After a leaked investigation regarding the Hall County Planning Commission came out on Wednesday, District 3 Commissioner Gregg Poole spoke to AccessWDUN about it after Thursday’s meeting.
“I would ask the constituents in Hall County … to trust us in this process, because we’re following the law,” Poole said.
The third-party investigation was conducted after the county self-reported seven instances of violations of Georgia’s Open Meetings Act.
Buford-based law firm Carothers and Mitchell said Planning Commission Chair and District 2 appointee Chris Braswell held regularly scheduled sessions with staff to discuss items on upcoming meeting agendas.
Braswell reportedly invited other planning commission members to the pre-meeting session to discuss upcoming agenda items, with some of those reportedly having three planning commissioners present, enough to constitute a quorum of the five-member board, which marks a violation of the Open Meetings Act.
The other Planning Commissioners seemingly at fault according to the investigation are District 1 appointee Frank Sosebee and District 3 appointee Stan Hunt.
“We’re making sure everybody’s represented the right way, so that the county is not liable for any wrongdoing on our part for trying to uphold the law,” Poole said. “I think we’re doing a good job.”
Some of the actions the Board of Commissioners can take, per the investigative report from Carothers and Mitchell, include training or potential removal of the planning commissioners found to be in violation.
“Everything that is being done is being done per the State of Georgia and the codes of Hall County,” Poole said. “I don’t know who leaked this report. I wish it would have never gotten leaked, because it doesn’t look good.”
Poole said action by the county could be publicly announced within the next week.
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