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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