An East Cobb resident opposed to Cobb County’s attempt to use home rule powers to conduct reapportionment has filed an ethics complaint against Commissioner Jerica Richardson, whose bid to stay in office is at the heart of the controversy.
Debbie Fisher alleges in her complaint to the Cobb Board of Ethics that Richardson is engaged in a conflict of interest due to a political action committee she formed to fight her redistricting by the Georgia legislature.
In her complaint filed on Monday (you can read it here), Fisher said Richardson should have recused herself from discussion and two votes in October in which the commission’s Democratic majority approved redistricting maps that would have kept her District 2 relatively unchanged.
In addition to seeking a reprimand and/or censure of Richardson, Fisher wants to void Richardson’s votes on the maps, which would result in a 2-2 deadlock.
Last year, the Georgia legislature passed HB 1154, which contains maps that placed Richardson’s home in East Cobb into District 3, where Republican JoAnn Birrell was re-elected in November.
In addition to vowing that she wouldn’t step down, Richardson set up a 501(c)(4) non-profit last March, For Which It Stance, Inc., to fight what she said was an “unprecedented” move to draw a sitting elected official out of office.
In what she and her supporters have called “Jerica-mandering,” Richardson has insisted that home rule is legal and necessary to invoke for redistricting so that her 200,000 constituents have representation.
The For Which It Stance website said it was dedicated to “protecting local control, empowering local voices,” and seeks financial donations, sells merchandise and offers memberships ranging from $25 to $100 a month.
Unlike 501(c)(3) non-profits, a 501(c)(4) organization can “push for specific legislative outcomes that align with our values and core mission,” according to the For Which It Stance site.
Fisher further alleges in her complaint Richardson “also violated the code of ethics by failing to disclose, in writing or verbally, the conflict and the collection of money through the 501(c)(4) Corporation’s website which clearly creates a Fiduciary conflict of interest that disqualifies Commissioner Richardson from participating in discussion in whole or part and from voting on this issue.”
The ethics board is a seven-member body appointed by the Cobb Board of Commissioners, the Cobb Tax Commissioner, the Cobb Sheriff, the Cobb Solicitor General, the chief judges of the Cobb probate and magistrate courts and the clerk of the Cobb State Court.
Under a local ordinance, the ethics board has 60 days to conduct an initial review to determine if there’s enough evidence in the complaint to warrant a further investigation. The complaint could be dismissed or the board could set a hearing date to formally consider whether an ethics violation occurred.
Fisher is a local Republican activist who told East Cobb News that “I like Jerica and I don’t necessarily agree with how the maps were redrawn but this has been taken too far.”
East Cobb News has contacted Richardson and East Cobb resident Mindy Seger, the executive director of For Which is Stance, seeking comment.
Seger would say only that For Which It Stance “will not be commenting on the complaint at this time.”
East Cobb News also contacted Lynn Rainey, the attorney for the ethics board, who said Richardson has 30 days to respond to the complaint.
Richardson, a Democrat, was elected to a four-year term in 2020, succeeding longtime Republican Bob Ott, in a District 2 that included some of East Cobb and the Cumberland-Vinings area.
In 2021, she moved into a home off Post Oak Tritt Road, which at the time was located in her District 2.
The Cobb delegation, which had a one-Democrat majority, approved maps that would have kept Richardson in District 2. But that map was never voted on, as Cobb GOP legislators did an end-run around that longstanding courtesy.
Under Georgia law, Richardson would have had to move into the new District 2 by Dec. 31 of last year to run for re-election in 2024.
After the commission Democrats voted in October to file the county delegation maps with the state, Birrell and fellow Republican commissioner Keli Gambrill objected, saying those maps are unconstitutional.
Gambrill suggested then that Richardson recuse herself, citing a conflict of interest.
Richardson didn’t respond to those concerns, and said before the second vote that “this is beyond partisanship. This is about the balance of power among all 159 counties and the state General Assembly. This ensures that future state and federal politics won’t play a role in our local government’s daily operations.”
Earlier this month, Birrell and Gambrill tried to abstain from voting at the commission’s first meeting when they were told the county maps would be in force. They left the dais after an executive session and as Chairwoman Lisa Cupid threatened to have them escorted away by security, saying board policies didn’t allow them to abstain without a “valid” conflict.
On Tuesday, the two Republican commissioners cast votes but issued statements of protest and disputed the Jan. 10 meeting minutes saying they voted to go into executive session when they insisted they had not.
East Cobb resident Larry Savage is expected to refile a lawsuit soon in Cobb Superior Court challenging the county’s home rule stance.
In perhaps its best-known case in recent years, the Cobb ethics board dismissed a complaint against then-commission chairman Tim Lee in 2014 for his handling of the Atlanta Braves stadium deal.
The same year, Savage filed ethics complaints against the four Cobb commissioners who voted for the stadium deal, but those were also dismissed.
The only commissioner not subject to that complaint was Cupid, then a district commissioner for South Cobb.
In defending the vote to approve Cobb delegation maps instead of the state-approved maps in October, Cupid said “this is not something that we can just move past . . . this is not something that we can just take lying down.’
Related:
- Cobb Republican commissioners vote, contest meeting minutes
- Activist groups organize over Cobb electoral map dispute
- Ga. Attorney General: Cobb electoral maps are ‘not legally binding’
- Cobb Republican commissioners leave meeting over abstentions
- East Cobb resident files lawsuit over Cobb commission maps
- Cobb passes home rule resolution over redistricting in party-line vote
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Debbie, just sit this one out. You are being used as a pawn as the courts will sort this out. If I elect a local official, the state legislature does not have the right to remove that official and disregard the citizens vote. This is an example of Big Government at its core.
Good for you, Debbie! You have been a fighter for the rights of the citizens of Cobb County – and state and national issues- for years. Your efforts and hard work on this travesty of political hijinks here is commendable!
Debbie is one of those kooks you see at every commission meetings complaining about some nonsense of the month she finds on twitter or right wing it radio.