College Park City Council has approved another measure that constrains the mayor’s authority.
During a Monday meeting, council unanimously approved a measure permanently preventing Mayor Bianca Motley Broom from placing any item on a regular meeting agenda seeking approval to spend her community enhancement funds.
The move follows several actions by council since 2024 when the body approved ordinances restricting Motley Broom’s ability to speak during debate on agenda items.
For the second fiscal year, the mayor and council members are allocated $900,000 in community enhancement funds. At total of $500,000 is designated for capital projects, and $400,000 is for non-capital expenditures.
Motley Broom has often shared with the public how the officials’ funds are spent. Any expenditure, below $10,000 does not need council approval and can be signed off by the city manager, without the public’s knowledge, unless records are obtained through an open records request.
That policy was further tightened Monday when council approved a measure brought by Councilman Joe Carn proposing a change to the Community Enhancement Funds guidelines.
Under the new rule, the mayor must now seek approval from a council member before placing a proposal on the meeting agenda if she wants to spend any amount of money from her community enhancement funds.
In a preview of the meeting on her website, Motley Broom wrote: “There is no such requirement in the Charter, and those who served before me as mayor never had to deal with these restrictions. Unfortunately, this proposal seems motivated more by politics than good policy.”
Council had no discussion before the vote except for Motley Broom adding that the measure does not address council members’ questionable expenditures that are below $10,000.
The founders of College Park Unmuted on Facebook, Mose James IV and James Walker, have raised questions about Carn’s spending on their new website cpmoneytrail.com. Five invoices from Carn to the city are listed and questioned.
One of the five, an invoice totaling $1,034.79 that included Home Depot purchases, was addressed by Carn and Finance Director Cynthia Hammond during Monday’s meeting. Hammond told council that there was a reimbursement payment to Carn due to a Finance Department error and Carn returned the funds.
Carn was critical of College Park Unmuted but did not address the other four invoices in question when Motley Broom asked about them.
“…I think everybody’s intention up here is for good governance, so we’re going to continue to move forward and make progress for this city,” Carn said.
Scrutiny over how city officials spend funds below $10,000 has persisted for more than a year.
In February, the city’s former procurement manager, Jerrel Jones, told Channel 2 Action News he was forced to resign after refusing to violate city policy related to purchase orders.
Last summer, former purchasing administrator Veronica Brown was fired. Brown has said she was terminated after refusing to pay invoices that were not properly approved.
