A Peachtree City ethics board needed only 15 minutes Wednesday night to dismiss a complaint against city attorney Jim Webb.

The board voted 5-0 to accept the recommendation of attorney Andrew Whalen III of Griffin, who had been appointed by the City Council to advise the board.

Whalen said that since Webb and his firm serve the city as an independent contractor, he is not a public officer according to the city's own charter. Thus, he is subject to regulation only by the state's Supreme Court through the State Bar's disciplinary process.

The complaint against Webb was filed by Mike Hyde, stemming from a discussion at a 1997 council meeting concerning a proposed buffer ordinance. Hyde pointed out that Webb owned an interest in some property that would be directly affected by the ordinance.

As city attorney, Webb could be charged with an ethics violation only by his “client,” which is the mayor and council, Whalen said. Hyde, as a third party, does not have the requisite standing to file a complaint.

“You can't impose jurisdiction on a ruling body that has no jurisdiction,” Webb said moments after Wednesday's hearing. “I'm just glad we didn't waste any more of the city's time on this.”

Hyde filed his complaint days before Webb's firm, Webb, Stuckey & Lindsey, was to be potentially reappointed as city attorney, a post it has held since 1992. Mayor Bob Lenox announced at the March 2 council meeting that a decision would be delayed until this matter was settled.

City manager Jim Basinger, who attended Wednesday's hearing, said that he was fairly certain the reappointment would be back on the council agenda within the next couple of meetings.

Webb maintained that he acted appropriately when discussing the issue that led to the complaint, and said that Hyde's actions were completely political.

Noting that Hyde is the only city official ever hit with an ethics complaint that has stuck, Webb charged that Hyde got the information he used against him more than two years ago, and has waited until now to use it.

Webb also pointed out that Hyde sued the city over a zoning dispute concerning a piece of property he owned, and the city was represented by Webb in that case.

“He [Hyde] sat on this information for more than two years, then filed a complaint the day before my firm was to be reappointed as city attorney,” said Webb.

As for the buffer ordinance itself, Webb acknowledged that he had an interest in the property in question, on Ga. Highway 54, but he pointed out that the ordinance would have affected nearly every major collector road in the city, and a number of city officials would have been directly affected by it.

“What I told the council then was that the ordinance was very broad, and they should consider putting a mechanism in place where an individual property owner could come to the city if he or she felt wronged by it,” Webb said. “We [as property owners] never did that.”

When the ordinance was being considered, city staff sent letters to everyone they felt would be largely impacted by it, Webb said. He and his partners did not receive such a letter.

As it stood then, the ordinance would have affected his property only slightly, and perhaps in a detrimental fashion, he added.

Whalen began his remarks to the ethics board Wednesday by referring to a March 20 letter by Webb that suggested he was not subject to the city's ethics ordinance. Webb also noted that there is no statute of limitations in the ordinance, but a two-year statute for similar cases would be applicable, which would disqualify this complaint.

Whalen said that he examined the city's charter and could not find any provision for the office of city attorney. “In fact, the words “city attorney” do not appear to be used in the charter's provision where public offices are created,” he said.

Citing a 1995 case involving the city of Atlanta, Whalen showed that the state Supreme Court overruled a Court of Appeals decision and held that the city attorney was not a public officer just because of legal representation.

“The Supreme Court clarified the law in Georgia that every attorney who represents public sector clients is not automatically an officer or employee of the governmental entity,” Whalen said.

Using that criteria, he advised the board that Webb is not a public officer, but an independent contractor, and under the current city charter and ordinances is not subject to the ethics board's jurisdiction. Based on that opinion, he said that he did not find it necessary to address the statute of limitations.

Back to News Home Page | Back to the top of the page