Suit over Gwinnett ethics board’s legality is delayed

Board plans to rule in complaint against commissioner.

A Gwinnett judge decided Monday afternoon not to hold a hearing on a lawsuit challenging the legality of the county’s ethics board — at least not yet.

That ethics board, meanwhile, still plans to hold a Tuesday morning meeting to announce its decision in the case against embattled Commissioner Tommy Hunter.

Hunter’s attorney, Dwight Thomas, filed his lawsuit against the ethics board and two of its members last Wednesday morning, about an hour before the board was scheduled to hold its final hearing regarding the ethics complaint against Hunter. The suit alleges, in part, that the ethics board is unconstitutional because some of its appointments are made by private entities rather than elected public officials.

It also argues that the ethics complaint — filed Feb. 6, about three weeks after Hunter wrote his now-infamous Facebook post calling civil rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis a “racist pig” — is an attempt to punish the commissioner for exercising his First Amendment rights. Gwinnett’s ethics ordinance is intended primarily to target conflicts of interest and government corruption.

Gwinnett County Chief Superior Court Judge Melodie Snell Conner scheduled Monday afternoon’s hearing to address the lawsuit. But the actual case was never heard because, according to Conner, Thomas did not properly serve the other parties involved and did not submit other necessary paperwork before filing his suit.

The hearing will be rescheduled.

Even with that decision still looming, the ethics board intends to hold its previously scheduled Tuesday morning meeting. It will formally vote on the Hunter case and, if it sustains the ethics complaint, submit its recommendations to the Board of Commissioners.

The penalties it could suggest include only “written warning, censure or reprimand to be issued in public.”

The ethics board’s meeting is slated for 11 a.m. and would be completed before the Board of Commissioners’ scheduled 2 p.m. business meeting. But it’s unlikely any recommendations from the ethics board would be added to the commission’s agenda.

The county’s ordinance calls for a public hearing to be held on any ethics board recommendations before the commission adopts them, ethics board chairman David Will said.

Conner’s ruling on Hunter’s lawsuit could ultimately determine if any ethics board recommendations — and the ethics board, in general, as an entity — will stand.