I have a few comments on the saga of county Commissioner Robert Horgan. I recall a similar case that happened in Griffin back in the late 1990s involving an elected official of Spalding County.
This gentleman was an elected school board member and, in his words, “a man of the cloth.” He was a minister of the gospel and quite a respected member of the clergy.
However, he was accused of sexual harassment of three school employees and threatening the assistant superintendent.
He was never criminally charged, but it was determined he violated a state ethics code that held an “elected” official, even though he was just a school board member, to a higher standard of conduct.
He refused to resign and eventually after much legal haggling, Gov. Roy Barnes used a relatively unknown legal maneuver to remove Mr. Stokes from his position. Just last year, Gov. Sonny Perdue used this same method to remove four school board members in Clayton County.
My point is this: Mr. Horgan was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana, which is a crime, where most people arrested just for that go to jail.
It doesn’t matter if he thinks his arrest was not related to his “official duties as a Fayette County Commissioner.” He broke the law.
Shouldn’t an elected officials’ job be a 24/7 position to be held accountable for their actions just as an average citizen is if they broke the law?
I think if any elected official, whether it is a school board member, a county commissioner or the president of the United States (remember President Nixon), breaks the law or violates their ethical responsibility, they should not be allowed to continue to serve in any capacity.
Is it going to take the removal of Mr. Horgan by the governor to finally resolve this charade?
By the way, Mr. Stokes had the “audacity” to run for his school board seat after his removal but was denied that post by a majority of the very voters that has elected him in the first place.
Calvin Griffin
Fayetteville, Ga.
