Riverdale officials are pursuing ethics charges against a Riverdale city councilwoman after an outside investigator found the official used her position for personal gain.
The Riverdale City Council voted last week to conduct a hearing into two of the 14 charges leveled against city councilwoman Cynthia Stamps-Jones by Mayor Evelyn Wynn-Dixon. The mayor filed a 12-page ethics complaint containing the charges against Stamps-Jones in September. The mayor did not cast a vote in last week's motion.
Stamps-Jones declined to comment.
In his investigation, attorney Winston Denmark of Fincher & Associates found that Stamps-Jones tried to get the city to pay a $3,500 invoice to a law firm she hired to take a second look at ethics complaints she made against the mayor and councilmembers Wanda Wallace and Kenneth Ruffin earlier this year. The city had already paid $8,200 to investigate Stamps-Jones’ 22 ethics complaints. Stamps-Jones’ request for payment of the attorney’s fees was made without city council approval. That violates section 3-4 of the city’s ethics ordinance which deals with officials using their office to obtain financial benefits, Denmark said in his report to the council.
Denmark’s investigation also found that Stamps-Jones used two Riverdale police officers to escort her to her sister’s funeral in Columbus last December. Neither the city manager nor the council approved the use of the two officers for that duty. That is a violation of Section 3-12(c) of the city’s ethics ordinance, Denmark noted.
Denmark recommended a public reprimand, a $408.62 fine and that she be asked to resign. The council is looking for a hearing officer to conduct the hearing.
“We did it. We had to,” Wynn-Dixon said of the investigation. “Things were getting out of control. The council needed to know you still have to follow protocol.”
This isn’t Denmark’s only ties involving disputes with Stamps-Jones.
He represented Wynn-Dixon, Wallace and Ruffin when Stamps-Jones made ethics complaints against the trio. He also was the prosecuting attorney during a Clayton County schools tribunal that resulted in Stamps-Jones being fired.
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