A city councilwoman who has advocated for use of multilingual ballots in Morrow elections has been censured by her colleagues, a week after they agreed to allow residents to vote on her proposal in November.
In a 4-1 vote during a special-called meeting Tuesday to discuss personnel issues, the Morrow City Council censured Morrow Councilwoman Van T. Tran on allegations of “unacceptable behavior and inappropriate actions towards city employees,” according to the censure document.
“The city has received multiple complaints against and grievances from the city of Morrow regarding Councilwoman Tran’s unacceptable behavior and inappropriate actions taken toward city employees in violation (of the) city’s charter and city’s policies,” the censure document reads.
Tran, who cast the lone no vote on her censure, said in an email Friday that the accusations are baseless.
“The resolution is a retaliation against me for trying to do my job for the citizens of the city of Morrow,” she said. “There was no due process, my colleagues had a conflict of interest in making that decision.”
Neither Mayor John Lampl nor city manager Jeff Baker could be immediately reached for comment.
The censure comes seven days after Councilwoman Dorothy Dean, who had been a vocal opponent of Tran’s proposal when it was first introduced in July, asked her colleagues to include a question on whether to distribute bilingual ballots in future elections on the November 7 referendum.
“I propose a motion that we put the following language on the next ballot in the regularly scheduled election in November to read: ‘Shall the city of Morrow use bilingual ballots in all future elections, yes or no,’” she said.
The council unanimously approved the motion.
Dean’s proposal was an about face from her stance on multilingual ballots last month. Tran, a Vietnamese-American, had petitioned the city to offer ballots in English, Vietnamese and Spanish in future elections to reflect the city’s growing diversity.
The city of around 6,500 residents is about 41% Black, 33% Asian and 22% Hispanic or Latino, according to 2022 U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
Dean called the idea un-American and said she was offended by the suggestion, comments that made national headlines.
“You have failed in your oath of office,” Dean said to Tran. “You have failed as a citizen of this country. You disregarded and you dishonored the oaths that you took as an American citizen. I would like to say that is un-American and inexcusable. Shame on you, Van Tran.”
Dean did not return a call to her office on Thursday. Tran, Lampl and Councilman Khoa Vuong are up for reelection in November.
Tran at the time told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that making voting accessible to all is American.
“There is nothing more patriotic and American than helping American citizens fulfill their duty to vote,” she said. “I am providing access to voting for all American citizens. It is offensive to call the many languages spoken by American citizens as foreign.”
The controversy over the proposal grew as word spread in the weeks following Dean’s comments, and debate on the issue divided the community during public comment at council meetings. Advocates of the plan said it would encourage more voting by residents who struggle with English while opponents insist that Morrow citizens should know English to participate in governance.
Asian American citizens and groups rallied around Tran, with more than two dozen state legislators signing a letter denouncing Dean’s response.
“There is no official national language of the United States, a country founded by immigrants,” the legislators said. “People who do not speak English as their first language are just as American as those who do.”
Some said Thursday they suspect fall out from the controversy was the blame for Tran’s censure.
“I feel like it’s retaliation because for weeks she has been bringing up the same issues,” state Rep. Long Tran, D-Dunwoody, said referencing Tran’s push for multilingual ballots. Van Tran and Long Tran are not related.
Community activist Victoria Huynh agreed. She said the Morrow Council did not reveal to residents at the Tuesday special-called meeting that one of the measures on the agenda was a vote to censure Tran. When the council returned after executive session, they only identified the items they were voting on by the corresponding number on the agenda.
“That really signals to the community that there is more going on,” Huynh said.
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