Houston officials missing disclosure reports say oversight system flawed | Politics | Macon.com

WARNER ROBINS — Want to know if an elected official has personal investments or campaign backers that may have inspired his or her latest decision?

There’s supposed to be a way to find out: state-required personal financial and campaign contribution filings, complete with penalties for failing to file or filing late.

But several officials in Houston County have not kept up with those filings, according to a review by The Telegraph. Some who’ve missed the filings have been fined, and some have not, while others say they have been fined even when they have complied.

“As long as there are people out there that aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do and people who want to circumvent the law, it’s going to be problems,” said Holly LaBerge, executive director of the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission.

Some Houston officials say the issue is more complicated than that.

How it is

Failure to alert the state when local candidates are elected, says LaBerge, explains why there are so many missing personal finance disclosures for Houston County officials and others around the state.

Until three weeks ago, Warner Robins Mayor Chuck Shaheen had not filed a personal financial disclosure since he was elected. The three councilmen also elected in 2009 — Daron Lee, Mike Daley and Paul Shealy — were also missing some of the same forms. Daley was missing two, Shealy one and Lee two until this summer when, he says, he realized the mistake while filing mayoral campaign paperwork.

LaBerge said the system didn’t know Shaheen and the councilmen had been elected in 2009 because the agency doesn’t actively seek names of candidates or elected officials. It’s the same reason the system didn’t fine them or note Shaheen as a non-filer.

“The qualifying officer was supposed to submit that information,” she said. “Obviously, they didn’t.”

When The Telegraph notified Shaheen he was missing forms, he filed two of the three he was missing. When contacted, he would say only that “my reports are up to date.”

So what about that remaining missing form?