Ethics commission looking into political group run by Frank Myers, John Thomas

The state’s ethics commission is investigating the committee two Muscogee County School Board members established to prevent one current and one former representative from being re-elected.

Stefan Ritter, executive secretary of the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, confirmed Friday the agency is determining whether District 8 representative Frank Myers and District 2 representative John Thomas violated state law through their organization NoMorePatAndCathy, which is campaigning against District 1 incumbent Pat Hugley Green and District 7 candidate Cathy Williams, who served for eight years as the nine-member board’s lone countywide candidate but didn’t seek re-election in 2014.

The runoff elections in those districts are Tuesday.

“We are investigating the ‘NoMorePatAndCathy’ organization and its failure to register and file ads as potential violation of the Campaign Finance Act,” Ritter told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email Friday.

DeAngelo Hall, the commission’s information and training specialist, said NoMorePatAndCathy appears to be an independent committee, not a political action committee, and therefore would have to register with the commission and file contribution and expenditure reports, which haven’t been filed.

The ethics commission defines a PAC as “any committee, club, association, partnership, corporation, labor union or other group of persons which receives donations aggregating in excess of $1,000 during a calendar year from persons who are members or supporters of the committee and which distributes these funds as contributions to one or more campaign committees of candidates for public office. Such term does not mean a campaign committee.”

A PAC isn’t required to register or file reports with the commission until it has collected and/or contributed $25,000 in a calendar year to Georgia candidates.

The ethics commission defines an independent committee as “any committee, club, association, partnership, corporation, labor union, or other group of persons, other than a campaign committee, political party, or political action committee, which receives donations during a calendar year from persons who are members or supporters of the committee and which expends such funds either for the purpose of affecting the outcome of an election for any elected office or to advocate the election or defeat of any particular candidate.”

An independent committee must register with the commission “in the same manner as is required of campaign committees prior to accepting or making any contributions or expenditures” and must file contribution and expenditure reports on a certain schedule.

Asked for their reaction to the ethics commission launching an investigation against their organization, Myers responded on behalf of Thomas with an email to the L-E.

“I am confident the entity John Thomas and I are involved in is a Political Action Committee and not an Independent Committee for reasons that are clear on the faces of the relevant statutes as well as the activities of our group,” Myers wrote. “I respectfully disagree with DeAngelo Hall’s analysis, and look forward to speaking with Mr. Ritter.”

Myers said Friday afternoon he had called Ritter but had not yet heard back from him. He said he understood that no complaint had been filed with the commission.

Ritter confirmed in his email that no formal complaint about NoMorePatAndCathy has been filed, “but, since we are now aware of the potential violations, we are looking into whether we will institute our own staff generated complaint. It is too preliminary to comment on the details of potential violations.”

Hall said he notified the commission’s staff attorneys after speaking Thursday with someone in the Muscogee County Elections and Registration Office, who relayed questions the office received about NoMorePatAndCathy.

Nancy Boren, the executive director of the elections office, explained in an email Friday to the Ledger-Enquirer how the ethics commission was alerted to the potential violations.

“The Elections Office received an inquiry about the registration of a campaign committee, No More Pat and Cathy,” Boren wrote. “Since committees are required to register with the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission and not the local elections office, there was no information on file. The Elections Office contacted the Commission to determine if a committee was registered and was informed that there was no information on file.”

In an open letter on the website NoMorePatAndCathy.com, Myers and Thomas solicit donations.

“And rest assured, your contribution will be kept CONFIDENTIAL,” they wrote. “As a Political Action Committee, we will not meet the monetary threshold which requires reporting of detailed information. Accordingly, when you contribute, you do not have to worry about your contribution becoming public, and you will not face retribution from the bullies who want to maintain the status quo or those who want to keep their no-bid contracts in place.

Myers and Thomas are trying to help JoAnn Thomas-Brown unseat Green in District 1 and Shelia Williams block Cathy Williams’ return to the board in District 7.

In addition to its website, NoMorePatAndCathy maintains a Facebook page and has communicated its message through TV ads and flyers.

This story was originally published July 23, 2016 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Ethics commission looking into political group run by Frank Myers, John Thomas."