Ethics hearing set for two Muscogee County School Board members

The lingering question of whether two Muscogee County School Board members violated the state’s campaign financing law last year will take another step toward an answer Thursday.

That’s when School Reform 2016, co-chaired by District 2 representative John Thomas and District 8 representative Frank Myers, is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing before the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, more commonly called the ethics commission.

In July 2016, the commission’s executive secretary, Stefan Ritter, confirmed to the Ledger-Enquirer that the agency was determining whether Myers and Thomas violated the state’s Campaign Finance Act as they unsuccessfully tried to help political newcomers JoAnn Thomas-Brown and Shelia Williams beat board chairwoman Pat Hugley Green of District 1 and former chairwoman Cathy Williams of District 7 in runoff elections.

In a July 27, 2016, letter to Myers and Thomas on behalf of the ethics commission, deputy executive secretary Bethany Whetzel sent notice of the complaint, alleging School Reform 2016 is an independent committee, not a political action committee.

An independent committee raises and spends money to help or hinder a candidate for elected office. Therefore, it must register with the ethics commission and file contribution and expenditure reports, just like a candidate. The commission says School Reform 2016 didn’t register before accepting contributions and making expenditures and hasn’t filed a disclosure report.

A political action committee, also known as a PAC, is considered more focused on advocating for issues instead of individual candidates and isn’t required to register or file reports with the ethics commission until it has collected and/or contributed $25,000 in a calendar year.

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.”

Specifically, the commission identified four expenditures that advocated for the defeat of Green and/or Cathy Williams: two TV ads, the NoMorePatAndCathy.com website and a mailer endorsing Shelia Williams.

In an Aug. 31, 2017, letter to Myers and Thomas on behalf of the ethics commission, Whetzel said if the commission finds “no reasonable basis that School Reform 2016 was acting as an independent committee,” then the commission would allege that their group made contributions to the campaigns of Thomas-Brown and Shelia Williams that exceeded the maximum allowed by state law 21-5-41(b), which sets $2,000 as the total limit in a primary or general election cycle for a public office that isn’t statewide and $1,000 in a runoff.

In an email Tuesday to the Ledger-Enquirer, Whetzel further explained the difference between an independent committee and a political action committee:

“A political action committee (PAC) gives contributions directly to a candidate,” Whetzel said. “Expenditures made by a PAC (contributions to candidates) are subject to maximum contribution limits. An independent committee makes independent expenditures. An independent expenditure is defined by the commission as ‘a political campaign communication that expressly advocates the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate that is not made in cooperation, consultation, or concert with or at the request or suggestion of a candidate or candidate's authorized committees.’ Independent expenditures are not considered contributions to a candidate because they are done independently of the candidate.”

Thomas told the Ledger-Enquirer in an interview the allegations will “prove to be groundless” and School Reform 2016 was “perfectly within the guidelines of conducting that sort of activity during the campaign. I’m not concerned.”

Thomas said School Reform 2016 was a political action committee, not an independent committee.

“They’re bending over backwards,” Thomas said of the ethics commission. “… I don’t understand why they’re pursuing this.”

Noting the hearing will be more than a year after the allegation surfaced, Thomas called the issue “totally ridiculous.”

Then he added, “I guarantee you: If it’s not dismissed, they have not heard the end from us. If they twist the rules to the extent of saying, ‘You violated this rule,’ OK, we’ll see you in court.”

If the commission finds a violation of the Campaign Finance Act occurred, it has the authority to direct the violator to:

▪ Cease and desist from violating the Act;

▪ Make public complete statements containing the information required by this chapter (to refile and correct the reports at issue);

▪ Pay a civil penalty of up to $1000 per violation for first violation, up to $10,000 per violation for second violation) or up to $25,000 per violation for third or subsequent violation.

This story was originally published September 19, 2017 at 3:16 PM with the headline "Ethics hearing set for two Muscogee County School Board members."