COLLEGE PARK, Ga. — The City of College Park is once again dealing with controversy as the council votes to censure the mayor.
City council members voted unanimously to censure or condemn Mayor Bianca Motley Broom Friday evening. The special meeting was held after council claimed Motley Broom acted out during their regularly scheduled meeting Monday night. What the council called "outbursts" by the mayor forced three council members to walk out, and the meeting to end.
Friday evening, dozens of residents came out in support of the mayor. Most gave her flowers before the meeting started to stand in solidarity with her.
Friday's meeting was also contentious and quickly turned chaotic after the reading of the first item on the agenda. After Motley Broom asked the city clerk which council member asked for the item regarding her censuring to be put on the agenda, no one would answer until council member Joe Carn pushed for the meeting to move forward.
"I believe that everyone up here with the exception of yourself have reached a consensus that this needs to be done. If we're going to have functioning meetings then unfortunately this is something that needs to happen so that's my belief, if we can move on please," Carn said.
Once the item was read the council lost decorum after someone in the crowd yelled out about his disapproval and officers escorted him out. The crowd started clapping and yelling after his outburst and the interim city manager ordered for the room to be cleared. The room was left empty with residents in the hallway, husband and wife were put in cuffs to be escorted out, and the meeting was almost adjourned.
"I don't know if we can conduct business under this arrangement. We've already removed every member of the public. I've been doing this 20 years and I've never seen that. This is not a good day in College Park," the city clerk said.
The city clerk recommended the meeting be suspended citing the need for judicial review and recommendation on how to move forward with the rules in the city's charter. Despite that, the meeting continued with the council members voting to suspend all questions on the rest of the items on the agenda.
The chief of police eventually agreed to let residents back in under the condition that there were no more outbursts. Still, many were left frustrated.
"I think it's very unfair. This is a public meeting called for by the council and to remove the public from a public meeting in my opinion is illegal. It is certainly not a good look when we are thirsting for transparency, thirsting for accountability, to have the public removed while you discuss issues to me the very reason we are protesting right now," James Walker, a resident of 5 years said.
Walker is part of the group United College Park, which was formed by citizens who say they're 'passionate about creating meaningful change within the community' and are active in local government 'to ensure every citizen has a voice.'
The meeting ended after an executive session that lasted about 20 minutes. As they were leaving, 11Alive spoke to Mayor Motley Broom and Ward 1 Councilwoman Jamelle McKenzie. Both were disappointed that the public was removed from the meeting.
"I don't think that was the best display of what we can do as a governing body. I don't think that everyone needed to be cleared from the room. I said that at the time and I stand by that. I understand there was clapping and there were people who were emotional, but I don't agree with the interim city manager's directive to clear the room. I think it is really important for us to always be accessible to our residents no matter what's going on. To the people who are watching online and might see this later, we'll get better we have to," Mayor Motley Broom said.
Councilwoman McKenzie echoed the same message saying what happened at the meeting was hard for her to watch.
"I am disappointed. This is very emotional for a lot of people because of the way they perceive their government being run at this time. I guess all I can say to people is don't give up in your city. Because so many people were emotional about this it was hard for them to contain themselves and that's unfortunate because we didn't want that to happened. I didn't want to see the room cleared. I wanted us to have a meeting where everyone could be there and participate. For safety reasons it had to be done. I just believe that if we could start by following the ordinances and the laws we have that's a start. If we see that those aren't working then we change them, but right now we just have a lot of disorder," Councilwoman McKenzie said.
Moving forward councilmembers just want the mayor to follow the rules passed in January that take her out of deliberations and discussions on items. McKenzie says it would help the meetings run smoothly and the members could voice the Mayors concerns during the meetings if she's committed to working and commuting with them outside of the chamber.
"I believe that if our mayor would see that the ordinance that we passed was not to silence her or violate her in any way this would work. We do not at this time have a presiding officer that's unbiased and we need the unbiasedness as we continue to conduct the work of the city. For the sake of the entire city we just have to keep working on this. I believe that we can. I think we can get to the place this city deserves, but we just have to be intentional about it," Councilwoman McKenzie said.
Both parties on the governing board seem to think they can work together, but can't agree on a way to make that happen. The Mayor says it's her right to speak during meetings. Now she's asking for help from the state to get things to move forward.
"We need help from our state delegation. We need help from others that can get us on the right direction because I do think we need to be committed to putting our residents first. I absolutely disagree with the censure. I believe that there's no statutory authority, there's no authority under our charter and our ordinance does not speak to a censure without due process. I don't think it was a legal move by my colleagues and doesn't serve to move us forward, but that's just where we are" Mayor Motley Broom said.
The Mayor's spokesperson says council plans to amend city policies at the next council meeting to address the censure. That meeting is set to be held August 19.