Hearing date is set for ethics complaint against commissioner

The first meeting of the ethics board weighing a complaint against Gwinnett Commissioner Marlene Fosque was largely uneventful. But a potential timeline for the panel’s work became clearer.

The most important meet- ing in the process — an evidentiary hearing expected to feature evidence and testimony from both sides — will be held Dec. 19.

The ethics complaint against Fosque, a Democrat in her first year in office, was filed in August by D.A. King. King is the controversial founder of an anti-illegal immigration group called the Dustin Inman Society.

In July, King par- ticipated in a forum that Fosque organized to discuss the Gwinnett sheriff ’s participation in a divisive federal immigration enforcement program known as 287(g). Fosque later denounced King as “someone known for spewing hatred and bigotry and racism.”

King’s subsequent ethics complaint accuses Fosque of defamation. It also accuses Fosque of violating six tenets of Gwinnett’s ethics ordinance.

The ordinance was created in 2011 and is primarily aimed at rooting out corruption and preventing conflicts of interest. But it also includes more general guidelines about the behavior of public officials and employees.

The five-member ethics board assembled to hear the Fosque complaint held its first meeting Wednesday morning in a conference room at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center.

Local attorney David Will was voted chairman of the panel.

Steve Reilly, an attorney representing Fosque in the ethics proceedings, said he would be filing a formal response to the complaint within the allotted 30-day period.

Marlene Fosque