A Kennesaw resident amended his ethics complaint against the city's mayor Tuesday night, claiming the mayor's attempt to meet in private was innappropriate.
David Ermutlu filed a complaint that alleged Mayor Mark Mathews improperly used city resources for business related to his job at Metro Atlanta Ambulance services. Ermutlu works for a competing ambulance service that has provided emergency response services for the city for 14 years, even though they are not approved to do so by the state.
Ermutlu filed the complaint on July 3, citing emails obtained in an Open Records Request as evidence. In the complaint, Ermutlu alleges the emails were sent from Mathews' city email address, Iphone and Ipad.
At Tuesday night's city council meeting, Ermutlu submitted pictures of two text messages Mathews sent him asking to meet in person.
Mathews declined to comment on the allegations but said the complaint will be taken seriously by the Kennesaw Ethics Board. Tuesday City Council hired Smyrna city arttorney Scott Cochran, at $175 an hour, to provide legal services to the ethics board to avoid any possible conflicts of interest in the service of the Kennesaw city attorney. The board will meet on the complaint on July 24.
The complaint surrounds the decade-old issue of who provides ambulance services for the city. Fourteen years ago, the city began using Georgia EMS, a private, locally based emergency responder. However, they are not approved by the state to respond to 911 calls, even though many in the city, including several council members, support the hometown company.
MAAS is the state-approved provider for much of Cobb County, including Kennesaw. In May, the company's president wrote a letter to the Kennesaw city manager requesting all calls be fowarded to MAAS, not Georgia EMS. Councilman Bill Thrash, said the state recently made the same request, even though he supports the city's right to choose it's own provider.
"We can't knowingly violate a law, so we were forced to follow their recommendations; but that doesn't mean the fight's over."
Residents and Councilmembers Bruce Jenkins and Cris Eaton-Welsh also expressed their support for Georgia EMS.
"I'm not here to throw stones at anyone; I'm here to support what's right, and that's GA EMS," said Michelle Brady, a resident who spoke at Tuesday night's meeting.
A series of emails Mathews sent on behalf of his job at MAAS were attached to Ermutlu's original complaint. In a message he sent in February 2012 from his city address, Mathews told Devan Seabough, vice president of MAAS, he was "still playing the politics carefully before I arrange the meeting between myself, Pete (Quinones, president and CEO of MAAS) and City Manager."
Mathews filed a possible conflict of interest disclosure with the City of Kennesaw on May 10, 2012 and recused himself from any activity related to ambulance services in the city. He became Manager of Governmet Relations for MAAS in 2009.
Mathews served as a councilman from 1996 until he became mayor in 2008.
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