The Forest Park City Council next week will consider an ordinance that would prevent disruption of city government in the event there is no mayor and not enough council members to conduct business.
The city of 19,000 faces such a predicament. Forest Park has been without a mayor since last September, when Corinne Deyton abruptly retired.
Voters will go to the polls March 19 in a special election to fill the mayor’s position.
In the meantime, Forest Park also is in jeopardy of having only three council members, not enough for a quorum under the current charter, city attorney Robert Mack said Tuesday. The council, which normally has a mayor and five members, would be reduced to three if Councilwoman Sparkle Adams decides to run for mayor.
Adams said Tuesday she has definitely decided to enter the mayor’s race.
“The city is in the process of amending the charter to allow for three council people to constitute a quorum in the instance when there is no mayor,” Mack said.
Adams’ departure from the council will leave vacancies in Wards 1 and 2. The Ward 2 seat has been vacant since 2011, when the council ousted Karen-Brandee Williams for a series of alleged ethics violations. Williams was indicted last spring on charges of theft by deception, violating her oath and making false statements, but those charges later were dropped.
Williams appealed her ouster, but Clayton County Superior Court Judge Deborah C. Benefield issued an order Tuesday upholding the council’s action removing her.
Deyton also was the subject of an ethics charge before she retired. She was accused by a resident of shirking her duties because she had missed numerous council meetings last year. That charge eventually was dropped.
The council will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Forest Park City Hall.
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