East Point Mayor Earnestine Pittman said Sunday the lawsuit to remove her from office is "frivolous" and is motivated by the anger of one of the plaintiffs.
"Barbara Collins is very upset with me at the present time because I am booting her off the East Point Housing Authority board," said Pittman.
Collins, a retired vice president with Bank of America, and one of the plaintiffs, said Sunday the mayor doesn't have the authority to remove her from the board, and added "she's not kicking me off because I'm not going anywhere, and that's the bottom line."
At a meeting on Monday Aug. 5, Collins was removed from the housing authority board, Pittman said.
Collins and fellow East Point resident Dustin Drabot filed a lawsuit Friday, Aug. 10, to have Pittman removed from office. Collins said Pittman has violated her oath of office, failed to follow city ordinances and has violated the city charter and the state code.
A retired schoolteacher who serves as a part-time mayor, Pittman said Sunday she hasn't seen the complaint yet, but added "I hope they have enough money to pay attorneys' fees if I'm ever served, because they would lose."
Pittman said Collins was serving on the housing authority's board despite the fact that her term should have expired three years ago. "There is no record anywhere in city, not in clerk's office or at the housing authority, where she was ever reappointed by anybody," said Pittman.
Collins countered that former mayor Joe Macon, who Pittman defeated in 2009, signed an affidavit reappointing Collins to office.
Of Pittman, Collins said "She's got to be stopped in some way. Any time you try to talk with her... she says, 'Just take me to court.' So that's what we're doing."
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