The future may be bleak for the comprehensive ethics bill, HB 798. There are only about 15 more legislative days until the infamous crossover day. This day marks day 30 of the legislative session, and the last day a bill can move from one chamber to another. If the bill does not make it out of the rules committee and pass the House, it cannot become a law. The process will have to start all over again next year.
Despite the cries of many concerned citizens, House Republicans have not given this bill the attention it deserves. It appears that Speaker Ralston’s wishes are more important to our legislators than ours. I’m very disappointed that the Republican representatives were not willing to defy the Speaker and co-sign the bill. The logic just doesn’t make any sense because the AJC recently found that 82% of Republican citizens said that they support a lobbyist gift limit. William Perry, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, confessed, “Essentially there’s one man standing in the way of letting the bill move forward.”
Ralston’s opposition to the bill is completely irrational. He claims that the current laws provide sufficient limitations and transparency. The problem is that he has a vested interest in defending the current laws because he is the one who passed them! The last ethics reform law was a step forward, but it was not nearly comprehensive enough. Even HB 798 has been criticized for not going far enough, but it would be a huge surge forward.
The Speaker’s stance may also be attributed to the fact that he has been the recipient of many of the most lucrative lobbyists’ gifts, including a $17,000 trip to Europe in 2010. The AJC reported last month, “House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, downplayed the need for more ethics legislation last week, saying lawmakers must report gifts quickly and voters can easily track gifts with the click of a mouse. He believes they will let legislators know whether they are unhappy.”
It’s time to show Speaker Ralston and the rest of our Representatives that we are NOT HAPPY with the current ethics laws. Take the time to contact him and show him that it is the voice of the people that control the Georgia House and not the threats of one bully.
You can send an email through our website
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Call Speaker Ralston personally at 404-656-5020
As a current Georgia Whistleblower in Fulton County Superior Court, many of my former University System of Georgia colleagues support HB 798 as our elected officials will not even address the fact that our Georgia Constitution has allowed their employer, the Board of Regents of the USG, to become what is commonly known throughout campuses as Georgia’s very own “Southern AIG” as they have no accountability to anyone. Section IV of the GA Constitution states: “The government, control, and management of the University System of Georgia and all of the institutions in said system shall be vested in the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. (c) All appropriations made for the use of any or all institutions in the university system shall be paid to the board of regents in a lump sum, with the power and authority in said board to allocate and distribute the same among the institutions under its control in such way and manner and in such amounts as will further an efficient and economical administration of the university system.
See: http://www.sos.ga.gov/elections/GAConstitution.pdf
Now the BOR is discussing the merging of colleges to “save money.” Our elected officials need to look closely at the pockets of the BOR’s top administrators and USG presidents and read the article that discloses where much of the millions of our tax dollars is really going. See: ttp://www.atlantaunfiltered.com/2009/10/05/university-execs-deferred-pay-often-hidden-tops-7-million/
The fact that the Board of Regents’ attorney, Attorney General Sam Olens, has sealed the facts in my Georgia Whistleblower case should be a “red flag” to Georgians as well given that he was recently appointed the attorney for the State’s Ethics Commission Director and mandates “government transparency” to others – but NOT in the cases he and his office defend. I have been asked to attend the public forum of the General Assembly when HB 206 – stronger Whistleblower laws – is discussed. I will be there. Someone for the USG employees and students has to be. One violation alone that their attorney, Attorney General Sam Olens, does not want you to read is the confirmed fact that appeals submitted by USG faculty, staff and students are not even read by the members of the BOR’s Committee on Organization and Law as they are made to believe – a serious breach of legal due process statewide. There is more…..much more.
Post above left out one letter: See: http://www.atlantaunfiltered.com/2009/10/05/university-execs-deferred-pay-often-hidden-tops-7-million/