Friday, July 1, 2005

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Ethics hearing set for Yeager

By LEE WILLIAMS
lwilliams@TheCitizenNews.com

State Ethics Commission officials will hold a formal hearing this month to determine if Coweta County Sheriff Mike Yeager inappropriately used the sheriff department’s assets during his recent reelection campaign.

A hearing on the issue will be July 29 at 10 a.m. at the State Capitol in Room 341. The hearing will be held in response to claims made by Lynn Bradley, Scott Ruppert and former sheriff challenger Scott Smith.

In June 2004, the two Newnan men and Ruppert of Senoia filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission in Atlanta. The commission held a preliminary hearing Feb. 25 and ruled a formal hearing would be scheduled.

“After a consolidated preliminary hearing on five complaints, the Commission found reasonable grounds to believe that the Ethics in Government Act had been violated and all matters were set down for an Administrative Procedure Act hearing,” the Commission said.

The citizens allege Yeager committed multiple violations of Georgia Code 21-2-3 when he used the sheriff department’s assets for political campaign purposes during the 2004 election cycle.

The men photographed some of the alleged infractions. In one unauthenticated photograph, a “Re-Elect Mike Yeager” campaign sign is displayed in the window of the East Coweta Precinct.

The men also alleged that a re-elect Yeager campaign banner appeared on an unofficial Coweta County Sheriff’s Office Web site. That Web site linked to an official Web site used to pay traffic fines to the county.

The men produced an unauthenticated copy of the campaign banner dated July 8, 2004 that allegedly appeared on the site.

Yeager denies he violated the law. He volunteered during the informal hearing that he accidentally gave his work e-mail address to the printer of a printing company and the e-mail address appeared on his campaign brochures.

If the commission finds Yeager guilty, it could impose up to a $1,000 civil penalty for each infraction, state ethics officials said.