Gwinnett Ethics Board Makes Recommendation On Tommy Hunter Case
Lisa Hagen / WABE
Gwinnett County’s Ethics Board recommends a public reprimand of Commissioner Tommy Hunter after comments he made about U.S. Rep. John Lewis on Facebook.
In January, Hunter called Lewis a “racist pig” in a Facebook post. The post also referred to members of the Democratic Party as “DemonRats” and “a bunch of idiots.”
A month later, he was cited for four ethics code violations, including a section that requires “all County Commissioners … put loyalty to the highest moral principles and to the County above to persons, party, or a County government department.”
On Tuesday, after the second of two hearings, the board recommended the public reprimand and sustained two out of the four violations.
“We recommended that Commissioner Hunter be publicly reprimanded and that the reprimand be posted on the county website, on the county bulletin board, and it be published in the county legal organ, known as the Gwinnett Daily Post,” said David Will, chairman of the ethics board.
“The ethics ordinance needs to be taken seriously, and it applies to the leadership of the county, all the way down to rank-and-file employees. It’s critically important that message is upheld,” said Charles Rousseau, vice chairman of the board.
Hunter did not attend the hearing.
The ethics board made its recommendation Tuesday, but it’s the county’s Board of Commissioners that has the final say in what happens in this case. County commissioners have 30 days to decide whether to follow the ethics board’s recommendation.
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