Members of the East Point city council violated the state's Open Meetings Act when they communicated via e-mail about items on the council agenda, the state Attorney General's office says.
East Point Mayor Earnestine Pittman hailed the finding as vindication of her call for an investigation, but other officials say the council did nothing wrong.
The dispute arose when Pittman last spring accused council members of discussing agenda items by email. The investigation was launched in early May.
Pittman write on her website at the time that five council members “violated the Sunshine Law when they decided via email how they were going to control the council meetings, and hence determine what items would be placed on the council agenda.”
In a letter to the city earlier this month, Senior Assistant Attorney General Russell Willard took the city to task for violating the act.
“The result of the conduct by the council members is to deprive the public any reasonable means of access, and that conduct violates the both the spirit and the letter of the Open Meetings Act,” Willard wrote.
The city, in an unsigned statement posted on its website, disagreed.
“The city believes that the current state of the law supports its position that no member of the City Council engaged in conduct that violated the Act. The city intends to provide additional information to the Attorney General to clarify the basis for the city’s position. The city remains fully committed to compliance with the Georgia Sunshine Laws.”
Pittman said citizens should know that agenda items are not decided prior to meetings. The disagreement between the mayor and council is the latest in a string of confrontations since the beginning of the year.
“I’m glad the response came at the time it did. You just can’t do things like they did,” Pittman said.“If they violate it again, they could face ethics violations or be fined.”
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