see an interactive timeline detailing that coverage, go to MyAJC.com.
The state ethics commission on Monday voted unanimously to fire its executive director, Holly LaBerge.
The move comes less than a week after a Fulton County Superior Court judge said LaBerge had been "dishonest and non-transparent" over the course of a whistleblower lawsuit filed by her predecessor.
LaBerge was placed on leave, with pay, on Friday.
Judge Ural Glanville on Wednesday sanctioned the Attorney General’s Office and LaBerge and ordered each to pay $10,000 in fines for failing to turn over key documents in the lawsuit filed by former ethics commission director Stacey Kalberman.
Commission Chairwoman Hillary Stringfellow said Glanville’s order shows LaBerge’s conduct “fundamentally conflicts with the specific mission and purpose of this commission and therefore with her own duties and responsibilities as executive secretary.”
“Ms. LaBerge must be regarded as disqualified from continuing to serve as a representative of this commission,” Stringfellow said.
There was no public discussion among commissioners, who met via teleconference, and the vote was 4-0. Commissioner Heath Garrett abstained from the discussion because his political consulting and communications firm, COMM360, represents Attorney General Sam Olens.
Stringfellow did not immediately respond to questions, including whether LaBerge was given a severance package.
LaBerge referred questions to her private attorney, Lee Parks. But on her Facebook page, LaBerge on Monday posted this quote from the French philosopher Voltaire: “It is dangerous to be right when your government is wrong.”
LaBerge might not go quietly. Parks wrote commissioners in July and warned that LaBerge considers herself a whistleblower, too, and indicated she would consider legal action.
Parks said Monday that LaBerge is “reviewing all options to deal with the situation.”
He has previously said LaBerge will appeal the judge’s ruling. Olens said last week that he has yet to decide whether to challenge the sanction.
LaBerge's time in office has been marked by controversy. Even her hiring was controversial. Her predecessor, Kalberman, claimed in her lawsuit against the ethics commission that she was forced from office for aggressively pursuing investigations into Gov. Nathan Deal's 2010 campaign. A Fulton County jury agreed and in April awarded her $700,000 in damages and $450,000 in back pay and attorneys fees.
Three other former employees of the commission, formally known as the Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, settled related whistleblower claims against the state for an additional $1.8 million.
Over the course of Kalberman’s lawsuit, LaBerge revealed that she was contacted by someone in Deal’s office before Kalberman was removed to see whether she would be interested in Kalberman’s job. The governor’s office later confirmed that Ryan Teague, now Deal’s executive counsel, had called LaBerge but said it was not unusual or nefarious.
Teague called LaBerge in May 2011. Kalberman and her top deputy, Sherilyn Streicker, left in June, and LaBerge was hired in August 2011.
It was also Teague, along with Chief of Staff Chris Riley, who called and texted LaBerge in the week before the ethics commission considered the cases against Deal's campaign. LaBerge claimed in a July 2012 memo that Teague and Riley "pressured" her and "threatened" the agency if the cases weren't settled to Deal's liking.
A week later, the commission voted to dismiss major complaints against the governor, who paid $3,350 in fees for minor defects in his campaign reports.
LaBerge gave the memo to Olens’ office, but his staff determined it did not have to be given to Kalberman’s attorneys. Although the memo includes word-for-word copies of some of the text messages LaBerge received, she never provided Olens’ staff or Kalberman’s attorneys with copies.
Parks, LaBerge’s attorney, blamed Olens’ staff for not specifically requesting them from LaBerge, while Olens said his lawyers asked repeatedly whether LaBerge had more documents related to the case and were told they had everything.
Glanville found both excuses lacking and fined both LaBerge and the Attorney General’s Office. But while the judge expressed sympathy for Olens’ team, he called LaBerge “dishonest and non-transparent.”
Now that LaBerge has been fired, Georgia Democrats are calling for more dismissals.
“Yes, she ought to go,” said state Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta. “But Chris Riley and Ryan Teague are really central to this cover-up, and they ought to go as soon as possible. They either need to resign or Nathan Deal needs to fire them.”
Deal, however, sought to distance himself from the ethics commission saga.
“They are an independent agency, and I don’t have any direction to offer to them,” Deal said of LaBerge’s ouster, adding: “It’s a personnel matter as far as I’m concerned.”
Deal has tried to steer clear of the controversy, even though his lieutenants recruited LaBerge and contacted her even as ethics complaints against his campaign were being vetted, and the governor wrote a letter of recommendation for her to Leadership Georgia.
When asked about Fort’s comments that Riley and Teague should face a similar fate as LaBerge, Deal defended his deputies.
“That’s ridiculous. It’s a purely political statement. They need to be talking about something more substantive, that moves the state forward,” Deal said. “Hopefully they will get on board.”
He then talked about his legislative proposal, which came out in the wake of the Kalberman trial, to expand the ethics commission and allow the judicial branch to appoint members. He said it would make it a "totally impartial panel."
Said Deal, “That’s the only recommendation that I’m making in terms of the structural arrangement.”
