Two New Members Added to Milledgeville Ethics Board, Reviewing Complaint Against City Councilman
MILLEDGEVILLE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Three qualified members are now sitting on the Milledgeville Ethics Committee.
Last week, City Attorney Jimmy Jordan told 41NBC Baldwin State Court Judge Alan Thrower couldn’t serve on the board because he is an elected official. During Tuesday night’s city council meeting, city leaders learned a second member couldn’t serve. Jordan says Clifton Wilkinson, a professor at Georgia College and State University, informed city leaders he moved out of the city limits.
Under the rules of the ethics ordinance, members sitting on the board must live in the city limits, be registered voters, and can not hold an elected office.
Jordan says Mayor Richard Bentley appointed Charles Moore, a local attorney, to the board. He also recommended Mike Holmes, the vice-president of academic affairs and the dean of faculty at Georgia Military College. City council approved Holmes’ recommendation. Moore and Holmes join board member Patricia Hicks to make up the complete ethics committee.
This change in board members comes after the city received its first ethics complaint against city councilman Phillip Joiner. It is the first complaint filed since Milledgeville became a city of ethics and created an ethics committee back in March 2012.
Jordan says Moore and Holmes will receive information packets containing the ethics ordinance as well as the complaint. The board will review it and determine if the complaint is valid.
For complaints determined to be valid, the board has 60 days from when the complaint was filed to hold hearings, collect evidence, and listen to testimony before coming to a decision.
41NBC is following this developing story. Stay with 41NBC and 41NBC.com for updates.
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