Man Who Filed Ethics Complaint Against Lee Drops Complaint During Hearing

The Cobb County Commission Chairman survived an ethics hearing concerning his handling of the Atlanta Braves’ relocation to Cobb County when the man who brought the complaint dropped it in the middle of the hearing on Thursday night.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Tom Cheek questioned one witness before the Cobb County Ethics Board and then dropped his case against Tim Lee. Cheek said that he dropped his case against Lee because of the chairman’s written apology regarding the situation and the ethics board’s decision not to rule on Cheek’s allegations that Lee violated the Georgia Open Records Act.

The ethics board was advised by its attorney to dismiss the two complaints brought against Lee for violations of the act because a court of law had not made a decision in the matter. The attorney argued that a conflict could arise if the board decided Lee’s actions constituted a violation but a future court ruled against them.

Despite escaping the ethics board unscathed, Lee said that the chain of events that led up to Thursday’s hearing would help him change the way he and the county conducted its business, and felt that in the long run the entire situation would prove beneficial for the county.

The ethics hearing was the latest in a litany of legal challenges brought forth by various parties in the wake of the announcement that the Atlanta Braves will move to Smyrna by Opening Day 2017.

Earlier this month, a Smyrna property owner who had filed a lawsuit against the Braves for allegedly low-balling them on an offer to buy their parcel near the site of SunTrust Park and then threatened to wall off the property if they did not sellsettled with the team.

In February of 2015, the Georgia Supreme Court will decide whether or not a Cobb County judge’s ruling to validate the issuance of nearly $400 million in bonds was constitutional.