Further investigation into the campaign donations made by The Providence Group in the Johns Creek 2019 Johns Creek City Council election has turned up more interesting information.
On October 30, 2019, a candidate forum took place at the Taylor Lodge facility in Johns Creek. At this forum, a question was asked of the candidates about whether they had accepted campaign contributions from local contractors or developers, and if so, how would they avoid conflicts of interest with future Council decisions. You can see a short video clip of this forum here.
Public records show that prior to this forum, Brian Weaver accepted an aggregate donation of $2000 from The Providence Group, a large regional developer and the main developer for a rezoning case from 2018 that went into litigation and was sure to come back to Council after the 2019 election. The contributions were made by Kimberly Jolly, wife of The Providence Group President, Warren Jolly, and Tom Black, Senior Project Manager of The Providence Group, on 10/21/19 and 10/22/19 respectively. On Brian Weaver’s disclosure report showing these two donations, $2000 amounted to 25% of his total campaign money at the time. You can read more about campaign contributions in 2019 and The Providence Group here.
Yet having received this money just 8-9 days earlier, Brian Weaver stated in the forum that he had not accepted money from developers in response to the above question. His exact words on 10/30/19 follow:
“Yes, all or most of my campaign contributions came from family and friends and numerous people I know inside of Johns Creek and outside of Johns Creek. So, I don’t know any developers right now that have contributed to my campaign”.
How could Brian Weaver accept such large money donations 8-9 days earlier and not know who he had accepted money from?
In this same forum, another candidate for Council who had accepted the exact same amounts from the exact same contributors gave a very different but honest answer. Contrary to Mr. Weaver, she stated she had accepted money from The Providence Group.
What do you think? Did Weaver not know his contributors or did he deliberately lie in his campaign less than two years ago?
