Less

than a month after opponents of last year's

Fayette County Board of Education sales tax

referendum were cited for ethics violations,

opponents have filed their own ethics allegations

against pro-sales tax forces.

Bill

Webster of Peachtree City, father of four

daughters and friend of anti-sales tax activist

Carl Avrit, Tuesday filed a complaint with the

state Ethics Commission, alleging the political

action committee Fayette Citizens for Continued

Excellence in Education, co-chaired by Janet

Smola and Don Apking, violated the Georgia Ethics

in Government Act on four counts.

The

two political action committees went to battle

last summer on either side of the Board of

Education's special purpose local option sales

tax. Voters turned down the sales tax Sept. 21.

It was designed to raise $90 million for school

construction.

Smola

filed an earlier complaint against Avrit, and the

Ethics Commission earlier this month ruled that

Avrit violated the state code by failing to

identify the funding source of prerecorded phone

messages.

In

a "statement of facts" concerning his

complaint thsi week, Webster said there were two

violations with regard to illegal campaign

contributions and deceptive financial filings, a

third with regard to no identification on

advertising, and a fourth regarding unreported

coordination of campaign efforts with the Fayette

County Board of Realtors.

This

is the third round of ethics complaints emanating

from the referendum. The first was filed by

Fayetteville resident Claude Paquin against the

Fayette County Board of Education. The complaint

was dismissed by the Ethics Commission.

The

second ethics complaint was filed by Smola

against Avrit. He was found in violation of the

ethics code in January, but not fined.

Smola

said the third complaint filed by Webster was

"nothing but retaliation."

"My

feeling is that he (Teddy Lee, secretary of the

state ethics commission) will take a look at

this... If that office determines that I made a

mistake in any way, shape or form, I will

apologize to the voters of this county,"

Smola said. "I feel like all the issues will

be laid to rest. We've taken our guidance from

the state ethics commission and this complaint

was filed in retaliation for his friend (Avrit)

being found guilty of ethics violations,"

Smola added.

Webster

said he waited to file the complaint until all

the reports were filed and he had a opportunity

to examine the committee's records. "If this

is how they want to play the game, OK,"

Webster said Tuesday, referring to the prior

complaint filed by Smola against Avrit. "It

was a childish and petty thing to do," he

said.

The

first complaint claims the Fayette Citizens for

Continued Excellence in Education, "failed

to report either the full value in expenditures

or as in kind contribution in value" of

newspaper ads which exceeded $1,000. The second

complaint involved the "declaration of in

kind value of $500 for the 20,000 pamphlets

printed by Continuous Forms and Checks. The third

complaint stated that the name and title of the

principal officer of the pro-SPLOST committee did

not appear on the "SPLOST Fact Sheet.

Webster also claims the committee and the Fayette

County Board of Realtors failed to "disclose

coordinated efforts in regard to graphics which

appeared on campaign signs and pamphlets."

Finally, Webster said that if the signs are

determined to be a donation to the committee,

they failed to report it.

Smola

responded to the first charge by referring to the

state attorney general's position on limiting

contributions to $1,000, claiming the limits are

"almost unconstitutional." Secondly,

Smola said the "fact sheet" was in

essence a piece of internal correspondence used

SPLOST. The company which printed the pamphlets,

Continuous Forms and Checks, is a large national

company which has a different rate schedule than

the smaller printing operations approached by

Webster for comparable estimates, Smola said.

Finally, she said the Board of Realtors issue did

not involve the pro-SPLOST committee.

It

is up to Lee to determine if there should be a

hearing on the complaints.

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