College Park mayor files second lawsuit since March against city

College Park Mayor Bianca Motley Broom has sued her own city for the second time in about six months.

Motley Broom filed a suit Sept. 6 in Fulton County Superior Court alleging the city violated her due process and the Georgia Open Meetings Act last month when the city council censured her. The suit asks the court to declare the censure void.

The mayor first sued the city in March in federal court, alleging her First Amendment rights were violated when the city council passed an ordinance that limits her ability to participate in discussions at meetings.

The new lawsuit is the latest volley in a battle between Motley Broom and the city council that has lasted more than a year. Motley Broom, the city’s first female and first Black mayor, was elected to a second term last November.

“There is no mechanism under College Park’s laws to censure an elected official in the manner the Council has attempted,” Motley Broom wrote in bold in a statement on her website.

ExploreCity Attorney: College Park government in ‘crisis’ and likely to get worse

In the censure resolution, the council described Motley Broom as “persistently displaying petulance, belligerence and immaturity.”

Motley Broom presides over city council meetings but Interim City Manager Emmanuel Adediran is College Park’s chief operating officer. In a statement Thursday, the city said a censure “is a formal notification of reprimand and displeasure, by a legislative body against a member, but has no monetary impact nor other official result.”

The city has spent almost $40,000 in legal fees on the first lawsuit, according to the statement, from acting city spokesperson Bill Crane.

“At some point, to move forward, turn the page and govern this community, its elected and appointed officials will need to act with civility towards one another and focus on moving the city forward,” Crane said.

The city removed the public from a contentious meeting last month but kept livestreaming it, which city officials argue did not violate the Open Meetings Act.

A city attorney last month described the turmoil between the mayor and council as a “crisis.”

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