Georgia officials are looking into whether the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners violated state law when it held a meeting with MARTA leaders earlier this fall.
State Attorney General Chris Carr’s office received a complaint last month alleging that the commission violated the Open Meetings Act, which mandates that governments make meeting agendas and records available to the public.
DeKalb resident and activist Ed Williams filed the complaint, alleging the board did not properly inform the public of the Sept. 26 meeting, release an agenda or approve the minutes of the meeting, a spokesman for Carr’s office said.
It was a special-called meeting, meaning it took place outside of the regular schedule. Commissioners met with MARTA CEO Jeffrey Parker and other officials to discuss potential future MARTA projects in metro Atlanta following a half-penny sales tax passed by Atlanta voters in 2016.
No votes were taken during the 90-minute meeting, during which the elected officials spoke about the use of taxpayer dollars and the expansion of transit in DeKalb.
It’s not the first time the county has come under fire over the Open Meetings Act.
Just last month, the county defended itself in the Georgia Supreme Court over the commissioners' surprise 2018 vote to raise their salaries by 60 percent. That case began after Williams filed an Open Meetings Act complaint, arguing the board did not properly inform the public of the pay raise vote ahead of time.
Justices have several months to make a decision on the matter.
After the 2018 pay raise vote, Carr issued a statement declaring that the board violated the Open Meetings Act by not including the salary increase on the agenda ahead of time. But because the 90-day window to contest the vote had passed, the pay raises could not be reversed by the courts. That prompted Williams to sue the commissioners.
In the recent case, Williams said DeKalb never provided an agenda ahead of the MARTA meeting. On Sept. 24, county staff sent a “news release” to reporters at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Champion newspaper announcing the meeting and topic of discussion.
But a formal notice about the meeting was never published, according to the the complaint. The meeting is also not included on the county's website that lists commission meetings. A video of the gathering was uploaded to the county's YouTube channel, but it is unlisted, meaning it is only available to view if a link is provided.
Williams filed a records request with the county asking for more details. In response, assistant county attorney Dexter Bond wrote Oct. 29 that “no such ‘approved minutes’ exist as these minutes were not submitted to the Board of Commission for their approval.” Meeting minutes are typically approved by the board at future meetings.
Bond provided a link to the video of the meeting and a summary of the discussion. At the top of the summary, the county clerk wrote that “An agenda was not submitted for this meeting.”
“The whole point is that the public is supposed to be aware of the meeting,” Williams told the AJC. “We are lucky they didn’t take any vote.”
Shortly after Williams’ complaint to Carr’s office, Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Colangelo wrote a letter to Viviane Ernstes, the county attorney. According to a copy of the letter provided to the AJC, she said the AG’s office sometimes uses a “mediation program” to resolve disputes between citizens and local governments. But they can also take legal action when appropriate, Colangelo wrote in the Nov. 4 letter.
She asked the county to send a response to Williams’ complaint within 10 business days.
“Of course, I am not aware of all the circumstances surrounding the meeting, and I am not assuming the Board violated the law,” Colangelo wrote.
In a statement to the AJC, the county said Ernstes “will review the issues and respond within the timeframe requested in the letter.”
About the Author
