A member of the East Point Building Authority has asked the state attorney general to investigate concerns that five members of that city’s council routinely violate the Georgia Open Meetings Act.
Laura Borders, treasurer of the East Point Building Authority, wrote in an email sent Thursday evening that she had a copy of a communication between five of the council’s eight members that was “clear proof of collusion among council members to ... deny the citizens of East Point their right to a free, open and fair discussion of all motions that come before council. Their focus seems to be on keeping items off the agenda of public meetings, where we citizens have the right to comment on these matters.”
Three of those five members, in interviews with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said Border's allegations are ridiculous and unfounded. The other two council members did not return messages left Thursday night.
“That’s politics in East Point. There are no secret meetings,” Councilman Clyde Mitchell said.
He laughed when told of the issues Borders raised.
The information sent to the state attorney general included a copy of an email that member Lance Rhodes sent to Mitchell and three others. The email was sent to the state's attorney after business hours, so no one with the AG's office could be reached for comment.
State law allows the state attorney general to investigate allegations that the state’s Sunshine Law has been violated and to bring criminal charges or fines if necessary. State law says the public is allowed to be present any time there is a quorum -- a majority of council members.
“Five East Point City 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,” East Point Mayor Earnestine D. Pittman wrote on a printed copy of Rhodes' email.
Rhodes, who could not be reached, notes in the email that he and four other members had agreed they would not take up any issues that were not already on the meeting agenda and they would not make any commission appointments for at least six months.
Pittman noted that the five walked out of a work session “after holding a private meeting in the hallway outside of the council’s meeting room” and had all skipped meetings.
“Council meetings before the public are a sham,” the mayor wrote.
Borders told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the five members decide how they will vote before there is a public discussion.
“That’s collusion,” said Pittman, who is often at odds with those five members. “They’ve been having their council meetings outside of the council meetings and now they have really become blatant with it. And they have put it in writing.”
Member Steve Bennett said he has “never had a meeting outside a regularly scheduled council meeting” and that he even refuses to stand with his colleagues at public functions out of concern that their conversations could be considered in violation of the Georgia Sunshine Law.
Council member Jacqueline Slaughter-Gibbons said, “I’ve never done anything like that. I discuss with nobody … what I’m going to do.”
She said the complaint to the attorney general was petty and vindictive.
“I don’t know what I did [to Borders and her supporters],” Slaughter-Gibbons said. “I know their names, but I don’t know if I would know them on the street.”
About the Author
