DeKalb takes slow approach to ethics funding request | www.myajc.com

Concern over where investigators will look, not a lack of cash, is holding up the DeKalb County ethics board’s request for $57,000 to boost its effectiveness.

DeKalb commissioners are moving slowly on the effort, saying that political vendettas could drive more complaints if the board is able to hire professional investigators.

“Who’s recommended for investigation has been used for political purposes before,” Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton said. “We are going to work through this and take time to make sure it’s done right.”

That explanation isn’t likely to win over residents, who have been bombarded with a near-daily stream of negative headlines about county operations for months, said Bill Baker, the interim director of the Burruss Institute of Public Service and Research at Kennesaw State University. DeKalb’s problems include indictments on corruption charges in separate cases against both the suspended county CEO and the former head of the school system.

Voters see ethics boards in the same vein as internal affairs offices of police departments, Baker said. When they ferret out problems, they gain public trust — and build good reputations.

“It can be used as a political tool, yes, but just for that, do you look away from ethics?” Baker asked. “Given the low level of trust in government in general and DeKalb’s experience in particular, it’s clear it’s time they have an ethics board in more than name.”

The county’s charter orders DeKalb to give the ethics board whatever it needs to ensure that elected officials and county workers are following the rules.

That makes the ethics board a state mandate. And state Rep. Mike Jacobs, R-Brookhaven, said he has been watching the issue closely and will gladly introduce specific language when the Legislature convenes in January if DeKalb officials don’t act soon.

“I think making it clear the ethics board can hire a law firm, which can provide a package of services to include investigators, would solve the problem,” Jacobs said. “I sense the public sentiment is very much in the ethics board’s corner on this one.”

via DeKalb takes slow approach to ethics funding request | www.myajc.com.