The Fayette County Board of Commissioners voted at its Feb. 11 regular meeting to certify the county Republican Party nomination for a seat on the Board of Elections, but not without controversy and protest from members of the local party.
The appointment of Aaron Wright to fill the seat formerly held by Marilyn Watts was discussed last month and the commissioners tabled it when a letter from several party members contended the proper nominating process was not adhered to.
This time, after hearing from some on both sides of the issue, the board voted unanimously to certify Wright’s nomination.
“I’ve heard both cases presented, but we are not the judges,” said Chairman Charles Oddo just before the vote on Steve Brown’s motion. “Our job is to certify the appointment and that’s it.”
It was Oddo who tabled the matter at the Jan. 28 meeting, and he said this time that his intention was to give the local party additional time to work things out but that didn’t happen. “I wish we weren’t at this point,” he said.
Two of the seats on the three-member board are filled by the local Democratic and Republican committees, with the third appointed by the commissioners. While the commissioners have no authority to choose the other two members, they are required by state law to authorize the county clerk to file a certificate of appointment with the Superior Court indicating the appointments were made in accordance with the law.
Wright’s appointment is for a four-year term ending Jan. 31, 2020. Darryl Hicks is the current Democratic Party nominee to the election board and Addison Lester is the Board of Commissioners nominee.
Former County Commission Chairman Greg Dunn addressed the board and said the protest had nothing to do with the person being nominated but everything to do with the process not being followed.
“We’re only asking for enough time to do this thing right,” he said. “I know it’s not your problem. Just let us solve the problem.”
Dunn cited a similar situation in which it took the Board of Commissioners 14 months to come to an agreement on its own nominee, in which case the previous nominee remained on the election board.
“There is no legitimate reason that you have to sign it so quickly,” he said.
County GOP Chairman Tyrone Jones told the board that he preferred to have party business handled internally but was compelled to respond at this meeting.
“We were as careful as the neurosurgeons who performed three spinal surgeries on me,” Jones said of the process, calling it “scrutinized and sanitized process prior to execution to ensure a successful outcome. We followed procedure every step of the way.”
Jones added that the process was re-examined “after unfounded complaints by those who did not like the results.”
The party chairman charged that, with the nomination being held up this way, the will of the people was being ignored.
“We cannot allow nepotism, cronyism or any type of ‘-ism’ to affect our right to choose,” said Jones. “It is regretful that a small band of dissenters have a difficult time accepting that elections and appointments have term limits and don’t come with a lifetime warranty. This appears to be an engagement in the old game of cronyism. No one owns this party. We the people control the party. We have worked hard the past three years to repair the damage done by crony politics.”
Interim Secretary Bonnie Willis presented stacks of paperwork which she said contained the minutes from the nominating meeting as well as the committee’s rules and the record of each vote and for whom. Since secret ballots are not allowed, every person who voted was recorded along with his or her vote, she said. “We can identify each person and what they voted.”
The final vote was 22 for Wright out of 32 with nine voting against and Jones abstaining, which Willis said was was a testament to the chairman’s integrity and lack of bias. She added that the letter protesting the vote was accompanied by no supporting documentation, which is required according to the rules for the claim to proceed.
“It’s all in front of you. Everything is verifiable. Everything is presentable,” said Willis. “It hurts that we have to come here and defend ourselves as a party. If you give legitimacy and allow [protesters] to circumvent the authority of our chairman, that says a lot about this body.”
Once the public comment was closed, there was no debate among the commissioners about how to proceed.
“This is not our appointment,” said Randy Ognio. “It is the Republican Party’s appointment.”
Brown, who made the motion to approve, said he was “disheartened” that it had been tabled previously and that it should have been approved in January.
At left, Commissioner Steve Brown in an October 2015 file photo.
“Are we going to micromanage the Republican Party and the Democratic Party every time there is sour grapes and we get a complaint?” he asked. “If Ms. Watts has a problem with it, she can sue them.”
On the matter of Marilyn Watts, Brown said he filed a complaint the last time she was appointed for what he called “an ethical issue” about her being appointed by her son Lane Watts, the former chairman of the county Republican Party.
Brown added that Marilyn Watts pledged not to be actively campaigning for any candidates and “fervently violated that pledge” by having a fundraiser for Newt Gingrich in Peachtree City.
He said he went to the party’s executive committee with his complaint, which he said was “the proper way to do it” even though he was a county commissioner at the time.
Watts disputed Brown’s statements during public comment time, saying that what he described about her was “absolutely not true.”
Lane Watts did not appoint his mother to the elected board position because the GOP chair does not make that appointment according to the rules, she said, and that she was nominated by a nominating committee and appointed by the full county committee.
As for the Gingrich fundraiser, that event was chaired by two other people and she had not even been sworn in to her election board position at the time, she said. “So please refrain from telling those things that you’ve repeated over and over, when they are not true,” she told Brown.
Watts charged that the lawsuit brought against her by the GOP was not for cause but because some people wanted a different person on the election board.
“My name was drug through the mud for three years with a frivolous lawsuit that cost the county $58,000,” she said before saying directly to Brown, “You were the plaintiffs’ witness.”
Watts said she made these statements because “I want the record to be straight.”
She added that she wants to see the legal fees incurred in that lawsuit repaid to the county, as many citizens have asked her why the taxpayers have to foot the bill for that action. Later in the meeting the commissioners voted to seek the return of attorney fees for the lawsuit (see separate story in this edition).
David Barlow called the case “a terrible situation” and said Watts was “rightfully set free.” He added that he would have preferred to see her remain on the election board especially this year because of her extensive experience.
“This is a precarious election cycle we are in and we need as much experienced leadership as we can,” he said when addressing Watts. “You made a Herculean effort to do what is right. There has never been a complaint about you.”
