Lobbyists fail to file reports

ATLANTA - Lobbyists, developers and others who spend more than $250 a year trying to sway the decisions of city or county officials are supposed to be filing reports with state and local watchdogs, but few such reports are on file, state auditors found.

In Georgia's 10 largest cities, only 22 incidents of lobbyist spending were reported to the State Ethics Commission in 2004, according to the state Department of Audits and Accounts. All of that reported spending was concentrated in just three cities: the consolidated government of Athens-Clarke County, Atlanta and Albany.

The lawmaker who asked for the audit finds those numbers hard to believe, especially with all the effort developers put into getting their proposals through county planning commissions and the like.

"Lobbying is happening," said Rep. John Heard, a Lawrenceville Republican who leads the House Information and Audits Committee.

Lobbying aimed at legislators is more widely reported. Last year the total was nearly $1 million by 1,300 registered lobbyists. That information is routinely used by journalists, political opponents and interest groups, but comparable data on local officials has never been as readily available to the public.

AMONG THE CITIES where no lobbying was reported as occurring: Augusta-Richmond County, Savannah and Marietta.

Similar results were found in the largest counties. Lobbyists reported spending significant amounts of money in only four of the state's 10 most populous counties. Chatham, Hall and Gwinnett counties were among those where no lobbying was reported.

In all, the audit found, lobbyists reported spending money in just 3 percent of Georgia's cities and just 6 percent of the counties. They reported spending just shy of $14,000 in 2004.

Despite this dearth of reported activity, Ethics Commission Executive Secretary Teddy Lee is cautious not to assert that required reports aren't being filed. He notes that it's hard to prove that reports are not being filed.

"Unless you follow a lobbyist 24 hours a day ... we depend upon them to report what they should, when they should and in the detail that they should," Mr. Lee told commissioners at a meeting last week.

Mr. Lee made much the same point in an interview during a break in the meeting. He said lobbyists might not spend much money on local officials.

"Maybe they just talk to them on the telephone," he said.

EVEN IF THE PROPER papers aren't being filed, it might not be a malicious effort to keep people in the dark. The state auditors say a lack of knowledge about the law could be contributing to the few lobbyist reports.

Georgia's laws are some of the most stringent in the nation when it comes to local lobbying, according to auditors. Anyone who spends more than $250 trying to influence local governments is supposed to file a report with both the ethics commission and city or county officials.

"If you're a building developer, you probably don't even think of yourself as a lobbyist," said John Abbey, the director of the Performance Audit Operations Division that produced the report.

The audit noted that local governments might not be forwarding their lobbyist reports to the state because they're not collecting them from the advocates in the first place.

"Even though state law requires lobbyists to file expenditure disclosure reports with the appropriate municipal/county clerks or superintendents of elections in addition to the State Ethics Commission, there is evidence that such information is not being provided to or collected by local governments," the audit says.

Mr. Abbey said some of the local offices contacted by state examiners seemed to think "maybe some other office does that," but the auditors had trouble finding local officials who knew of the requirements or, if they did, had seen recent filings by lobbyists.

"We ... didn't have much luck in finding that this was being done," he said.

OFFICIALS IN Savannah, Augusta-Richmond County and Athens-Clarke County told a similar story. They said few lobbyist-spending reports had been filed in recent years.

"No one has filed any paperwork with us recently for lobbying," said Gail Schrader, the elections superintendent in Athens-Clarke County, whose office would handle those files.

But, as did state officials, Ms. Schrader said there's no way of telling whether lobbyists weren't filing because they didn't have to or whether there was unreported spending.

"We just know nobody's filing," she said.

The audit makes no specific recommendations for ensuring that lobbyists are following through.

For his part, the lawmaker who requested the report said he doesn't think changes in state law are necessary.

"I think the law is in place," Mr. Heard said. "I think it needs to be enforced."

Mr. Lee said his office planned to reach out to local officials who should be keeping the lobbyists' reports and also would work to educate local lobbyists on what is required.

Mr. Abbey pointed out that there might be nothing wrong with the numbers.

"It may be exactly right as far as we know," he said. "You just can't tell."