The above letter from the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission (GGT&CFC) dismisses all ethics charges made against me and the Milton Coalition.  I was specifically accused of operating an “unregistered independent commission” that was attempting to influence an election.  The trigger for this complaint was $99 that I spent to generally upgrade my blog.  The original complaint was sent in mid-July 2017, so has taken nearly 4 months to process.

Except for some brief comments at one council meeting, I have chosen not to dignify this complaint with any sort of response . . . until now.  I will not speak to the motives of the complainant.  All that I will say at this time is that the ethics complaint was false.  Furthermore, I intend to vigorously pursue all available legal avenues to achieve justice in this matter, including recoupment of my legal fees.

However, in this post, I will speak to the use of the complaint against me by others.  Unfortunately, my reputation was sullied for 4 months by certain Council Members and some private citizens.  Council Members Kunz, Lusk, and Thurman have all publicly asserted that I was “under investigation for ethics charges.”  Furthermore, emails have been disseminated to spread this assertion.  Following is an example of one such email from a citizen that forwarded a message from Mr. Lusk:

Mr. Lusk’s message is a gross distortion of the facts.  At no time was I accused of operating an illegal political action committee.  Mr. Lusk’s use of “citing his misconduct” is also meant to create a false impression of wrongdoing.  And of course, I have not just “appeared on the scene” but rather have been advocating for citizens for two years.

Quite simply, a complaint was lodged against me.  The complaint was forwarded to me for response.  I responded and asserted that the complaint was false, providing evidence to substantiate my claim.  The GGT&CFC compared the complaint and my response.  It also collected its own evidence.  Based on the complaint, my response, and its own evidence, the GGT&CFC ruled in my favor, stating “Commission staff were able to determine that the alleged violations of the Campaign Finance Act were either unfounded or otherwise permissible under Georgia law.”

I believe that use of the ethics complaint by Mr. Lusk and others against me was meant to silence me and/or blunt my influence in advance of the election.  Of course, this strategy did not work, as Ms. Bentley won in a historic landslide victory, with 71.23% of the vote.

At this blog, I have always strictly focused on 1) policy and 2) how elected officials and politicians comport themselves in the conduct of city business and their campaigns.  These are legitimate topics for discussion, debate, and criticism.  I have never criticized or called out private citizens.  I have never delved into the personal or exploited trivial issues for political gain.

The exploitation of the complaint against me by elected officials was intended to distract voters from these politicians’ records and from their own misconduct.  It typifies the all-too-commonplace politics of personal destruction that so many of us abhor and reject.  These elected officials’ personal attacks underscore why I got involved in local politics two years ago and why I stayed involved.  I wanted to clean up politics in our city and to focus debate on policy rather than the personal.  No Milton citizen should have to hire attorneys and spend thousands to dollars to exercise his/her First Amendment rights.  No Milton citizen should have their reputations sullied by elected officials that exploit our ethics laws for political gain.

Rather, we should encourage and incent participation in our local government and local politics.  Thankfully, with the most recent election, our community rejected dirty politics by electing 2 council members, Laura Bentley and Peyton Jamison, who are both dedicated to clean, competent, and citizen-centric government.  Fortunately, the most recent election made it much less risky for citizens to freely and vigorously participate in local politics.  Power was shifted back to citizens, where it belongs.

Advocating For Clean Government,

Tim Becker

Addendum to original post (added on April 30, 2018).  Following is video from the December 13, 2017 meeting of the Georgia Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission wherein the Executive Secretary states that the complaint against me had “no merit whatsoever factually.”

Transcript of excerpt from Report of the Executive Secretary of the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission:

“On our administrative dismissals, the authority to administratively dismiss cases that have no merit whatsoever factually or have no jurisdiction of the Commission has been granted to the Executive Secretary.  There was only one case that was dismissed.  We always report on these as a matter of courtesy so that people will know what they are.  This the matter of 20170171, the matter of Timothy Becker.  The complaint accused him of being an independent committee, which he was not per se based on his conduct.  Therefore, he was not prosecutable at all as an independent committee and was appropriately dismissed on that basis.“