New ethics chief was fired from previous job | www.myajc.com

The veteran lawyer tapped in December to restore confidence in Georgia’s beleaguered ethics commission was fired four months earlier from his job as a state administrative law judge for “failure to meet performance expectations,” according to records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Robert Constantine was removed in August from a $100,000-a-year post with the state Board of Workers’ Compensation, personnel records show. Two commission members told the AJC on Monday that they knew Constantine had been dismissed from the judgeship but said they remained confident in his leadership.

“He’s the right person to try and help straighten out the ethics commission,” Commissioner Lawton Jordan said.

Not everyone agreed. Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, one of the leading advocates for strengthening the state’s ethics laws and giving the commission the tools it needs, called Constantine’s firing “cause for concern.”

“It’s something I’d want to know more about, about the circumstances,” McKoon said. “I think alarmed is a fair description.”

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