SOUTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Taxpayer money was used to pay for a private funeral, and College Park city leaders are wondering if that violated the law.
A custodian who has been cleaning a public building for 10 years had a son die unexpectedly.
He asked a council member for help because he couldn’t afford the entire cost of the funeral.
That council member sent him to the city manager. What happened next is now under investigation.
Before the College Park City Council meeting started Monday, Mayor Bianca Motley Broom asked the city manager’s team why the city was paying nearly $3,000 for a funeral without council’s approval.
No one gave her an answer, so she brought it up again in the public council meeting and asked why it was listed in the budget under contractual services.
“I did not recall any discussion of that being budgeted or any discussion of that during the budget session. The idea that we’re paying for a funeral service full stop, is an issue that I see with the gratuities clause,” the mayor said.
City Manager Mike Hicks admitted during this meeting that he gave the city custodian the money because his son died unexpectedly and the family couldn’t afford the entire cost of the funeral.
“Anybody that knows me knows that I am a staff member first before I sat in this seat, and I am vulnerable to the staff’s needs,” Hicks said.
Councilmember Joe Carn said the custodian came to him first, and he told the city manager to give him the money out of the city’s bereavement fund.
However, the $3,000 of taxpayer money the city manager gave the custodian is about triple the amount that was in the entire city’s bereavement fund.
The city attorney warned councilmembers.
“Certain things we just cannot do. And I know sometimes we have control over multi-million-dollar budgets and we see need,” the city attorney said. “And being people of faith and being people of compassion and conviction - but we are limited by the gratuities clause.”
Reaction from people in the city was mixed – some agreed and some didn’t.
“Yes, College Park is my home and stuff, and they got the money to pay that because there’s a lot of money in College Park,” one resident said.
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