ICYMI: Cobb County Wants Stronger Ethics Language

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Cobb County is seeking to close a loophole in the county’s code of ethics that lawyers for the Cobb County commission chairman tried to exploit to get an ethics hearing quashed last year.

In October of last year, resident Tom Cheek sought an ethics hearing against Lee for ignoring open records requests, using private e-mail addresses to avoid transparency laws, and overstepping his authority by hiring an outside lawyer to deal with the Atlanta Braves during the team’s move to Cobb County. Lee’s attorneys argued before the Cobb County Board of Ethics that the language in a portion of the code regarding elected officials and impropriety allowed enough flexibility to get Lee off the hook.

The current wording of the code of ethics states that “Officers by their conduct should avoid the appearance of impropriety, and the impression that any person could/can improperly influence them or unduly enjoy their favor in the performance of their official acts of duties.” Lee’s attorney said that “should avoid the appearance of impropriety” was merely a goal to strive towards and not a rule to be followed, the Marietta Daily Journal reports.

The ethics board didn’t buy the argument, but the hearing came to an end when Cheek withdrew his complaint after the first two allegations against the chairman were dismissed. Lee issued a public apology for his lack of transparency during the deal.

“While everything we did was legal, I am troubled by the criticism regarding a lack of transparency and that we could have done a better job of communication to eliminate genuine concern or confusion over how the project came about,” Lee wrote in his apology.

“In hindsight, I realize it would have been helpful to provide more information at the time of the public announcement about the private phase of the discussions before the deal was made public. For example, I could have provided a written summary to Commissioners and the public regarding the timeline and process of my discussions with the Braves. To the extent I could have done things differently and better communicated our actions, I sincerely apologize,” the apology continues.

Now, the county government wants to beef up the code and remove any ambiguities by mandating that officials “shall not create the appearance of impropriety,” the MDJ says. “Shall” is universally accepted as a legally-binding term.

Ethics board attorney Lynn Rainey told the MDJ that the board would like to be granted subpoena power as a useful tool in its investigations while it also works to change the code of ethics, but clarified that only he or future ethics board attorneys would be allowed to issue the subpoenas as the only legal professionals on the board.