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SUMMER 2005 NEWSLETTERS
GEORGIA FOI ACCESS

EFFINGHAM COUNTY'S CAMERA BAN IS 'OUT OF THE UNIVERSE' OF OPEN GOVERNMENT

In the 1777 county near Savannah, a ban on cameras in court, and a citizen audit showing "490" open-meetings violations, test sunshine-law limits. At commission meetings, executive session and fried chicken go together.

By Tom Bennett

Atlanta, June 29, 2005 -- It's a brighter beacon in this year of March's "Sunshine Sunday," and now the Georgia freedom of information spotlight has turned sharply upon Effingham County in southeast Georgia.

There Judge F. Gates Peed of the Ogeechee Judicial Circuit brought a double-barreled attack on openness during a murder trial in February 2005. He first issued a gag order, and then barred Savannah Morning News photographer Carl Elmore. The newspaper went to court and its suit, State v. Griffin, was argued in the Georgia Supreme Court in Atlanta June 20.

In a separate development involving the county commission, and not the court, the citizen group called Neighborhood Organization, "NO," alleges that the Effingham Commission has violated the Open Meetings Act "490 times" since 2002.

THIS ALSO is the area of our state that has produced House Bill 218. Its aim is to exempt records of incentives offered corporations. The principal sponsor is Rep. Ron Stephens of the Savannah suburb of Garden City. This bill for sweeping secrecy of industrial development was delayed in the 2005 session but is very much alive in the biennial legislature.

And the Savannah area also has recently produced a bitter defeat for openness of court settlements. That came in the 1999 Georgia Supreme Court decision, Savannah College of Art and Design v. School of Visual Arts. The details of the warring art schools' battle for supremacy were hushed up.

Rexanna Lester is editor of the Savannah Morning News. She was asked, is her area of Georgia open-governmentally challenged?

"I would say 'Yes, it is,' and we had Hollie Manheimer (of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation) come down recently," Lester replied.

"We did a morning session on open meetings with the police; they actually got continuing legal credit for it. Then we had a session in the afternoon for local officials.

"Some of the problems with open government have to do with the fact that they truly don't understand the law."

 CAMERAS IN COURTROOM IN EFFINGHAM

D. Anthony Griffin of South Carolina was sentenced to life in prison in February 2005. He murdered three people who lived in Effingham County.

Judge Peed barred Savannah Morning News photography inside the courtroom. The propriety of this decision was argued June 20 in Atlanta by David Hudson, lawyer for the Georgia Press Association.

"The Georgia Supreme Court has set down a two-part test for when cameras should not be allowed," Hudson said.

"Part one is when the presence of cameras interferes with the due-process rights of the defendant. Test number two is, would cameras detract from the dignity an decorum of the courtroom?

"Our argument was that taking of a few still photographs would not even be in the same universe with a due-process violation. To be a due-process violation, it has to be something that creates a circus-like atmosphere, interfering with the trial and the participants' opportunity to carry out their functions," Hudson said.

Suzanne Donovan is the Morning News justice editor. Is her newspaper’s photographer, Carl Elmore, the type who would cause a "circus-like" atmosphere inside a courtroom?

"No, he's very quiet, very respectful," Donovan replied. "He understood he was never to shoot the jury sitting inside."

"Prior to the trial, Judge Peed had issued a gag order closing all pre-trial hearings to the public as well," Donovan continued.

"He feels very strongly about the media. I had a lengthy conversation with him about allowing us to bring a photographer into the courtroom. His attitude is he should be able to control his courtroom, and camera coverage 'does not add anything to the understanding of justice.' "

Open-government advocates now await a ruling in State v. Griffin from the state Supreme Court. Effingham's effect upon sunshine law may give it a place in history. This could be the first decision on an open government question since Leah Sears replaced the retiring Norman Fletcher as chief justice this month.

EFFINGHAM COMMISSION’S AGENDAS, MINUTES AND THE COUNTY’S WATER AND SEWER PROJECT

Frank Arden of Guyton, Ga., is treasurer of the new Effingham County citizen group called the Neighborhood Organization. It was formed to oppose a county water and sewer project. In letters that he mailed May 27 to the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority and to Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker, Arden alleges that Effingham County did a lot of the planning in secret.

"This plan was the largest capital project in the county's history, and we found the commission only willing to 'piecemeal' various details to the public after important decisions were made behind closed doors," Arden wrote..

"We have recently concluded an audit of the county's agendas and minutes from January 2002 through March 2005. It cites 490 violations of the Open Meetings Act ... Loan applications to GEFA were omitted from agendas... The commission's violations were cavalier and lacked substantial justification... It willfully violated the Act to create a $19 million general obligation of the county's taxpayers."

Barney Sineath of Eden, Ga., and "NO" compiled this groundbreaking citizen audit of a commission's paperwork and how it complies with O.C.G.A. 50-14-1 et seq.

"The (Effingham) Commission goes into executive session every meeting they have," Arden said. "I don't know how unusual that is. If it's a night meeting, they start their general meeting, and then adjourn into executive session and disappear. While there they must adjourn from THAT, because they go into another room and eat fried chicken. They never technically come out of executive session.

"We don't know what they were talking about in executive session. They may just have been talking about fried chicken."

Arden said he was removed as a $50-a-month Effingham County planning commissioner in August 2004 for "impeding the county's progress. That's their term. They cited an interview I gave a newspaper where I was critical of the county's water and sewer plan. I also was one of 600 to sign a letter to Georgia Environmental Protection Division asking for a hearing on Effingham's wastewater treatment plant."

The county attorney is Eric Gotwalt of Zipperer Lorberbaum and Beauvais PC, of Savannah. He defended the county. "I'm not aware of any specific allegations, nor any specific violations committed by the county commission," Gotwalt said .

"We certainly endeavor to comply with the Open Meetings Act. "Mr. Arden is a former member of the planning board, and he was removed for cause by the county commission."

Stefan Ritter, Georgia senior assistant attorney general and the person in charge of the Open Government Mediation Program, was out of the office until July 5 and unavailable to comment.. The program's database dates to 1998. In reporting on it since then, Georgia FOI Access can't recall a charge of this magnitude regarding meetings violations.

 COMMISSIONER AGREES TO $20,000 FINE

Effingham County has been on the docket of the state Ethics Commission in Atlanta since July 13, 2003. Harry E. Scott of Meldrum, Ga., filed a written complaint on that date. It was about W. Gregg Howze, then the Effingham County Commission chairman.

Howze signed a consent order on April 13, 2005. . He acknowledged failing to disclose that he owned various properties in Effingham and Chatham counties. Howze agreed to a $20,000 fine and to amend his 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 financial disclosure statements "to bring them within compliance of O.C.G.A. 21-5-50 within 60 days of the date of this order." . The case number is 2003-0023.

Effingham County "is one of the oldest settlement areas in America," according to the Georgia Snapshots. "It was created in 1777. Georgia’s fourth county was named for Lord Effingham, an English nobleman who was a colonial rights advocate and who refused to take up arms against the revolutionaries."

Tom Bennett of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is a Georgia First Amendment Foundation volunteer.