Council sets rule for trips

Responding to Augusta official, ethics board says families can't join lawmakers on lobbyist-paid trips

Web posted October 12, 2000

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By Dave Williams
Morris News Service

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. - Georgia's Ethics In Government Act does not allow elected officials to take their families on all-expenses-paid trips sponsored by lobbyists, the State Ethics Commission declared Wednesday.

But citing the law's unclear wording, commissioners voted unanimously not to penalize state Rep. Robin Williams for taking members of his family to three conferences in Florida during the past two years.

``I don't think he set out to intentionally violate the law,'' commission member Richard Yarbrough said. ``I just think we have a very vague statute to consider.''

Mr. Williams, R-Augusta, asked the commission to rule on the issue in February after Stephen Alfred, director of the Georgia chapter of Common Cause, told The Augusta Chronicle the lawmaker might have violated the law, which limits elected officials to accepting ``reasonable'' expenses for appearing at lobbyist-sponsored events.

The Medical Association of Georgia paid more than $3,300 for Mr. Williams and five family members to attend its annual convention at Amelia Island, Fla., in August 1999, more than five times the expenses incurred by any other lawmaker for that event.

His tabs for the association's 1998 convention at Amelia Island and for an event in June 1999 at Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., sponsored by the Georgia Society of Ophthalmology, also were substantially higher than other legislators' expenses, Assistant Attorney General Kyle Pearson told commissioners Wednesday.

Mr. Williams lost his re-election bid in July's Republican primary to Sue Burmeister, who raised the ethics case as a campaign issue. She is unopposed in the Nov. 7 general election.

Also Wednesday, the ethics commission approved an agreement with Georgia Sen. Donald Cheeks resolving a complaint filed against the Augusta Democrat.

To avoid being fined by the commission, Mr. Cheeks has agreed to correct omissions and inaccuracies contained in campaign-finance reports filed with the secretary of state's office, said Teddy Lee, the commission's executive secretary.

The items involved the dates of contributions to Mr. Cheeks' campaign, the occupations of donors and the purpose of campaign expenditures, Mr. Lee said.

Reach Dave Williams at (404) 589-8424.

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