Monday, February 20, 2017

Draining the Georgia Swamp

Republican-ruled state Senate committee bullies citizen with camera, by AllOnGeorgia 2/18/17

Report: Senate Rules Committee Chairman, Jeff Mullis, summons Capitol Police to move citizen videographer to the back of a Capitol committee room

While details are still being sorted out, reports of strong-arm tactics to discourage transparency coming out of the state Capitol are sending bipartisan shock waves through Georgia.

The latest case involves conservative Woodstock resident Jack Staver’s claim of being forced to move away from the front of the room in a mid-day February 16 committee hearing on  when it became clear that Staver was recording the meeting.

Gold Dome committee meetings that consider legislation are open to the public.

Staver reports that an irate committee Senate Rules Committee Chairman, Jeff Mullis, told him that if he was going to video the public meeting, he would be required to move to the back of the large hearing room, which put Staver out of microphone range. When he questioned the legality of being ordered to move, the Secretary of the Senate, David Cook, and then about ten armed Capitol Police appeared and repeated the demand, says Staver.

According to Staver, he and his wife, Debbie, made it a point to claim a seat about 45 minutes before the scheduled start of the committee hearing and was annoyed but not surprised that Mullis had him moved.

Staver, along with a standing room only crowd of Georgians filled the same room last month to witness the Rules Committee vote on an effort by Columbus Senator Josh McKoon to change a senate rule that allows unrecorded votes on amendments to legislation on the senate floor after committee vetting. In that meeting, several attendees, including this writer, took still photos and cell phone videos of the proceedings.

Led by Republican senate majority leader Bill Cowsert of Athens the committee killed McKoon’s Resolution to alter the unrecorded vote rule with an unrecorded voice vote. Cowsert explained that the senate was already transparent enough.


Rumors had circulated since the January hearing that an incensed Chairman Mullis was considering sending anyone with a video camera to the rear of the hearing room. Unlike the Georgia House, the senate does not have a system by which committee meetings are broadcast or archived on official video.

Staver reports that his camera was on for much of the tense back and forth with Mullis and the Secretary of the Senate and that he will soon produce a detailed account and provide any video record he was able to capture at the Capitol experience.

All OnGeorgia will soon have follow-up coverage.
By D.A. King – President of the Dustin Inman Society


Comments

The Georgia legislature is completely out of touch with the voters.  Jack & Debbie Staver led us in defeating the T-SPLOST tax grab in 2012. They are correct in fighting for transparency. We are all Republicans, but the Georgia legislature is packed with establishment RINOs. To review their low scores go to: electtherightcandidate.us.


Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

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