The Albany Herald - Headlines Archives

	Headlines Archives - July 2005

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Four qualify for commission seat

Four candidates qualify to run for an open Dougherty County Commission seat.

James Diffee

ALBANY — The vice president of a nonprofit company and an engineer qualified for an open Dougherty County Commission seat Friday.

The two joined former Albany City Commissioner David Williams and pastor Rance Pettibone in the contest for the District 2 seat, which is scheduled to be decided in a special election Sept. 20.

The seat opened when former Commissioner William Hall resigned June 1 because he planned to move outside his district.

Qualifying began Wednesday and ended Friday.

John Hayes, the vice president of Albany Community Together, a nonprofit loan company, could not be reached at his office Friday. According to his notice of candidacy, Hayes, 49, has lived in Dougherty County and District 2 for three years.

Brenda Brown Lewis, an engineer at the Hilton Garden Inn and Conference Center, ran against Hall in 2002. She said she has lived in Dougherty County for 40 years, and in District 2 for six.

Lewis, 47, said she wants to increase police presence in her district, help bring in more business and get more District 2 residents involved in local government.

Some district residents will vote at a different church Sept. 20. The Dougherty County Board of Elections merged voting precinct 13, originally at River Road Church, and precinct 11, at Mt. Zion Baptist Church on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

Superintendent of Elections Carolyn Hatcher said the change was made to make voting more convenient for precinct 13 voters, many of whom had to drive past the precinct 11 station to vote.

Oxendine investigated on ethics

If the commission finds violations of Georgia's Ethics in Government Act, John Oxendine could be fined.

Dave Williams

ATLANTA — The State Ethics Commission found "probable cause" Friday to believe that Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine might have put to personal use about $40,000 in campaign contributions.

After a brief discussion, commissioners voted unanimously to further investigate five complaints filed against Oxendine by George Anderson, a self-styled campaign ethics watchdog from Rome.

The complaints could lead to a formal hearing. If the commission finds violations of Georgia's Ethics in Government Act, Oxendine could be fined.

Four of the complaints charge that campaign finance reports filed by Oxendine dating back to 1997 fail to justify long lists of expenditures — including many meals — as campaign related.

"There are times as a candidate for elective office that it's appropriate to use campaign funds to pay for meals," said Teddy Lee, the commission's executive secretary. "But if you simply list the expenses as 'meals,' our assumption is these are personal expenses."

Anderson's other complaint alleges that Oxendine transferred $5,500 in contributions from his insurance commissioner campaign fund into an account he established last year during the brief time he was a candidate for lieutenant governor. He later withdrew from that 2006 race and declared he would run for re-election to his current post instead.

Georgia law prohibits candidates from using money raised for one office on a campaign for another.

Oxendine's lawyer, Stefan Passantino, did not dispute that charge. He told commissioners Oxendine didn't realize the transfers were illegal and refunded the money to his insurance commissioner campaign when the law was called to his attention.

But Passantino objected to the other complaints as an attempt to force standards for reporting detail in campaign disclosures on Oxendine that have not been applied to other candidates.

"There is no evidence here that any of these expenditures weren't lawful," Passantino said.

But Commissioner Jack Williams Jr. said the sheer number of Oxendine's expenditures questioned by Anderson were enough to warrant further investigation.

"There's just a lot here," he said.

The commission did dismiss one complaint against Oxendine on a technicality.

One complaint involving the $5,500 transfer between his two campaigns was filed against his account for lieutenant governor for receiving the money.

However, state law only allows such complaints to be lodged against campaigns that contribute toward transfers, in this case Oxendine's insurance commissioner account.