Politics & Government

Complaint Dismissed Against Councilmember Adrian Bonser

The City Council dismissed the complaint against Councilmember Adrian Bonser in spite of conflict at Tuesday night's meeting.

The Dunwoody City Council voted to dismiss the complaint against Councilmember Adrian Bonser at the Council meeting Tuesday night.  The city’s Ethics Board recently found that Bonser had violated the Dunwoody City ethics code by sending a “discourteous” email to constituent Stephen Chipka.  The City Council found Bonser’s behavior unprofessional rather than unethical and voted unanimously to dismiss the board’s recommendation of a public reprimand but not before Bonser and Mayor Mike Davis engaged in verbal sparring over accusations made by Bonser.

Bonser accused Davis of asking Chipka to file the ethics charge in an effort to have her removed from office, alleging that Chipka had suggested the two were working together in an email sent to her. 

“I believe that there probably was a setup,” Bonser said.  “I believe that most likely that’s true.”

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Bonser called for an independent investigation of the incident by the Dekalb County District Attorney’s office.

Mayor Davis quickly denied the accusations, asserting that if Councilmember Bonser could prove a connection between Chipka and Davis, she would have found it in the emails that she obtained through the open records requests that she filed. 

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“I think you’re the only one on council that’s actually been in correspondence with this guy at all and you ended up in an ethics charge,” Davis said. 

The exchange became heated when Bonser asked for a point of privilege to respond to the Mayor’s comments. The Mayor denied her request, saying, “no, no, no, no,” but Bonser spoke anyway requesting an apology from the Mayor which she did not receive. 

Councilmember Terry Nall disagreed with the findings of the ethics board and began the motion to dismiss the complaint against Councilmember Bonser.

“I truly understand the frustration caused by the persistent badgering by the citizen’s emails but as public servants we’re held to a higher standard,” Nall said. 

Chipka had emailed several members of the City Council.  It was Bonser’s email stating: “LOL, you’re a funny man,” that led to the ethics violation.

“I’m having trouble seeing how that one email rises to an ethics violation,”Nall said. 

Bob Lundsten, chief of staff for Dekalb Commissioner Elaine Boyer spoke briefly on the issue.

“The idea that you can get an ethics complaint filed against you for being rude and discourteous is stupid,” Lundsten said.  “It makes the city look stupid.”

 


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