Update on Nov. 12, 2024 @ 5 p.m.
The City of Mulberry's first city council meeting that was tentatively planned for Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Calvary Chapel has been canceled.
One of the candidates for District 5's runoff race, Michele Sims, opposes the meeting before a full council is in place.
"We cannot afford to start this new chapter of our city's history on a note of complete disregard for established law," Sims said in a Monday press conference.
Sims said that the city's charter states that the mayor and mayor pro tem are to be selected at the first regular meeting, not the emergency meeting planned on Tuesday.
The City of Mulberry issued a release on the matter on Tuesday.
"Although we disagree with the legal conclusions and feel strongly that the called emergency meeting is legal under the Mulberry Charter and Georgia law, we as the city council-elect want to demonstrate to our city's residents that we are committed to starting this city on the right foot," the release said.
The release did go on to say that legal matters with Gwinnett County in Fulton County courts must be addressed before the certification of the District 5 runoff race between Sims and Doug Ingram in mid-December.
They said that they plan to call another meeting next week among the four currently elected council members.
Original story published on Nov. 9, 2024 @ 4 p.m.
The City of Mulberry will hold its first-ever city council meeting Tuesday night.
The city issued a release Saturday morning announcing an "emergency public hearing" to be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Calvary Chapel Gwinnett Church on Spout Springs Road.
"Gwinnett County Elections will certify the Mulberry City Council results, and the four currently elected city council members will be sworn in immediately thereafter," the release said. "At that time, the council members intend to call for an immediate emergency meeting to occur."
The city has announced a preliminary agenda for the meeting. It includes plans to hear reports from the Mulberry Transition Team that was appointed by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp after the vote to create the city, as well as from Gwinnett County Emergency Services and the Georgia Municipal Association.
Also, the released agenda calls for a vote on a mayor and mayor pro-tempore. The city's charter says Mulberry's mayor will be chosen by the council from among its members.
So far, four of the five city council seats have been filled for the city. The District 5 seat is still to be determined, with Doug Ingram and Michelle Sims heading to a December runoff after neither received 50 percent of the vote Tuesday night.
Tim Sullivan, Michael Coker, Kyle Shields and Michael Rudnick are the four city council members-elect who will meet Tuesday night.
The meeting will come as the city's existence continues to be the subject of numerous lawsuits from both Gwinnett County itself and an area resident who claim the city's charter is unconstitutional for not allowing it to levy property taxes. The charter was approved by the state legislature, Governor Kemp and a vote of the area residents in May.
A hearing in the Gwinnett County case is scheduled for December.
