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Four Georgia district attorneys filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging the constitutionality of controversial legislation the General Assembly passed this year creating an oversight board for local prosecutors.
Senate Bill 92 cleared the Republicancontrolled legislature in March largely along party lines.
The bill created the eight-member Prosecuting Attorneys Oversight Commission to investigate complaints lodged against prosecutors and hold hearings. The commission will have the power to discipline or remove prosecutors on a variety of grounds including mental or physical incapacity, willful misconduct or failure to perform the duties of the office, conviction of a crime of moral turpitude, or conduct that brings the office into disrepute.
During the debate over the measure, Republican lawmakers complained that prosecutors in Georgia cities led by Democrats have been reluctant to prosecute certain crimes, notably during the civil unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis by a white police officer in 2020.
“We’re sending the message that we won’t forfeit public safety for prosecutors who let criminals off the hook,” Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said when he signed the bill in May. “They’re tired of having to chase the same criminals over and over again … just to see them released by district attorneys either unwilling or unable to do their jobs!”
The lawsuit, filed in Fulton County Superior Court, argues the legislation curtails the power of locally elected prosecutors and usurps the will of voters.
“SB 92 is not just an assault on prosecutors, it is an assault on our democracy,” DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said Wednesday. “This law is a direct threat to every Georgian who exercises their right to vote – their right to choose the person they think best represents their values in the courtroom.”
Boston was joined in the suit by Cobb District Attorney Flynn Broady, Augusta D.A. Jared Williams, and Jonathan Adams, district attorney for the Towaliga Judicial Circuit serving Butts, Lamar, and Monroe counties.
The prosecutors are represented by Public Rights Project, a national nonprofit that works with local governments on civil rights issues.
“Prosecutors around the country are under attack for trying to represent the will of the voters and implement reforms that make our criminal justice system more fair,” said Josh Rosenthal, the organization’s legal director. “Georgia is ground zero in that fight.”
The suit seeks the court to invalidate the legislation or at least stop the new oversight commission from taking up any complaints or disciplining any local prosecutors.
Former state workers charged with unemployment insurance fraud
Eight former state employees have been indicted on charges of unemployment insurance fraud allegedly committed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The indictments, handed up last week in Fulton County, accuse the eight defendants of filing false unemployment claims with the Georgia Department of Labor while they were working for the state.
“Government employees are entrusted to operate honestly and ethically, and those who do not will be held accountable,” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said Thursday. “We will not hesitate to pursue any individual who works for our state and seeks to illegally obtain public funds for their own personal gain.”
The indictments charge James Neville with 19 counts of making false statements and writings, and accuse La-Kira Williams of 14 counts of false statements and writings. The two also are charged with two counts each of violating the state employment security law.
Denise Vance, Divincia Richardson, and Willie Jones are charged with 10 counts each of false statements and writings. Vance is charged with two counts of violating the employment security law, while Richardson and Jones are charged with one count.
Tamika Goodwin is accused of eight counts of false statements and writings. Curesha Blair is charged with five counts of false statements and writings, and Regina Sterling faces three counts of that same offense.
The indictments followed an investigation by the Georgia Office of Inspector General, working with the state labor department and the U.S. Department of Labor.
The attorney general’s Public Integrity and White Collar Crime Unit presented evidence in the case to a Fulton County grand jury, resulting in the indictment.
State agencies get OK to hike spending
Stage agencies will get to ask for more money next year for the first time since fiscal 2020.
Rick Dunn, director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget (OPB), informed state agency heads in a memo Wednesday that they will be allowed to request spending “enhancements” of up to 3% in their fiscal 2024 mid-year and fiscal 2025 budget proposals.
Dunn, who joined the OPB this month after heading the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, cited a Georgia economy that continues to exceed expectations despite predictions by multiple economists of a recession this year.
“The underlying strength of the state economy will enable us to continue to meet projected spending obligations required to support our growing population, even with the impact of current and upcoming tax cuts … and other revenue adjustments,” Dunn wrote.
Dunn went on to praise agency leaders for steering their departments through economic uncertainty of the last three years that prompted Gov. Brian Kemp to order them to hold the line on spending.
“Agencies quickly pivoted their service delivery model to ensure citizens still received critical state services while simultaneously being asked to reduce budgets due to the severe economic downturn caused by COVID-19,” he wrote.
While Republican state lawmakers have praised Kemp for conservative budgeting practices during the last three years, Democrats and advocates for low-income Georgians have criticized the governor for using a growing budget surplus to push state income tax rebates and reductions in the tax rate through the GOP-controlled General Assembly.
“Many of Georgia’s systems are failing to meet citizens’ needs,” Staci Fox, president and CEO of the Atlanta-based Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, said Wednesday. “It’s not a surplus unless you’ve met your fiscal obligations.”
Dunn’s memo also asked state agency heads to look for opportunities through greater efficiencies to reduce their fiscal 2025 budgets by 1%, even as he gave them the leeway to request more spending.
Agency budget submissions to the OPB are due Sept. 8. Kemp will present his spending recommendations to the General Assembly in January.
