By PAT NEWMAN
pnewman@thecitizennews.com

Less than a month after opponents of last year's Fayette County Board of Education sales tax referendum were cited for ethics violations, opponents have filed their own ethics allegations against pro-sales tax forces.

Bill Webster of Peachtree City, father of four daughters and friend of anti-sales tax activist Carl Avrit, Tuesday filed a complaint with the state Ethics Commission, alleging the political action committee Fayette Citizens for Continued Excellence in Education, co-chaired by Janet Smola and Don Apking, violated the Georgia Ethics in Government Act on four counts.

The two political action committees went to battle last summer on either side of the Board of Education's special purpose local option sales tax. Voters turned down the sales tax Sept. 21. It was designed to raise $90 million for school construction.

Smola filed an earlier complaint against Avrit, and the Ethics Commission earlier this month ruled that Avrit violated the state code by failing to identify the funding source of prerecorded phone messages.

In a “statement of facts” concerning his complaint thsi week, Webster said there were two violations with regard to illegal campaign contributions and deceptive financial filings, a third with regard to no identification on advertising, and a fourth regarding unreported coordination of campaign efforts with the Fayette County Board of Realtors.

This is the third round of ethics complaints emanating from the referendum. The first was filed by Fayetteville resident Claude Paquin against the Fayette County Board of Education. The complaint was dismissed by the Ethics Commission.

The second ethics complaint was filed by Smola against Avrit. He was found in violation of the ethics code in January, but not fined.

Smola said the third complaint filed by Webster was “nothing but retaliation.”

“My feeling is that he (Teddy Lee, secretary of the state ethics commission) will take a look at this... If that office determines that I made a mistake in any way, shape or form, I will apologize to the voters of this county,” Smola said. “I feel like all the issues will be laid to rest. We've taken our guidance from the state ethics commission and this complaint was filed in retaliation for his friend (Avrit) being found guilty of ethics violations,” Smola added.

Webster said he waited to file the complaint until all the reports were filed and he had a opportunity to examine the committee's records. “If this is how they want to play the game, OK,” Webster said Tuesday, referring to the prior complaint filed by Smola against Avrit. “It was a childish and petty thing to do,” he said.

The first complaint claims the Fayette Citizens for Continued Excellence in Education, “failed to report either the full value in expenditures or as in kind contribution in value” of newspaper ads which exceeded $1,000. The second complaint involved the “declaration of in kind value of $500 for the 20,000 pamphlets printed by Continuous Forms and Checks. The third complaint stated that the name and title of the principal officer of the pro-SPLOST committee did not appear on the “SPLOST Fact Sheet. Webster also claims the committee and the Fayette County Board of Realtors failed to “disclose coordinated efforts in regard to graphics which appeared on campaign signs and pamphlets.” Finally, Webster said that if the signs are determined to be a donation to the committee, they failed to report it.

Smola responded to the first charge by referring to the state attorney general's position on limiting contributions to $1,000, claiming the limits are “almost unconstitutional.” Secondly, Smola said the “fact sheet” was in essence a piece of internal correspondence used by the speakers when addressing groups about the SPLOST. The company which printed the pamphlets, Continuous Forms and Checks, is a large national company which has a different rate schedule than the smaller printing operations approached by Webster for comparable estimates, Smola said. Finally, she said the Board of Realtors issue did not involve the pro-SPLOST committee.

It is up to Lee to determine if there should be a hearing on the complaints.