Stonecrest’s city attorney found that a recent councilwoman did not abuse her position during her ongoing campaign for the city’s highest office.
Earlier this month, three candidates running to become the city’s next mayor held a joint news conference to allege that their opponent, Jazzmin Cobble, was using her status as a recent councilmember to unfairly boost her campaign for mayor. They accused her of using her city email for campaigning purposes and continuing to chair city committees after she resigned.
Cobble denied those accusations and said she did nothing to violate the city’s charter. Stonecrest’s city attorney told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday that he agreed.
“Our review of the city’s charter and ordinances requires the conclusion that former city council members may properly serve on city council committees,” Winston Denmark, the city attorney, said in an email. “Further, there is nothing in the city’s charter or ordinances that prohibits former city council members from maintaining city email accounts, especially when such former city council members are actively serving on city council committees and/or city boards and commissions. Further, we are satisfied that there is no consistent or ongoing practice of including campaign information in messages sent from city email accounts.”
Diane Adoma and Kirby Frazier were the mayoral candidates who appeared at the April 7 news conference to levy the accusations against Cobble. Dr. Charles Hill Sr., another candidate for mayor, was not able to attend but was listed as being in solidarity with Adoma and Frazier.
Credit: Various courtesy photos
Credit: Various courtesy photos
The four candidates are vying to replace Jason Lary, the city’s founding mayor who resigned in January to plead guilty to federal fraud charges. He will be sentenced May 2. His term was set to expire at the end of 2023, so a special election is scheduled for May 24 to fill the rest of his term.
Cobble resigned her District 3 council post after qualifying for the election in early March. However, her opponents accused her of continuing to use her city email, holding campaign events on city property and remaining as the chair of a city finance committee. Adoma’s campaign provided media outlets with a list of alleged violations by Cobble’s campaign, each of which Cobble refuted.
Adoma maintained Wednesday that her complaints have not been properly addressed.
“This response is evidence that we cannot police ourselves,” Adoma said, arguing that the city needs its own board of ethics. “We, three of the four candidates in this race, provided evidence. The response did not address it, nor did their response provide any conflicting evidence.”
Adoma, Frazier and Hill have taken an adversarial position to the current council in stark contrast to Cobble, who was endorsed by many of her former colleagues.
When Adoma and Frazier spoke in front of City Hall on April 7, they stood in front of signs that read, “Stonecrest Council is Corrupt!!” In an interview with the AJC, Hill scoffed at the notion the council would potentially find any wrongdoing against Cobble. He went on to say, “We got rid of one dictator and now we got five dictators (the City Council). So things have to be changed.”
Adoma said her campaign would explore taking further steps, including reporting the alleged charter violations to the county’s election board, ethics board or the Secretary of State’s office.
“(Denmark) didn’t address it, so I might look at what our next steps might be if he’s saying there’s no wrongdoing and take it from there,” Adoma said. “But he did not answer any of our questions.”
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