The head of the DeKalb County Board of Ethics announced Friday he is stepping down from the position he’s held for the past two years.

Ethics Board Chairman John Ernst tendered his letter of resignation to interim CEO Lee May.

Speaking to WABE, Ernst said he’s stepping down to “pursue other public service opportunities.” Ernst said he’s proud to leave the board in a better position than when he started.

“Today I’m proud to say at least we’ve dealt with dozens of cases and complaints,” Ernst said. “We have a much more robust budget from council for investigation that will help DeKalb move forward in rooting out unethical behavior.”

Ernst’s resignation comes one day after the ethics board found Commissioner Stan Watson guilty of three ethics violations. The board found the commissioner to have had conflicts of interest when he voted to approve $1.5 million of county funds to go to developer APD solutions, the same firm that had paid Watson nearly $20,000 in consultant fees.

Despite the guilty finding, the board voted 2-4 against suspending Watson. Instead Watson received an official reprimand.

Ernst was one of the two who voted in favor of suspending Watson. He says while a bigger punishment would have been appropriate, the guilty verdict “is a step in the right direction.” He says when he took over two years ago, it had a $16,000 budget, lacked full membership and was in a suspended state with a backlog of old cases that had been sitting untouched for years.

Ernst says the Watson ruling was the first guilty finding against a sitting commissioner the board had delivered in 15 years.

“At least the ethics board is operating and going through a full hearing. We were able to finally able, after many, many years to go forward with a full hearing, hear the evidence and find someone in violation,” Ernst said.

Board Vice Chairwoman Clara Black DeLay will replace Ernst as board chair.

Read Ernst’s resignation letter below:

Ernst Resignation Letter