CUMMING, Ga. — The City of Cumming continues to defend the mayor's decision to remove a videotaping blogger from a recent city council meeting.
Nydia Tisdale, who runs the blog www.aboutforsyth.net, posted a video on YouTube showing the city's police chief escorting her out of the meeting at the request of the city's mayor, Henry Ford Gravitt.
In a letter provided to Channel 2's Mike Petchenik by the Attorney General's Office, city attorney Dana Miles refutes many of Tisdale's complaints.
One complaint said the city locked several doors to City Hall and made it difficult for people to access. In his letter, Miles said the city does have an entrance for people during council meetings.
"What is required is that the meeting be open to the public and that the public be provided access to the meeting, which it undoubtedly was," Miles said.
Miles disputes that Police Chief Casey Tatum and another officer "forcibly removed" Tisdale from the meeting.
"To our knowledge, Ms. Tisdale was never touched, and all of the photographs we have seen of the subject incident show that Chief Tatum was not trying to remove Tisdale, but the camera on its tripod," wrote Miles.
Miles pointed out that the City of Cumming videotapes its meetings for public review.
"It would appear that such a video further ameliorates if not completely satisfies the issue raised regarding the recording of the April 17 meeting," said Miles.
The Attorney General's Office has not yet ruled on whether the city broke the law. If it is determined that laws were broken, the office could fine those involved.