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News
Gilmer-Fannin Baptists target of complaint
BY CYNTHIA MAUDE, STAFF WRITER
Thursday, December 20, 2007 3:46 PM CST
A complaint alleging that the Gilmer-Fannin Baptist Association was not registered with the Georgia State Ethics Commission prior to the Nov. 6 referendum on serving spirits in Fannin’s restaurants has been filed with the ethics commission, Executive Secretary Rick Thompson said Tuesday.
The complaint, filed three weeks prior to the referendum election, “alleges that the Gilmer-Fannin Baptist Association didn’t form a political action committee though they spent over $500,” Thompson said. It further alleges that the association “didn’t file disclosure reports,” as required by law, he said.
According to the complaint, filed by Marjorie Vernay, the Gilmer-Fannin Baptist Association asked each of the 12 local Baptist churches that belong to the association “to contribute up to $2,000 individually.”
“If they are spending more than $500, they need to be registered with the state,” Vernay wrote in her letter accompanying the complaint. She identified herself as the treasurer for the “Keep Our Tax Dollars At Home” political action committee.
Vernay included four newspaper ads - three of which appeared in The News Observer - run prior to the Nov. 6 election. The ads “cost more than $500,” she said.
In the complaint, Vernay said she did not know if the Gilmer-Fannin Baptist Association was donating the money to Citizens Against Alcohol, which was registered as a political action committee with the ethics commission.
“If the Gilmer-Fannin Baptist Association is donating this money to the Citizens Against Alcohol group, they are likely contributing more than 40 percent of the funds for this registered political action committee,” she said. This exceeds the maximum limits.
Gilmer-Fannin Baptist Association Clerk Mark C. Young stated that he registered with the state ethics commission on Oct. 23, in his Nov. 7 response to the ethics commission.
In addition, Young said that he filed a campaign contribution disclosure report for the association with the Fannin County Board of Elections on Oct. 24.
“Our association is in no way affiliated with the group termed ‘Citizens Against Alcohol,’” Young said. “We did not ask churches to contribute $2,000 each and the money that was spent came from our regular checking account (general fund).”
“The money we spent was raised the same way it has been raised since 1914, collections from members,” Young wrote.
Thompson said that the Citizens Against Alcohol group registered with the State Ethics Commission Sept. 24, 2007. The ethics commission received a “final report” of campaign contributions from Citizens Against Alcohol postmarked Dec. 14, 2007.
The State Ethics Commission will hold a hearing on the complaint filed against the Gilmer-Fannin Baptist Association on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008, at 9:30 a.m. in its office located at 200 Piedmont Ave., Suite 1416-West Tower in Atlanta. The hearing is open to the public, Thompson said.
A five-member committee will hear the facts presented by the complainant and the respondent, discuss the facts and decide whether the Ethics in Government Act has been violated, he said.
Claude Mathis, chairman of Citizens Against Alcohol, said Monday that he “didn’t have any idea about the investigation.”
Mathis said that the State Ethics Commission had contacted him earlier and asked about his group’s relationship with the Gilmer-Fannin Baptist Association. “I think it’s the ‘yes’ voters trying to put fear into those who voted ‘no,’” he said.
Bruce Hanson, chairman of “Keep Our Tax Dollars at Home,” said he’d heard about the investigation but didn’t know much about it. “If a county is run by a single group, especially a church, it probably needs to be investigated often,” he said.
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