COLLEGE PARK, Ga. — A restaurant owner is accusing the City of College Park of targeting and harassing her business.
And now, she has a powerful person on her side -- the mayor of College Park.
Big Back’s Cajun Kitchen is a popular Camp Creek Parkway restaurant.
But its owner said they’ve been targeted by city code enforcement initiated by a College Park city councilmember.
Shawn Perkins and her business partners are mad.
They insist the City of College Park is suddenly and overwhelmingly targeting and harassing their restaurant.
“He’s scared. Like, why they keep coming in here?” Perkins told Channel 2’s Richard Elliot.
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They say College Park code enforcement and law enforcement keep showing up demanding to see permits, writing citations, accusing them of operating an illegal nightclub, and ordering them to unplug their gaming machines, even though Perkins showed Channel 2 Action News her up-to-date state gaming license.
They’re blaming the harassment on one man: Mayor Pro Tem Joe Carn.
“I was harassed on the first day. And when he sent code enforcement over here, and they didn’t find anything, you went into a meeting to find out how they could get me on the games? Why me all of a sudden on a Monday morning?” Perkins said.
But the College Park city attorney was quick to defend Carn, releasing a letter which said: “Mayor Pro Tem Carn did not direct code enforcement to target, harass or otherwise initiate enforcement action against the business.”
But then that’s when Perkins got help from an unexpected source -- the mayor of College Park, Bianca Motley Broom.
The mayor is not only siding with the restaurant owners, but she went on social media, accusing her colleague of influencing city departments and calling it harassment, too.
“I wanted to take a minute to talk to you about what harassment looks like,” Broom said in the social media video. “That’s not what we should be doing as elected officials. That’s not our job. That’s not our purview, and it’s not right.”
Elliot reached out to Carn for comment on this story, but so far, he has not heard back.