But Didn’t They Say They Fixed It?

But Didn’t They Say They Fixed It?

Didn’t the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners fix the problem with Partnership Gwinnett by asking the Gwinnett Chamber to set up a new Partnership Gwinnett that is separate from the Gwinnett Chamber?

The Gwinnett Board of Commissioners (BOC) wants us to rest easy and not worry about the taxpayer money that has already been spent by the Gwinnett Chamber and the taxpayer money that is continuing to flow to them. The new contract between the county and the Gwinnett Chamber required that the chamber set up a new entity, called Partnership Gwinnett PFE, to receive taxpayer money and allow for greater transparency.

Even with the new PG PFE, I can't tell Partnership Gwinnett (PG) from the Gwinnett Chamber. The PG Pledge Form lists all of the benefits of making an investment in PG, but many of those benefits are related to the Gwinnett Chamber. Open the link below to see all of the Gwinnett Chamber benefits for PG investors. Because PG PFE is for public funds, why would public entities need to be members of the Gwinnett Chamber Chairman's Club? Will that membership be shared on a pro-rata basis with all taxpayers in Gwinnett? Will each taxpayer get the "elegant customized executive gift" or will that go to the elected official who voted to give taxpayer money to PG PFE? The investment in PG PFE includes invitations to exclusive meetings with state and local officials. Will the local officials who voted for this meet with themselves in exclusive meetings?

http://www.partnershipgwinnett.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/PG-Pledge-Form-Investment-Levels.pdf

Do they have a PG PFE for public funds and a regular PG for private funds, or is it all one entity?

The chamber executive who will be running this new Partnership Gwinnett PFE, and who also ran the old Partnership Gwinnett, described himself in this manner: "Senior Vice President with the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce ("GCoC") and is responsible for Economic Development and Partnership Gwinnett." How will he decide when to do which job? When he lobbies in the future on issues like TSPLOST, will he be an employee of PG PFE in the morning, working on issues to benefit taxpayers and be paid with public funds, and then have lunch with a state legislator to lobby for a tax measure and be paid by the Gwinnett Chamber, and then work on economic development in the afternoon and be paid by the regular PG? The staff of the new PG PFE is the same as the staff of the old PG, sitting in the same Chamber of Commerce offices, doing exactly what they were doing before the new PG PFE. What has changed?

The Partnership Gwinnett website says, "The second iteration of the plan began in January 2012."  Was that the PG PFE iteration, or another PG iteration? How will the Gwinnett Chamber CFO figure out how to do payroll if each employee will spend part of their time working for the Gwinnett Chamber and part of their time working for the taxpayers? Are Gwinnett’s school board members going to continue to use education funds to pay the salaries of Gwinnett Chamber employees and, if so, will those people now become employees of the new Partnership Gwinnett PFE or will they still work for the Gwinnett Chamber? Do these school board members plan to ignore Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens and Georgia School Superintendent John Barge, who don’t believe this is legal? Will GCPS continue to classify the payments to chamber employees as “banking fees” in their budget? Maybe the school board can get the chamber to lobby the legislators to change the law so Sam Olens can’t say it is illegal anymore.

Even on the PG Pledge Form, it directs those making payments to send the application to Craig Brown, CFO, Gwinnett Chamber. It is so confusing; I may have to email the Gwinnett Chamber at a Gwinnett Chamber email address, as that is what they tell people on the PG website to do if they have any questions. If I don't do that, maybe I will send an open records request to the person designated on the PG website to handle open records requests: Craig Brown, CFO, Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce.  Doesn’t that make you feel completely comfortable that this new entity was formed to protect the taxpayers and provide complete openness and transparency?

I’m still confused by the line on the Partnership Gwinnett Pledge form that says Partnership Gwinnett is an initiative of the Gwinnett Chamber:

Return this Application to:
Craig Brown, CFO
Gwinnett Chamber
6500 Sugarloaf Parkway
Duluth, GA 30097

For questions, please contact Nick Masino  678-474-1703 or email nick@gwinnettchamber.org
Partnership Gwinnett is an initiative of the Gwinnett Chamber

Perhaps after reading this, Gwinnett Chamber and PG PFE officials will say it was only an error on their website, and they will remove all of the items that caused my confusion. Do they expect taxpayers to feel better after a few clicks of the delete key on a computer? If this is deleted from the website, and the chamber is successful in keeping the open records lawsuit confidential, I suppose they think taxpayers will be just like our elected officials: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

Have elected officials been successful in restoring YOUR trust in local government?

Shelly Nix
Buford, GA