A decision on a citizen ethics complaint against Waycross City Commissioner Katrena Felder was postponed Monday morning for the lack of a quorum of the Waycross Ethics Board.
The decision now is scheduled to be revealed at 5 p.m., Thursday, December 5 in a meeting of the five-member board, Interim City Attorney Huey Spearman said late Monday afternoon (December 2).
He said the rescheduled meeting was governed by Georgia’s Open Meetings law and would need only 24 hours public notice of its time, date and place.
The panel was scheduled to rule on Clayton Nelson’s charges in a 9:30 a.m., meeting Monday, December 2 in City Hall. However, board member Felecia Brown was absent, which forced the postponement.
Nelson’s action alleges Felder misused her city issued credit card and also attended a partisan event while on a city business trip.
A few minutes before the meeting was to be convened by Chairperson Shawn Taylor, Assistant City Clerk Marquis Dixon left commission chambers to place a call to Brown. When Dixon returned, he said the call went unanswered.
Spearman said the City Charter stipulates a quorum for an ethics board is five members, rather than a simple majority (at least three) of the board’s membership.
Taylor gaveled the meeting to order at 9:40 a.m., with Martin Gray, Lorene Regulus, Albert Bussey and Taylor answering the roll call by Dixon.
With no quorum present, Taylor said the meeting would need to be rescheduled and sought a motion to adjourn until another date and time could be set. Bussey offered the motion, and the four members voted in the affirmative.
Spearman said once Brown’s absence was determined as either short- or long-term, the meeting could be rescheduled for as soon or as later in the week with one of the two alternates selected when the board was seated replacing Brown if needed.
According to the City Charter, the mayor must select the alternate, Spearman said. He said Mayor Michael-Angelo James had chosen Dr. Earl Martin Monday afternoon to replace Brown going forward.
Ironically, Dr. Martin was among the original five selected to hear the complaint, but was replaced by Brown because Dr. Martin suffered an illness early in the process.
Dr. Martin was present Monday morning and volunteered to fill Brown’s seat at the proceeding before her absence was official. Martin said he’d attended all the board’s previous public forums, but Spearman informed him of the charter’s mayoral selection requirement.
Felder
Monday’s meeting was for the board to hold a public vote on up to two issues, Spearman said. The first would be on the validity of the complaint.
If that vote is affirmative, a second vote would take place on any penalty. If Nelson isn’t satisfied with the ruling, it can be appealed to the city commission, Spearman said.
The board was seated in September through a blind draw after Nelson filed his complaint September 2. Each of the city’s four available commissioners and Mayor James nominated two citizens to form a pool from which to draw panel members and two alternates.
The board held fact-finding meetings beginning in October and November prior to a formal hearing November 15.
