College Park elected officials blur lines between campaigning, governing
Roderick Gay, a longtime College Park councilman who is running for reelection, is beaming as he stands with a group of people onstage before a crowd at a festival he organized.
A banner across the top of the stage reads “Roderick Gay, Moving Us 4 Ward.”
“Don’t let anyone sway you,” City Manager Lindell Miller tells the crowd amid cheers in video footage obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Vote for this man.”
Was this a campaign event or a festival for the entire city? That is what many residents would like to know.
Taxpayer funds were used to pay for it. At Gay’s request, the city allotted more than $200,000 for the Oct. 11 festival at Charles E. Phillips Sr., Esq. Park. Hundreds of people attended, officials said.
College Park’s mayor says the city manager’s endorsement of Gay, who represents Ward 4, is a violation of a section in the employee handbook prohibiting staff from taking part in local politics.
The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office is investigating after receiving “a plethora of complaints” surrounding the festival related to use of public funds and “electoral boundaries,” a spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, Joe Carn, the other councilman up for reelection, has been giving out MARTA Breeze cards and recently held a “free laundry” event at a laundromat.
“Anytime we are giving things to people for free, at the same time that we are in the midst of an election, it raises eyebrows, and it prompts necessary questions about the line between campaigning and governing,” Mayor Bianca Motley Broom said this week in an interview outside City Hall.
Carn, who represents Ward 2, denies that the events are for anything other than to help the community. Gay has declined requests to be interviewed in recent weeks.
Complaints abound
Some elections experts told the AJC that Gay’s festival and Carns’ events may not violate the law.
But complaints are swirling in the community where the mayor and council members continue to feud publicly, and Motley Broom regularly accuses them of spending recklessly without adequate transparency.
Gay and Carn each face a challenger for reelection, and early voting is underway. Steve Alexander is running against Gay. LaKresha Williams is hoping to unseat Carn, who seeks a fifth term.
Adding to the festival controversy, Motley Broom said the more than 200 vendors participating in the event were required to give the city gift cards — a $60 card if they had a tent and $200 cards if they had a food truck.
Motley Broom says she has not been able to get an accounting of the number of gift cards provided or how much they are worth.
“That is deeply concerning,” she said. “Those are city funds, and they should be treated as such.”
During Monday night’s council meeting, Gay said some of the gift cards will go to city staff for “employee appreciation.”
“Honestly, you can put them in a bag and give them to the Covenant House, to some homeless teenagers,” Gay added before showing a video with highlights from the festival.
‘Openly soliciting votes’
Asked about her call for people to vote for Gay, the city manager, Miller, referred a reporter’s questions to a city spokesperson, who did not respond.
The employee handbook says the city shall require a staff member’s resignation if they take “active part” in local politics, including making public speeches about candidates or “openly soliciting votes.”
Mayor Pro Tem Jamelle McKenzie said the requirement in the city handbook does not apply to the city manager because she “only works for” the mayor and council.
“She answers to the elected officials,” McKenzie said, declining to comment on whether the endorsement was appropriate.
Motley Broom disagrees. “The city manager is an employee of College Park,” she said.
As for the giveaway events held by political candidates, McKenzie said nothing is wrong with them.
“Are we saying that elected officials should just sit down and not do any community activities in their election year, which makes it very hard for them to continue their service?” she said this week in an interview at City Hall.
Each council member and the mayor have a $900,000 “community enhancement” fund for this year, an amount that critics say is way too much and allows elected officials to spend heavily with little accountability.
Carn confirmed that he used city funds from his community enhancement fund to buy MARTA Breeze cards and detergent for Saturday’s free laundry event at Clean Skies Laundry. He said, though, that it was a community event and not a ploy to get votes.
At least one attendee had a different view.
“Everybody knows it’s for votes,” said Xana Hardeman, 43, who lives in nearby apartments and attended Saturday’s event for the free laundry even though she had already voted for Carn’s opponent.
“If you’re coming out here and giving away stuff for free because you know we can’t afford it, what is that?” said the 15-year College Park resident.
James Covington, who also was getting his clothes washed, disagreed.
“He’s trying to see what our concerns are, not just trying to get our votes,” he said of Carn.
Is it legal?
Atlanta-based election attorney Bryan Tyson, who is not involved in the dispute, said an incumbent hosting an event using city funds, even if they have their name and district posted, would not necessarily violate state election law.
“Those are not generally going to be things that fall into the category of ‘using those funds for a campaign purpose,’ even though there’s probably a benefit to your campaign,” he said.
He added it could be problematic, however, if the event was held at an early voting location, for instance.
Carn defended his purchase in September of 200 MARTA cards, which records show cost $1,200.
He told the AJC he distributed about 10 cards to help people get to their jobs or other places they need to go, and the others will go toward a job readiness program.
“I communicate with my residents, try to serve the needs that I can help them with,” Carn said, adding that he has given out passes at bus shelters.
“It’s a small amount of money,” he said.
Tyson said Carn would not be violating state or federal law by giving out the Breeze cards unless he was only giving them to “voters or supporters.”
Rusi Patel, general counsel for the Georgia Municipal Association, said a key legal question is whether the city gave away funds in these cases and got nothing in return of value to the city. If not, it could be a violation of a gratuities clause in the state Constitution, he said.
Randy Godfrey, who has made complaints to the state Secretary of State’s Office about the festival, said he has seen an erosion over time “of any type of restraint” in campaigning by local candidates.
He also said he doesn’t think state officials will do anything to stop it because a majority of College Park residents vote Democratic.
“I think the state has not shown any concern because generally these state Republicans won’t get votes here. There’s nothing for them to gain,” Godfrey said. “So what are these communities left to do? We’re looking for answers.”
In an emailed response, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s Office said: “Following the law, and following the Constitution, is neither a Republican or Democrat issue.”
Early voting in Georgia’s municipal elections began Oct. 14 and ends Oct. 31. Election Day is Nov. 4.
About the Author
Reed Williams is an enterprise reporter on the Local team at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
