[DonBrownForMayor]

The State of Georgia requires that all candidates for public office, and current office holders, file Campaign Disclosure and Personal Financial Disclosure reports. There are clearly published requirements concerning who and when to file.

The current system only places a monetary fine on the candidate if they file late, or even if they don't file at all.

Do you think this is sufficient?

Link to search reports

[PUBBY]

Don:

Who should we look for?

And, how are things looking for the March 6 Mayoral race in Hiram. Is there early voting?

I heard someone else announced for the race but other than the first story, I've not heard anything of them.

pubby

[DonBrownForMayor]

Just use the cities in the search, both Hiram and Dallas. Unfortunately, most of our current office holders are on the "late/non filer" list.

As to the other candidate, Doris Devey also qualified to run. I don't know much about her. I met her at two of the Council meetings, and she seems to be a nice person. To see candidate reports, you have to search by name. Our deadlines were 15 days after qualifying for the Personal Financial Disclosure, which was Feb 9, and then 15 days before the election for the first Campaign Finance Disclosure, which was Feb 20. I don't know how long after the deadlines that the system is updated with the penalties.

I have a problem in that there doesn't appear to be a real penalty for not filing these reports. There are graduated fines, but in further reading, it doesn't appear to have any teeth. I don't see any method for them to collect the fine. It appears that you never really have to file, and there will be no consequence other than having an outstanding fine show up on this database.

There are no city or county requirements to file either.

[PUBBY]

Don:

Thanks for the update. I hate to say it but I think the lack of teeth in the ethics laws is by design.

I think when the GOP came in and pretty much took over the state in 2006 they made a lot of headlines about how it was going to be a new day and all but the plain fact is was 95 percent jawboning and very little, if anything, actually was 'improved.' Then the budget crunch hit and the 'state ethics board was re-organized and downsized and from what I gather, they lost all but one of its investigators in the transition.

And, like him or hate 'em, our current governor is one of those folks who is about as inspirational in the area of ethics as Tiny Tim was to rock'n roll.



Now I'm inspired

I'll check out the links.

pubby

[DonBrownForMayor]

LOL... I haven't thought about Tiny Tim in a long time! Most folks on here probably don't know who he is.

[surepip]

Last time I checked, our state rep, Ms Braddock had never correctly amended or filed all of her reports from July through November 2010. Nor was there ever a hearing, that I am aware of, for her "In Kind" donations which were WAY over the limits or explanations of how she spent what she did when she had no contributions to report.

The entire ethics board, and the way the legislature and governor has just unfunded them, is a sham, and an affront to the citizens of the state.

I follow the local contributions because Holland & Knight, the Atlanta law firm the Board of Commissioners has paid more than $1.2MILLION Dollars to in the past almost 6 years for litigation on our lawsuits for zoning fraud, has a PAC, ....Holland & Knight Committee for Responsible Government who has donated close to $250,000 during the past 6 years to Paulding politicians.

Although not always a DIRECT contribution, the trails are relatively easy to follow. They donate $2400 each to 10-12 obscure politicians around the state and then within days or weeks, those politicians donate $2000 or so each, to a Paulding politician, including a substantial amount to Braddock.

Richardson and Shearin were their primary donations in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

[Greatma]

DonBrownForMayor, on 23 February 2012 - 02:00 PM, said:

LOL... I haven't thought about Tiny Tim in a long time! Most folks on here probably don't know who he is.

I remember him. Don, just wanted to say good luck in the election next week.
If I could vote I would.

[surepip]

Still kind of pitiful that shortly after the Republicans took over the Governor's office and the house & senate that they gutted the Ethics Commission and have done virtually nothing for the past 2 years to even investigate ethics charges, let alone carry through and prosecute.

[PUBBY]

I actually like it that 68 percent of the folks would remove those ignoring that element of the law from office.

No doubt a portion of my attitude in the Hiram Mayoral contest was based on my subscription to that notion.

pubby