Grandmother Challenges Ethics of Ethics Commission by Garland Favorito
Garland Favorito is with Carolyn Cosby.
Grandmother Challenges Ethics of Ethics Commission
ATLANTA, GA – Canton Tea Party founder Carolyn Cosby, a 67-year-old grandmother with physical health challenges, is appealing ethics complaints that she should have registered her small social interest groups as political action committees. The claim alleges she expressly advocated for or against issues or candidates while Cosby contends the advocacy was implicit. Her July 25th appeal hearing in Fulton County Superior Court presented a new challenge to the ethics of the Georgia State Ethics Commission.
The commission’s reputation was shattered in 2012 when it was forced to pay over $3 million dollars to four former employees in wrongful termination lawsuits after they were fired or had their pay diminished while the commission investigated the 2010 campaign of Governor Nathan Deal. The commission was subsequently defunded, restructured and renamed the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission. It then cut a “Deal deal” which fined the Governor $3,350 for questionable expenditures that were not fully investigated. These included over $300,000 in non-disclosed or potentially misdirected payments involving his daughter-in-law and private plane flights.
But in Cosby’s case, the commission applied a double standard. An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) fined her $30,000 although Cosby’s total expenditures for all groups were likely 1/10th of that. The commission never held a final hearing to review the ALJ decision. Cosby’s attorneys Bruce Fein and Stephen Humphreys argued her disproportionate fine and selective prosecution are arbitrary and capricious as well as a retaliatory attempt to silence watchdog groups who oppose the political establishment.
Georgia law states that anyone who may affect the outcome of an election must register as a committee, however, the commission has never attempted to enforce the law before [O.C.G.A. 21-5-3], O.C.G.A. 21-5-34]. Fein explained the U.S. Supreme Court already ruled in the 1976 Buckley v. Valeo case that Cosby’s implicit advocacy is protected by the 1st Amendment. Asst. Attorney General Christian Fuller, who represents the commission, did not refute that argument. Fein made the same argument at the ALJ hearing but Judge Stephanie Howells stated she could only rule on Georgia law, not constitutional issues even though she is sworn to uphold the U.S. and Georgia Constitutions.
Mrs. Cosby has established a new website to defend free speech rights. She first came under scrutiny from a complaint filed by a former Cherokee County commissioner. Cosby incurred much wrath after exposing “Bobo’s Boondoggle”, a landfill deal that was bungled by commissioners and cost Cherokee taxpayers millions of dollars.
Judge Jane Barwick will rule on the appeal. The Ethics commission chair is Mary Paige Adams and its Executive Director is Stefan Ritter. Ritter successfully argued for the state to retain its unverifiable voting system in a 2009 Georgia Supreme Court case.
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Garland Favorito: New Voting System Excludes Election Integrity Experts
June 11, 2018
Contact: Garland Favorito
VoterGA.org …(404) 664-4044
New Voting System Panel Excludes Election Integrity Experts
ATLANTA GA – When Secretary of State (SOS) Brian Kemp’s new 18 member voting system commission meets on June 13th it will include no election integrity (EI) advocate and no information technology (IT) operations professional. The commission does include a cybersecurity expert as recommended by local EI advocates during the last legislative session, but neither of the other two critical disciplines recommended will be represented on the commission.
National EI experts have publicly hacked the type of voting machine Georgia uses at Princeton, Georgia Tech, and the U.S. Congress. Local EI advocates are the only individuals, who have compiled a history of Georgia voting system problems, documented Georgia voting system vulnerabilities and personally advocated for specific legislative changes to protect Georgia voters.
Nationally recognized EI experts at Verified Voting provided testimony and assistance for the Georgia House Science & Technology committee last year. Local EI groups include Voter GA, Georgians for Verified Voting, and Defenders of Democracy. They have up to 16 years of verified voting system research and voting system issue tracking that dates to before the current system was installed in 2002. Other local groups who are strong voting system integrity advocates include Common Cause Georgia, Madison Forum, and Electronic Frontiers of Georgia.
In lieu of such expertise, two lobbyists with no obvious elections experience were added to the commission as “voters at large”. One registered lobbyist is close to House Speaker David Ralston. Another is a member of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council that made three unsuccessful attempts to legalize no-knock searches in 2015. EI advocates are concerned about lobbyist involvement in the voting system selection. They claimed in the last session that incumbent voting system vendor ES&S and their lobbyist Georgia Link exercised undue influence over SB403 bill language in the House at the expense of voter protections. They argued legislators are obligated to protect Georgia voters, not out of state vendors.
The omissions and anomalies raised concerns again that leaders could “hard wire” a deal to current vendor ES&S before a new incoming SOS can take office. The system ES&S promoted and deployed in a 2017 Rockdale pilot tabulates votes hidden in unverifiable barcodes while showing the voter selections that may be different. EI advocates unanimously oppose another such unverifiable vote system.
Georgians Celebrate First Victory against Permanent Tolls, SRTA Credit to Private Parties (SB183)
PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Garland Favorito
Phone: 404-664-4044
March 17, 2017
Georgians Celebrate First Victory against Permanent Tolls Extension of Credit to Private Parties also struck down
ATLANTA GA – Citizens activists are cautiously celebrating their first victory today in a battle to prevent Georgia from becoming a permanent toll road state. On Thursday, the House Transportation Committee voted to strip the permanent toll road language from the highly controversial SB183. The committee also voted to further revise the bill language so that the State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA) could not extend credit directly to private organizations and individuals, another controversial point. The new, amended bill also appears to close a loophole that may have allowed tolls on existing road capacity.
Citizens had spoken out against another clause that removed the competitive bid requirement however, that clause was included in the committee substitute bill that was passed Thursday. Proponents argued that the original language was consistent with current Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) procedures that allow “value engineering” in lieu of competitive bidding.
The original SB183 sailed through the Senate by a 50-1 vote before hitting a brick wall of vocal activists who discovered the bill content as it reached the House Transportation Committee. A rubber stamp of approval was expected for Sen. Brandon Beach’s bill in the committee since it was co-sponsored by three of Gov. Nathan Deal’s floor leaders.
However, committee members significantly altered the bill before passing it Thursday, much to the pleasure of attendees who had unanimously spoken against the bill in the first hearing on March 9. Those attendees were particularly complimentary towards Committee Chairman Kevin Tanner who they felt made a concerted effort to understand the bill, listen to their concerns and find common ground to make the legislation as palatable as possible for all viewpoints.
The revised bill now moves to the Rules Committee where it will likely receive passage to the House floor for a vote. Georgians cannot relax if the House votes to pass the measure. Once SB183 passes the House, the House and Senate versions will be sent to a Joint Committee that will decide which version should be adopted. That committee could discard the House version and send the Senate version to the House for a floor vote.
Watchdog Group Leaders Call for Ralston’s Resignation
PRESS RELEASE
Tuesday April 29, 2014 Contact: Garland Favorito
(404) 664-4044
Watchdog Group Leaders Call for Ralston’s Resignation
ATLANTA, GA –A dozen leaders of various organizations plus many other concerned citizens gathered at the Capitol today and made a personal call for House Speaker, David Ralston, to resign his seat. A complaint with evidence of three separate ethics related concerns was delivered to Governor Nathan Deal.
The leaders contended that the Speaker’s House procedures are dictatorial and subvert the principles of a representative democracy. They asserted that all decisions as to what bills are heard and which bills can be voted to move to the floor are made in secrecy and not by votes from their elected representatives. They further lamented that bills can be gutted, supplemented, modified or limited for debate without a floor vote or permission from the authors.
Secondly, the leaders contended that the Speaker and some Representatives flood certain House races with money to elect candidates who will accept the established dictatorship. Records of a 2012 primary show the Speaker’s $5000 and $27,000 from legislators, helped create a 5:1 spending advantage for a candidate who raised 93% of his funds from legislators, corporations and PACs. His challenger, a minister, raised 96% of his money from individuals. The leaders cited such funding as conflicts of interest that undermine the will of the people in the districts.
Finally, the leaders insisted that the Speaker and some Representatives conducted a politically motivated, false attack on a bill introduced by Rep. Sam Moore with intent to destroy his reelection chances. Records proved that the Speaker and some of the same Representatives are funding Moore’s previous primary opponent, who is running for that seat again. Legislators contributed over $17,000 of the $30,000 total for his opponent, who raised only about $800 from in district individuals. Moore has refused to take cash from corporations, PACs, lobbyists or legislators.
To disprove the Speaker’s claim that one of Moore’s previous bills to remove loitering laws would have jeopardized children, three separate child protection statutes and current loitering laws were explained. The leaders contend the Speaker had to know that the legal premise of his claim was false since he was a criminal defense attorney who represented several child molesters in high profile cases.
Georgia ranks as America’s most politically corrupt state. Its ethics commission was recently found liable for a $700,000 judgment in the first of several wrongful termination suits by employees who were involved in investigating Gov. Deal.
Press Conference 4 29 14 from Wonderland on Vimeo.
David Ralston complaint delivered to Governor Deal
________________________________________
April 29, 2014
Dear Governor Deal,
We are writing to personally request your immediate attention to several matters that we believe have compromised the rights of Georgians. First, for the last five years the Georgia House of Representatives has not operated on principles of a representative democracy as Georgians would expect. As you know, the officials who we elect have no voice in determining what bills are heard in their committees and little power to select any Rules committee bill to be moved to the floor for voting. Furthermore, bills can be gutted, supplemented, modified or restructured to limit debate without a floor vote or permission from the author. Bill decisions are now made in secrecy under control of one person, House Speaker David Ralston. These House procedures are not representative of a democratic republic but more closely resemble characteristics of a dictatorship that is contrary to the interests of the people of Georgia.
Secondly, the Speaker of the House and some of its members have compromised Georgia elections by flooding selected House races with out of district money for their chosen candidates. This is a conflict of interest that subverts the will of the people in those districts. These chosen candidates outspend their opponents by astronomical margins to win their races. They are then beholden to the leadership when they join the House, thus further expanding this dictatorial empire. For example, in 2012 Speaker Ralston and certain House members contributed more than $27,000 in out of district donations to prevent a minister from being elected to the Georgia House. Their candidate raised 93% of his total funds from legislators, corporations and PACs including an early $5,000 from Speaker Ralston. This allowed him to outspend by a 5:1 margin, the minister who raised 96% of his funds from individuals.
Third, the election manipulation tactics reached a new low on February 21, with a public attack on a Rep. Sam Moore and a bill he introduced. It included advance notice of an event to the media, pre-arranged ridicule by the leadership in the morning session and a subsequent media tirade where Speaker Ralston and a few others attempted to destroy the reelection chances of the Representative. The Representative had previously defeated a candidate that the Speaker and other House members had flooded with over $17,000 of out of district money. Their candidate raised only a few hundred dollars from in district individuals out of $30,000 in total funds. Rep. Moore has refused to take cash donations from corporations, PACs, lobbyists or legislators and accepts them only from individual voters.
The politically motivated attempt to ruin a sitting House member could be unprecedented in Georgia House history and was obviously orchestrated with the approval of the speaker. While we may not agree with all of the content of the bill in question, the attack was based on a provably false, legal premise. As a former criminal defense attorney, the Speaker had to know that the claim he and some others made to the media about that bill was false. That demonstrates a serious lack of ethics.
In conclusion, the conditions and tactics we have outlined above are unacceptable. The Center for Public Integrity has already ranked Georgia as the most politically corrupt state in the country. Our state received grades of “F” in Legislative Accountability, Political Financing and Ethics Enforcement Agencies, which scored a “0”. We have no recourse with the Ethics Commission given that its ethics were recently found lacking after a $700,000 judgment in the first of several wrongful termination lawsuits filed by former key employees. As Chief Executive Officer of the state and head of the majority party that controls the legislature, you have the top position of authority and power to protect Georgians from further corruption. Therefore, we personally call upon you to:
1. Demand that the Speaker of the House resign his seat as a result of the ethics lapses cited above
2. Establish procedures to ensure that all legislators can vote to determine the bills that will be heard in their committees
3. Establish procedures to ensure that all legislators in Rules Committees can vote to select any bill in the Committee to be moved to the floor
4. Require recorded votes for all bills and amendments in committees and on the floor
5. Ensure that a bill cannot be modified while it is in a Rules committee
6. Ensure that a bill can only be limited for floor debate by the author or a floor vote
7. Allow legislators 24 hours to review any legislation prior to voting on that legislation
8. Stop the practice of pressuring key legislators to make donations to other campaigns
9. Evaluate further legal or procedural changes to avoid conflict of interest funding situations that compromise elections and the voice of the people such as those described above
We thank you for your consideration and await your efforts to restore the integrity of our Georgia state government.
Sincerely,
• Chris Owen, President, Eagle Forum
• Jack Staver, Chairman, N.W. GA. 912 Project
• Margaret Williamson, founder, Gilmer County Tea Party
• Angela Bean, Republican State Committee Member
• Field Searcy, Director, Repeal Regionalism
• Julia & Karl Heidbrink, co-leaders, Middle Georgia Tea Party
• Garland Favorito, Founder, VoterGA
• Sue Stanton, Conservative Leadership Coalition
• Barbara Hartman, President, Chattahoochee Republican Women
• Conrad Quagliaroli, Chairman, Cherokee County Tea Party
• Dr. Bill Hudson, co-founder, Transportation Leadership Coalition
• John Fortuin, co-founder, Defenders of Democracy
CONCERNED CITIZENS