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Wilkinson letter
unfair
To the editor:
As a longtime journalist who covered
state Rep. Joe Wilkinson and who later
went into the private sector and moved
to Sandy Springs, as well as someone who
has worked with his campaigns, I am
deeply offended by Don McAdams letter
(Sandy Springs Reporter, Nov. 1-14) in
sinuating that our representative is some
how dishonest.
McAdam, ironically, is the dishon
est one by citing a Wilkinson quote that
there hasn’t been “a single shred of evi
dence of wrongdoing against any legisla
tor.” The letter writer went on to charge
that the chairman of the House of Rep
resentatives Ethics Committee is “simulta
neously wrong and contemptibly mislead
ing” because state Sen. Don Balfour has
been indicted.
Yet what McAdam didn’t tell readers
is that Wilkinson actually first made that
statement a year before the Balfour indict
ment! It is especially surprising that the
Reporter editor didn’t call foul on that
cheap shot.
The letter notes that a report by a local
investigative news site exposed Balfour’s
alleged expense account discrepancies.
Yet, again, McAdam doesn’t tell the read
er that the news site was able to get lobby
ist information to verify the report for this
story because Wilkinson has championed
lobbyist transparency, and even pushed
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LETTER TO
THE EDITOR
E-mail letters to
editor@reporternewspapers.net
for ethics reforms to ensure that the infor
mation was available to the public three
times faster than it was previously.
Out-of-legislative-session lobbyist dis
closure reports were filed only once ev
ery 90 days, so Wilkinson took the lead
to change it to every 30 days. In-session
reports were due once every 30 days, but
the Ethics Committee chairman again
changed them to twice every 30 days. Ad
ditionally, the chairman moved to raise
fines for lobbyist non-compliance to some
of the highest in the country.
McAdams letter cites a 2012 report by
the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) which
looked at each state’s laws and attempted
to determine how susceptible they were to
corruptibility. This report concluded that
Georgia ranked last in the nation.
McAdam then mocks Wilkinson for
challenging the CPI report when in fact
in 2010 the same national group ranked
Georgia seventh in the country in terms
of strong ethics/transparency laws. In
compiling that ranking as well as previ
ous ones, the CPI relied on objective, in
dependent and professional regulators and
administrators.
Yet in 2012, the CPI changed the
methodology that it had always employed.
Instead of seeking input from the objec
tive ethics officials, CPI contracted with a
hodgepodge of individuals in all 50 states
to conduct the study. In Georgia, the in
dividual selected was paid $5,000 to “re
view” Georgia’s laws.
This individual then concluded that
Georgia - which was ranked the seventh
best state two years before - had somehow
jumped to last in the nation.
At that point, national media outlets
and other experts questioned the entire
CPI report, especially since it ranked New
Jersey with a controversial, first-in-the-na-
tion “clean” rating. That’s why Wilkinson
asked outside experts to review and ana
lyze the CPI report — and those findings
were passed along to local media.
Bottom line: The CPI report is now
as discredited as McAdams irresponsible
attacks against the reputation of this fine
public servant.
Readers ought to know, too, that the
Sandy Springs/Buckhead lawmaker has
never missed a day of regular or special
General Assembly sessions in 13 years.
This public servant, lest it be forgotten,
sponsored the legislation that led to the
creation of the city of Sandy Springs.
And, significantly, he was the 2004 En
vironmental Legislator of the Year — the
first Republican ever named by the Geor
gia Conservation Voters.
Our representative has been instru
mental in passing bills ranging from teen
driving safety to student meningitis vacci
nation requirements. The list goes on.
But perhaps most important, and
something McAdam refuses to concede, is
that Rep. Joe Wilkinson has repeatedly ad
vocated that all lobbying activity be fully
open and transparent.
Phil Kent
6 | NOV. 15 —NOV. 28, 2013 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net
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