{"id":15037,"date":"2020-01-29T10:23:08","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T15:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/?p=15037"},"modified":"2020-01-31T13:52:59","modified_gmt":"2020-01-31T18:52:59","slug":"proving-who-is-more-equal-gwinnett-ethics-panel-recommends-commissioner-marlene-fosque-written-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/2020\/01\/29\/proving-who-is-more-equal-gwinnett-ethics-panel-recommends-commissioner-marlene-fosque-written-warning\/","title":{"rendered":"Proving who is more equal: Gwinnett ethics panel recommends commissioner Marlene Fosque written warning AJC"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gwinnett County Commissioner Marlene Fosque. Image Gwinnett County website<\/p><\/div>\n

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AJC<\/strong>
\nJanuary 27, 2020<\/p>\n

The Gwinnett County ethics board delivered a split decision in the case of Commissioner Marlene Fosque, sustaining two of six allegations brought against her and recommending she receive a written warning.<\/p>\n

Fosque\u2019s colleagues on the Board of Commissioners will have the final say on any punishment tied to the ethics complaint, which was filed last fall by anti-illegal immigration activist D.A. King.King accused Fosque of defamation and several other ethical violations in connection with statements she made about him in a public meeting.<\/p>\n

King participated in a panel discussion Fosque organized last July on a federal immigration enforcement program known as 287(g). During a commission meeting a few days later, Fosque called King \u201csomeone known<\/a> for spewing hatred and bigotry and racism\u201d and said she regretted that he had participated.The ethics board heard the case last week and issued its recommendation on Monday.<\/p>\n

The panel rejected King\u2019s defamation claims but upheld other counts based on sections of the county\u2019s ethics ordinance that urge officials to give their duties \u201cearnest effort and best thought\u201d and to \u201cnever engage in conduct which is unbecoming\u201d to their office.\u201cWhile the commissioner testified that her comments were not intended to reflect her personal beliefs regarding Mr. King \u2026 her choice of words and the manner in which she delivered them at [the subsequent commission meeting] can reasonably be interpreted otherwise,\u201d the ethics board wrote in its findings.<\/p>\n

In a statement issued Monday afternoon, Fosque thanked the ethics board for its time and said she would continue striving to represent her constituents with \u201cgrace, dignity and wisdom.\u201dKing said Fosque\u2019s recommended punishment did not go far enough, comparing this result to the only other time Gwinnett\u2019s ethics board convened.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the outset, many of us were anxious to see who is the most equal<\/a> in Gwinnett County politics,\u201d King wrote in an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. \u201cWe have our answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a 2017 case, Gwinnett Commissioner Tommy Hunter was publicly reprimanded after writing Facebook posts that, among other things, called U.S. Rep. John Lewis a \u201cracist pig.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ethics board found that Fosque, a Democrat, violated the same behavior-regulating tenets that Hunter, a Republican, did in his case. But the written warning recommended for Fosque would be a lesser punishment than the reprimand Hunter received.<\/a><\/p>\n

The ethics board wrote that it \u201crelied on various mitigating factors\u201d in recommending the lighter punishment for Fosque, \u201cincluding what it believes were the commissioner\u2019s good intentions in holding the [original immigration] forum.\u201dGwinnett\u2019s ethics ordinance was established in 2011 in the wake of a bribery scandal and was intended to target corruption and conflicts of interest. Ethics experts have questioned the portions of the law that were used in the Fosque and Hunter cases, which can be interpreted to police other behavior.<\/p>\n

Under the ordinance, the Board of Commissioners must consider the recommendation and hold a final vote on the case within 30 days.<\/p>\n

Here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  AJC January 27, 2020 The Gwinnett County ethics board delivered a split decision in the case of Commissioner Marlene Fosque, sustaining two of six allegations brought against her and recommending she receive a written warning. Fosque\u2019s colleagues on the Board of Commissioners will have the final say on any punishment tied to the ethics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15037"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15037"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15071,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15037\/revisions\/15071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}