City officials name new ethics board

Published 8:34 am Tuesday, August 25, 2020

A new ethics panel has been announced by Milledgeville City Council.

And already the panel looking at whether or not to move forward with a pair of pending ethics complaints. The two complaints were filed some time ago against two city officials by Gregory Barnes, a local businessman and pastor.

Dr. Veronica Womack, professor at Georgia College, along with Pam Beer, a former local newspaper editor; and Irvin Griffin have been named as members of the city’s new ethics committee.

Griffin is the only member who had previously served on the city’s ethics committee.

Milledgeville Mayor Pro Tem Denese Shinholster, who filled in for Mayor Mary Parham-Copelan at a recent city council meeting, explained that one of the appointments was by the mayor and one appointment was to be made by city council, while the remaining appointment was done jointly by the mayor and city council.

“On behalf of Mayor Mary Parham-Copelan, I would like to announce that the mayor has chosen to appoint Dr. Veronica Womack as her appointment to the ethics committee,” Shinholster said.

The mayor pro tem said city council members had discussed appointing Pam Beer to the committee.

City Alderman Walter Reynolds made a formal motion to appoint Beer. The motion was seconded by Alderman Richard “Boo” Mullins.

Afterward, Shinholster called for a vote. Shinsholster, along with Dr. Collinda Lee, also cast votes in favor of Beer. 

Two of the six city council members, Steve Chambers and Jeanette Walden, were absent from the meeting, which was live-streamed from City Hall due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. 

Shinholster later nominated Irvin Griffin to the city’s ethics committee as the city council’s joint appointee to the panel.

Mullins seconded Lee’s motion.

The nomination was later confirmed by all four council city members who attended the virtual meeting.

One of the first orders of business confronting the new city ethics committee is to decide whether or not complaints filed against City Manager Hank Griffeth and Milledgeville Police Chief Dray Swicord meet the criteria for an ethics hearing.

Barnes, who is founder and executive director of CREATE Inc., which focuses on an art tourism social enterprise business-brand with what he describes as a strong impact on the local economy, officially filed the complaints with the city late last December.

In his complaint, a copy of which was obtained by The Union-Recorder from the city, Barnes submitted a street closure request on behalf of CREATE Inc.

The request by the 501c3 tax-exempt business was related to an annual planned festival.

Barnes said Griffeth, who was serving as interim city manager at the time, acknowledged receipt of the request, which had been slated for Nov. 25, 2019.

At the time Barnes filed the complaint, he pointed out that nearly a month had passed since he made the request.

Barnes accused Griffeth and Swicord of the following:

•Continuing to deviate from the city’s established norms related to similar street closure requests; and

•Using “stonewalling tactics” to prevent a timely resolution to the request.

“I intend to prove, among other things, applications from a similar type 501c3 with similar street closure requests were handled very differently than CREATE Inc’s request,” Barnes said his formal complaint. 

Barnes explained that the success of the CREATE, Inc. festival, which is officially known as the ArtHealthy Festival, necessitates street closures.

He recommended either mediation to ensure future policy transparency or an ethics hearing to determine what he called the veracity of the complaint, by community peers.