VALDOSTA – A city-appointed panel is scheduled to review an ethics complaint filed against Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson Wednesday, April 14. 

The hearing is set for 10 a.m. when the three-man ethics panel will weigh the merits of the complaint which claims Matheson has blurred the lines between his role as mayor and his career as a conservative talk radio host.

The complaint and section three of the Code of Ethics will be available for viewing by the public at the meeting. The panel consists of Robert Jefferson, former Southern Circuit Judge Jim Tunison and former Lowndes Solicitor General Richard Shelton.

If they determine that Matheson didn’t violate the city Code of Ethics, the panel will drop the complaint and deliver its decision to Valdosta City Council within seven days, as stipulated by the ethics code.

Jefferson, panel chairman, will present it to council and a vote will go on from there.

City Manager Mark Barber said City Council can publicly reprimand the mayor in a similar form to “We don’t have confidence in the mayor right now,” but the council cannot force a resignation.

Council can request it though.

However, if the panel finds merit to the complaint, a second hearing will be scheduled, involving all necessary audio, visual and physical evidence, and witnesses.

The names of witnesses must be declared within three business days of the second hearing by both sides of the complaint: Matheson and a coalition of the groups that filed the complaint – the Mary Turner Project, Concerned Clergies of Valdosta, NAACP Lowndes Chapter and the Valdosta-Lowndes Community Alliance.

At a preliminary meeting earlier this month, the panel said it would offer more details if  a second hearing is necessary.

Dr. Mark George, Mary Turner Project coordinator, said he hopes the complaint goes to a second hearing. 

He and the coalition— the NAACP Lowndes Chapter, Concerned Clergies of Valdosta and the Valdosta-Lowndes Community Alliance — filed the ethics complaint Feb. 15, saying the mayor would not listen to their concerns.

The complaint, signed by George, the Rev. Darren Neal, Dr. Bruce Francis and Jimmy Boyd representing the respective organizations, claims Matheson “demonstrated that he is incapable of, and/or uninterested in, representing all citizens of Valdosta equally” in presenting himself as the Valdosta mayor on his weekday radio show Talk 92.1.

The panel will judge the complaint based on how the mayor violated the Code of Ethics’ prohibitions, covering things such as extortion, embezzlement and nepotism, George said.

The complaint alleges the on-air rhetoric “regularly disseminates inaccurate, divisive, and inflammatory claims that often demonize local citizens and political viewpoints that differ from his own.”

“We’re not alleging that the Mayor did any of that,” he said of the prohibitions outlined in the ethics code provision. “On the first page of the Code of Ethics, we’re alleging that the mayor violated the spirit of the Code of Ethics.”

Matheson responded to the coalition publicly via statement Feb. 18, saying the complaint failed to cite one ethics violation.

“The complaint states that I cannot serve as your mayor because I have a job as a radio talk show host and express opinions,” he said. “I have been a community talk show host for 19 years including the time when I was running for election as mayor.”

This complaint attempts to use the ethics code to publicize political criticism and differences in opinion, the mayor’s statement read, but doesn’t offer better ideas or advice to help the city’s officials.

“They appear to be using their political views to divide our City and prevent all of us from working together for the common good,” the statement read. “I think this is wrong.”

There’s no way to tell how this will pan out, George said, the hope is that they’ll get a chance to have a conversation.

Both sides of the complaint are expected to be at the hearing. It will be held at 10 a.m., April 14, in council chambers on city hall’s second floor. City hall is located at 216 E. Central Ave.