Brooklet City Council, during its regular meeting Thursday, formally accepted the resignations of Post 5 Councilmember Johnathan Graham from his elected position and of Cain Smith as appointed Brooklet Municipal Court solicitor and city attorney.

So far, Brooklet officials have not determined when a special election might be held to replace Graham, but the council did appoint a temporary city attorney and a permanent new solicitor.

As previously reported, Smith, who had served as Brooklet’s city court solicitor – in effect prosecutor – for more than a decade but as its city attorney for slightly less than a month, submitted a note resigning for from both positions Feb. 28. Then Graham submitted a letter March 1 resigning from the council.

In his letter, Graham alleged that new Brooklet Mayor Nicky Gwinnett had engaged in “questionable actions regarding water well usage and business licenses,” and shown “complete disregard for the well-being and morale of the city staff.”

In his note, Smith had written that he was prepared to deal with official city business but not “personal disputes” and a “toxic … atmosphere,” around grievances brought by two staff members against Gwinnett and instead advised Brooklet officials “to put the past in the past and move forward in the best interest of the city.”

Those resignations, and the grievances filed by City Clerk Lori Phillips and Assistant City Clerk Melissa Pevey, led to the council’s March 6 directive limiting Gwinnett’s staff supervisory role.

More about that, and an update on the Georgia Legislature’s passage of the new Brooklet City Charter, requiring that a city manager be hired, appears later in this story.

Thursday evening’s motions to accept Smith’s and Graham’s resignations, effective from the dates submitted, were approved by 3-0 votes. That was true of all other motions passed, since Graham’s seat was already vacant and Post 1 Councilmember Keith Roughton, sworn in at the beginning of the year, was away at new councilmember training. Gwinnett presided at the meeting but can only vote in the event of a tie.

Lawyers appointed

A motion to formally return Hugh Hunter, who had retired as Brooklet’s city attorney at the end of 2023, temporarily to that position was already spelled out on the agenda, and called both for appointing him as city attorney “through June 30, 2024, and to ratify him being hired on our about February 28, 2024, to assist with two grievances filed by employees and issues related to those grievances.”

Post 4 Councilmember James Harrison made the motion, Post 2 Councilmember Bradley Anderson seconded it, and Post 3 Councilmember Rebecca Kelly also voted in favor.

The three council members present also agreed on a motion appointing Robert M. “Robbie” Mock Jr. as the city solicitor. Mock, a graduate of Mercer University’s Walter F. George School of law who earlier obtained a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in accounting at Georgia Southern, previously worked for a Statesboro law firm but has now taken over a practice in Sylvania, his home town.

A special election?

Kelly had asked Hunter when Brooklet needs to hold a city election to fill the Seat 5 vacancy.

“Well, I haven’t specifically looked at it, but your charter provision has to jibe with the general election law in Title 21 of the Georgia Code,” Hunter said. “But I’d have to get back to you on that.”

At Anderson’s request, Hunter promised to send his answer on this, when he has one, to Phillips for distribution to the council members, mayor and public.

New charter passes

On March 20, one day before the most recent council meeting, Brooklet’s new charter, which had been introduced as 2023 House Bill 1451 by Rep. Lehman Franklin III, R-District 160, Statesboro, was approved by the state Senate on a 50-1 vote, after having passed the House 147-0 on March 11. It will now become law if signed – or at least not vetoed – by Gov. Brian Kemp. Brooklet officials, including Hunter and Kelly, who has been following the bill’s progress, said they do not know yet when the charter may take effect.

According to the tally on the General Assembly website, Sen. Colton Moore, R-53rd District, Trenton, cast the one “nay” vote.  Sen. Billy Hickman, R-4th District, Statesboro, was among the 50 senators who voted “yes,” while two senators didn’t vote and three were excused.

The action began as a local initiative, since Brooklet City Council voted 3-2 during a Dec. 21, 2023 meeting to amend the City Charter to adopt a city manager form of government. Anderson made the motion, Graham seconded it, and Kelly joined in voting for it. Harrison and Gwinnett, at that point still a council member, voted “nay.”

The new charter includes no staff supervisory role for the mayor and instead requires the mayor and council to hire a city manager who will take on the day-to-day responsibility of supervising Brooklet’s city business operations and employees.

Gwinnett, a member of Brooklet City Council for the past four years as well as for a previous term years earlier, ran unopposed for mayor last fall and was sworn into that office Jan. 4.

Grievances

Phillips’ grievance notice, dated Feb. 7, and Pevey’s grievance notice, dated Feb. 15, were addressed to Graham as “administration councilmember” for the city of Brooklet. Phillips wrote that Gwinnett had subjected her to retaliation and humiliation at a weekly meeting he had with staff after she expressed concerns over a fee he wanted to charge for which she believed there was no supporting city ordinance. She also stated that he had made derogatory remarks about her in the presence of other employees, leaving her crying.

Pevey wrote that the mayor’s “language/tone and actions” during the same meeting made her feel “uncomfortable and unsafe” and said that, outside of that meeting, he had repeatedly pressured her to issue him a business license, but she told him that “all proper processes must be followed” and that she was working with her immediate supervisor in the process.

During a specially called meeting March 6, the council held a two-hour closed-door session with Gwinnett and with Hunter present as attorney, and afterward the remaining council members by a 4-0 voice vote issued a directive defining and limiting Gwinnett’s staff supervisory authority, under the old charter that is still in effect.

That charter empowers the mayor to “supervise the administration of the daily operations of the city” but also gives the council authority to issue written directives to the mayor.

The directive states that the mayor “shall not have the power or authority to give directives or orders to city employees unless the department head provides written delegation of such authority.” Otherwise, the mayor is to discuss an employee’s actions only with the supervising department head and not directly with any city employee and is “prohibited from engaging in any retaliatory behavior against any city employee who, in good faith, raises any concerns to the appropriate department head or to the city council.”

Gwinnett has not commented on this publicly and declined the Statesboro Herald’s request to talk about it.

Howard’s questions

But during the public comment time at the March 21 meeting, Brooklet resident Gilbert Howard asked two questions, for which Gwinnett said he will look for answers.

One was when or whether Graham was no longer a resident of Brooklet “prior to his resignation.” According to other city officials, he has moved away, at least since his resignation. Howard at first asked this of all of the council members. Anderson said the council’s practice is not to respond to public comments, but he added that if Howard directed his questions to the mayor, the mayor “should get back to you.”

As his second question, Howard asserted that the citizens of Brooklet had twice turned down a request to change the charter, and then asked, “How did it pass by three votes when we have a citizen base of 2,300 people that knew nothing about it?”

Gwinnett said he “could do some research.”