Four members of the Fulton County Commission will seek Wednesday to censure fellow Commissioner Natalie Hall.
Chairman Robb Pitts and commissioners Khadijah Abdur-Rahman, Bob Ellis and Bridget Thorne — two Democrats and two Republicans, in that order — filed the resolution to express “severe disapproval” of Hall, the Democrat representing District 4. As those four constitute a majority of the seven-member commission the censure is all but guaranteed to pass.
“The Board of Commissioners admonishes Commissioner Hall that her conduct was not in the best interest of the Board of Commissioners, Fulton County, or the residents of Fulton County, and urges her to refrain from such conduct in the future,” it says.
Hall’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
The resolution cites two matters as justification:
- Hall’s acknowledged sexual relationship with her then-chief of staff Calvin Brock, who is seeking monetary damages from Fulton County on claims of sexual harassment and job retaliation; and
- Hall’s hiring and retention of another staffer despite “apparent violations of County procedures, misuse of County property, and guilty pleas to crimes involving deceit and the forcible taking of property.”
Those show Hall exhibited “lapses in judgment and failure to safeguard the best interests of Fulton County resulting in damage to the reputation of Fulton County and the Board of Commissioners,” the resolution says.
While such a relationship, if consensual, may not be sexual harassment under federal law, it would still violate county personnel and ethics codes as well as Hall’s oath of office, the resolution says.
Brock filed a discrimination complaint in early 2021 with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. At a weeklong hearing in early August on that still-unresolved complaint, Brock and Hall acknowledged a year-long affair that ended with his departure from his job as her chief of staff in September 2020. He accused her of planting several tracking devices in his vehicle and harassing him.
Hall claimed Brock initiated the affair and repeatedly promised to find a job outside her office, at which point she would make their relationship public. Their relationship deteriorated when she discovered he was sleeping with another woman, she said. Hall refused to answer multiple questions about the tracking devices.
The legal dispute is not only about harassment and retaliation claims, but whether Brock quit or was fired. Throughout the affair, Hall was married but separated.
The second point refers to Jonathan Harris, hired as community engagement manager for Hall’s office despite his record of arrests on multiple charges. This summer a county police investigation found he was using county vehicles on nights and weekends without an official purpose.
The county responded by enacting a 30-day moratorium on vehicle use by commissioners and their employees. That’s due to expire, but another resolution up Wednesday — sponsored by Ellis — tells county staff to develop a mileage reimbursement policy for commissioners and their employees, and “divest or repurpose” the vehicles commissioners and their employees currently use.
Ellis said Tuesday that his resolution on county vehicles is “not really linked” to Harris. Currently two vehicles are reserved for commissioners’ or commissioners’ staff use, and if the resolution passes those would be reassigned to other uses.
Hall’s commission district page now shows only two staff members, neither of whom is Harris.
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