State Rep. Matthew Wilson (D-Brookhaven) announced legislation he will file in January to reconstitute the appointment process for the DeKalb County Board of Ethics.  Rep. Wilson’s drafted bill follows the overwhelming defeat of November’s countywide referendum which proposed significant changes to the board that many feared would gut the board’s effectiveness.
 
The DeKalb Board of Ethics has been unable to do its work for over a year due to a 2018 ruling by the Supreme Court of Georgia that held a majority of the appointed positions to be unconstitutional.  The law as it was passed in 2015 allowed four of the board’s seven positions to be appointed by non-elected entities throughout DeKalb County, including the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce and DeKalb Bar Association.  The court ruled these appointments to be unconstitutional because the non-elected entities are not answerable to DeKalb voters.
 
Earlier this year, the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 7 that would have altered the make-up, jurisdiction, and authority of the board.  A referendum to enact SB 7 appeared on November’s ballot and was defeated by 61 percent of DeKalb voters.
 
“When DeKalb voters voted down SB 7 by 61 percent, they sent us a clear mandate: give us a clean bill to fix the constitutional issues first,” said Rep. Wilson.  “That is exactly what my bill does,” he added.
 
Rep. Wilson’s bill proposes to change only the board’s appointment process.  Under his bill, both DeKalb delegations serving in the State House and State Senate would each get one appointment, in addition to single appointments by the chief judge of DeKalb’s Superior Court, DeKalb’s probate judge, and DeKalb’s chief magistrate.  The remaining two positions would be appointed by a consensus of the mayors and city council members of the cities wholly within DeKalb County: Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, Chamblee, Clarkston, Decatur, Doraville, Dunwoody, Lithonia, Pine Lake, Stonecrest, Stone Mountain, and Tucker.
 
“I hope the DeKalb legislative delegation will move swiftly in January to pass this bill so we can get the Board of Ethics back up and running without any further delay,” Rep. Wilson said.  “We owe it to the voters of DeKalb County to respect their will, and I believe a stand-alone bill to fix the appointment process separate from any other proposed changes is the best way to do that.”