A measure to create a citizen-led oversight commission for investigating and punishing bad-apple district attorneys in Georgia passed in the state House of Representatives on Monday.
Sponsored by Rep. Joseph Gullett, R-Dallas, the bill would set up a so-called “Prosecuting Attorneys Oversight Commission” to discipline and potentially remove local district attorneys and solicitors-general who abuse their office.
The bill follows controversy over the botched investigation into Ahmaud Arbery’s shooting death by Southeast Georgia prosecutors who had ties to the accused gunmen.
Made up of eight members, the oversight commission would be tasked with evaluating complaints alleging a district attorney’s or solicitor-general’s misconduct in office, incompetence, criminal behavior or mental incapacity.
The commission could then vote to punish the district attorney or solicitor-general by reprimanding them, removing them from office or forcing an early retirement. Commission members could convene in April 2022 and start receiving complaints in July 2023.
Five attorneys appointed by top state officials would serve on an investigative panel as part of the commission. The other three members would include a district attorney, a former judge and a citizen member who would hear evidence from the investigation.
Gullett’s bill passed by a 104-61 vote on Monday night and now heads to the state Senate.
Rep. Stan Gunter, R-Blairsville, a former district attorney in the Enotah Judicial Circuit, said the oversight commission would help weed out “bad apples” among Georgia’s prosecutors.
“A commission would be a good thing to assist the district attorneys in quelling these problems,” Gunter said from the House floor. “This is something we need for those people who can’t control themselves in office.”
Gullett’s bill comes after a local district attorney and attorney general were forced to recuse themselves due to close ties with the accused shooters in the death of Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was gunned down by two white men during a confrontation near Brunswick last year.
The lag between the February shooting and the May arrests sparked outrage over Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson’s and Waycross Judicial Circuit District Attorney George Barnhill’s handling of the case.
Gullett’s bill also advanced as the House passed a measure Monday to repeal Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law, which was used as a defense for the two accused shooters in the Arbery killing.
The two bills figure as part of a criminal-justice legislative push following Arbery’s death and protests last summer against racial injustice and police brutality.
The Georgia Senate revived and passed a bill Monday aimed at helping the state Department of Labor dole out long-delayed unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Marty Harbin, R-Tyrone, would create the position of chief labor officer in the state agency responsible for distributing unemployment benefits.
Harbin had moved to shelve his bill last Friday after pushback from opponents worried an appointed labor chief might usurp power from the state’s labor commissioner, which is an elected position.
But he brought the measure back Monday and called for a vote on the bill, which passed 32-18 with several Republican senators voting against. The legislation now heads to the state House of Representatives.
Under the bill, the chief labor officer would be appointed by the governor, pending approval from a Senate committee. The law creating the new position would be repealed in January 2023.
The legislation also would require the labor chief to produce reports on the progress of fulfilling unemployment claims, as well provide Georgians with access to unemployment information.
Last week, Harbin said his bill would give state labor employees a boost after months of trying to work through piles of unemployment claims during the pandemic.
“When you’ve got people who are calling you for months, that’s not good government,” Harbin said after withdrawing his bill on Friday.
Opponents warned installing a governor-appointed labor chief could allow partisan leaders to strip powers away from the elected commissioner of labor as well as open the door for workarounds to create other administrators to handle various elected jobs in the executive and legislative branches.
“We have ways of changing how the Department of Labor is run, and we do that every four years in November with an election,” Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, said last Friday. “I feel that this is a dangerous precedent.”
The labor department has paid out more than $19 billion in state and federal unemployment benefits to nearly 4.5 million Georgians since last March, more than during the last nine years combined prior to the pandemic.
The Georgia Senate passed two measures Monday to bar top state and local elected officials from continuing to draw paychecks after being charged with a felony for abusing their office.
Legislation to clamp down on paying suspended state officials comes after it was recently revealed former state Insurance Commissioner Jim Beck has continued receiving his salary for nearly two years since being suspended following his indictment on felony fraud charges.
The two measures sponsored by state Sen. Larry Walker III, R-Perry, would prevent suspended officials awaiting trial on felony abuse-of-office charges like Beck from receiving pay.
One of his measures would put to voters whether to bar pay for statewide officials like Georgia’s governor, secretary of state and insurance commissioner. The other would apply the same ban on pay for county and city elected officials.
Speaking from the Senate floor on Monday, Walker called his proposal a “common-sense measure” that would keep accused felons from abusing the state’s highest elected offices while awaiting trial.
“As elected officials we have a duty to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ money,” Walker said. “In the business world, we would not pay two employees to do one job, and you wouldn’t pay someone convicted of a felony to do a job.”
Walker’s two measures passed in the Senate with only one opposing vote from Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens. They now head to the state House of Representatives.
State law currently allows suspended officials to keep their salaries if they have not yet been convicted on the felony indictments they face.
That scenario sparked anger after Beck’s replacement, current Insurance Commissioner John King, told lawmakers earlier this year his indicted predecessor has been taking home his $195,000 salary since his May 2019 suspension.
That’s on top of taxpayers also paying King’s salary to do the job from which Beck was suspended. In all, state officials told lawmakers Beck had received roughly $343,000 in compensation since his suspension.
Federal authorities allege Beck orchestrated a scheme to steal more than $2 million from the Georgia Underwriting Association, where he worked for five years before being elected insurance commissioner in 2018. He faces 38 charges including wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering.
Beck has denied the charges and pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. His trial is scheduled to begin next month.
The Georgia Senate convened to vote on several major bills on voting and elections on March 8, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – A major overhaul of Georgia’s absentee voting system and other election changes brought by Republican lawmakers passed in the state Senate Monday by a party-line vote, sparking cries of voter suppression from Democratic leaders.
The wide-ranging bill, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan, R-Carrollton, was one of 12 measures focused on election changes up for debate on the Senate floor Monday, marking a swell of proposals to change voting procedures after the 2020 election cycle.
Dugan’s bill contains some of the most sweeping and controversial election changes pitched so far in the legislative session, including provisions to require a driver’s license or state identification card number to request an absentee ballot and do away with Georgians’ ability to vote by mail without giving a reason.
The bill passed by a 29-20 vote along party lines after more than three hours of debate. It now heads to the state House of Representatives.
Among about two dozen proposals, the bill also calls for prohibiting the use of mobile voting units unless a regular polling place is damaged, requiring outside groups to post disclaimers when sending voters absentee-ballot request forms and giving state elections officials power to assume control of poor-performing county election boards.
The proposals in Dugan’s bill overlap with several other Republican-backed measures that were set to be voted on Monday in the Senate, including a measure by Senate Rules Committee Chairman Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, to end no-excuse absentee voting that was ultimately shelved.
Two other controversial measures – both of which did not face votes Monday – would end the practice of automatically registering Georgians to vote when they obtain or renew their driver’s licenses and prohibit state and local elections officials from sending voters absentee-ballot application forms unless the voter requests one first.
Monday saw the Senate jam-packed on the last day for bills to cross out of one chamber and still be considered before the legislative session ends on March 31, with nearly one-fourth of the 45 bills dedicated to election changes.
Georgia Republican lawmakers argue the proposed changes are needed to shore up confidence in the state’s election system after the 2020 election cycle drew claims of voter fraud from former President Donald Trump, who lost the general election in Georgia to President Joe Biden by 11,779 votes. State election officials and federal courts have rejected those fraud claims.
Democratic leaders have blasted the GOP-brought bills, framing their opponents’ focus on election integrity as a smokescreen for wooing conservatives still loyal to Trump and to halt Democrats’ momentum after the party’s historic wins in the recent presidential and U.S. Senate contests.
Dugan, speaking from the floor on Monday, traced the intent of his bill’s more controversial proposals to the lack of confidence many Georgians have in the state’s process for verifying signatures on mail-in ballots, as well as to ease burdens for local election workers who were overwhelmed by huge numbers of absentee ballots in the 2020 elections.
He also argued many Georgians would still be eligible to vote by mail even by restricting absentee voting to physically disabled persons, voters required to be at work or those ages 65 and older.
“This is not preventing anyone from voting by mail-in absentee,” Dugan said. “All this is doing is laying the groundwork for relieving the stresses that we continue to see moving forward.”
Several Democrats shouted down Dugan’s bill from the floor, saying it would shrink opportunities for Georgians to vote by mail and at mobile polling places in predominantly Black and other minority communities in an attempt at voter suppression.
Sen. Harold Jones II, D-Augusta, noted there has been little proven voter fraud in Georgia and across the U.S., arguing far more voters would be disenfranchised by the proposals in Dugan’s bill than any instances of fraud.
“If our concern is just one vote could be lost, then doggone it, we ought to make sure we expand the franchise, not restrict it,” Jones said.
Others urged Republicans to abandon doubt in Georgia’s elections sowed by Trump allies that has battered electoral confidence among conservative voters, saying their perceptions have been fueled by the former president’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
“The foundation for every one of the elections bills introduced today is a lie,” said Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta. “This is weaponization of Trump’s lies and it is a willingness and embrace of damage to American democracy.”
The Senate’s Republican leadership dismissed arguments from Democrats that Dugan’s bill would suppress voters to the GOP’s advantage, sticking with the refrain that the measure’s aim is to bolster flagging confidence in Georgia’s election system among conservative voters.
“We want every person to vote,” said the Georgia Senate Republican Caucus. “We want elections to be secure. We are open to solutions, but Georgia will not be vulnerable to voter fraud.”
Several Republicans soured at the proposal to scrap no-excuse absentee voting including Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who recused himself from presiding over the Senate during Monday’s debate. Duncan has long opposed ending no-excuse absentee voting as has the House’s top lawmaker, Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge.
“The lieutenant governor has been clear from day one that the repeal of no-excuse absentee voting – a measure passed by Republicans in 2005 – is a non-starter,” said Duncan’s chief of staff, John Porter.
Some Republican lawmakers including Sens. John Albers, R-Roswell, Kay Kirkpatrick, R-Marietta and Brian Strickland, R-McDonough – all Republicans in contested districts – excused themselves from the vote. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, also excused himself.
Georgia senators could next take up a separate 66-page omnibus elections bill that passed in the House late last month, which contains many of the same proposals in Dugan’s bill but nixes the ban on no-excuse absentee voting.
That measure, sponsored by Rep. Barry Fleming, R-Harlem, includes dozens of changes to add stricter absentee voter ID rules, set a deadline for voters to request an absentee ballot at 11 days before an election and forbid people from giving food or drinks to voters waiting in line outside polling places.
Senate lawmakers also passed measures to require county elections officials to get monthly reports on dead residents to clean the voter rolls; allow poll watchers access to view ballot counting; require new security paper to track ballots for auditing purposes; curb changes for voters to receive more than one absentee-ballot application; and post signs 7 days ahead of an election if a polling place has moved.
The Georgia Senate shelved a bill Friday aimed at helping the state Department of Labor dole out long-delayed unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Marty Harbin, R-Tyrone, would create the position of chief labor officer in the state agency responsible for speeding up distribution of unemployment benefits.
Harbin scrapped his bill without a vote Friday after pushback from opponents worried an appointed labor chief might usurp power from the state’s labor commissioner, which is an elected position.
Harbin pledged to work on helping ease Georgia’s steep backlog of processing unemployment claims by “seeing if we could get that done without going through the process” of installing a new labor official.
Under the bill, the chief labor officer would have been appointed by the governor, pending approval from a Senate committee. The law creating the new position would be repealed in January 2023.
The labor chief also would have had to produce reports on the progress of fulfilling unemployment claims, as well provide Georgians with access to unemployment information.
Harbin said his bill aimed to give state labor employees a boost after months of trying to work through piles of unemployment claims during the pandemic.
“When you’ve got people who are calling you for months, that’s not good government,” Harbin said after withdrawing his bill.
Opponents warned installing a governor-appointed labor chief could allow partisan leaders to strip powers away from an elected official as well as open the door for workarounds to create administrators to handle other elected jobs in the executive and legislative branches.
“We have ways of changing how the Department of Labor is run, and we do that every four years in November with an election,” said Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula. “I feel that this is a dangerous precedent.”
The labor department has paid out more than $19 billion in state and federal unemployment benefits to nearly 4.5 million Georgians since last March, more than during the last nine years combined prior to the pandemic.
