Ward B Councilmember Carrie Ziegler Draws Criticism For Saying “That Boat Has Sailed” On Resident Input Over Budget

Ward B Councilwoman Carrie Ziegler is drawing criticism from within the community over comments she made at Monday night’s city council meeting, which Ziegler participated in via Zoom.

The city’s current budget discussions have slipped into the month of July–past the June 30th deadline submission date as outlined by the State. However, Georgia cities, including East Point, have exceeded their budget deadlines in the past, a fact pointed out by some members of council.

Part of the reason the budget discussion has continued is due to the sheer number of residents, particularly many of the city’s seniors, who have expressed their concern to councilmembers about purported cuts, salaries, allocations, expenditures–and event spending.

The widespread concern and confusion within the community prompted Ward C Councilmembers Tremayne Mitchell and Starr Cummings along with Ward D Councilmembers Latonya Martin-Rogers and Andrea Caldwell to host multiple budget town halls along with the city manager so that residents can pose questions to city officials and get them answered.

The Council collectively came up with a series of amendments on Monday night as the discussion over budget adoption continued and Councilmembers Ziegler, Shean Atkins (Ward B At-Large), Eric Friedly (Ward A), and Japera Hemming (Ward A At-Large) voiced their support for immediately moving forward with awarding the budget.

But Council Rule 16, which centers around ordinance adoption, stipulates: “Every proposed ordinance shall be introduced in writing and in the form required for final adoption”. Therefore, according to that rule, substantive changes to proposed budgets or any ordinance should be adopted in its final written draft form. This is essential in order to ensure transparency for constituents and to guarantee Councilmembers understand what they are trying to approve.

In light of that established rule, passing the budget on Monday night would have likely contradicted the rule.

The budget failed to pass because it did not meet the required vote threshold.

But in urging the council to move forward with budget adoption, Councilwoman Ziegler said she did not understand why council was “still sourcing opinions from residents and other constituents”.

Ziegler said she believed time was up for community input and that there was no need for any further opinion from the public: “That has passed. We are in July 6th. I just can’t believe we’re still doing that (listening to resident input over the budget). That boat has sailed”.

Many residents diagree with the Councilwoman’s comments.

“That right there is some bull—-“, said Ward B resident Tony Johnson, when reached by phone. He said he voted for Ziegler not knowing anything about her in 2023, thinking at that time the city needed change.

He continued: “If she thinks she’s better than us, tell her to move to Buckhead. Residents who pay their taxes and keep this city going always have the right to be heard. I’m voting against her next year for sure!”, he added.

Former city council candidate and Ward B resident Marie Terry, who previously ran against Ziegler, said she also disagrees with Ziegler’s comments.

“I disagree. This ship has not sailed”, said Terry. “How you gonna sail the ship without the crew? The people need to be heard, and no councilperson should say there comes a time when any resident should not be listened to.”

Ward B resident Erica (last name withheld) said via email: “I understand how frustration can make you say certain things. But if you can’t listen to residents, then you don’t need to be on the council. There is no time limit for people to not be heard. Period”.

The reaction continued on social media:

“The residents asking valid questions about their proposed budget are not holding anyone hostage. They are exercising the very civic responsibility elected officials routinely encourage”, said one commenter on Instagram, adding, “However we appear to have an elected official in Ward B that believes the residents concerns are an inconvenience”.

The budget debate has taken unusual turns of late. Last month, an anonymous robocall advocating for the budget’s passage featuring an unidentified female voice circulated across the city advising residents to ignore former councilmembers Jackie Slaughter and Greg Fann along with former mayor Ernestine Pittman, all of whom are East Point residents over the age of 80 who spoke out at council meetings with regard to the current budget.

The caller claimed the three were causing division and are attempting to set the community back by raising questions about the budget. The caller went on to accuse the writer of this story of creating and distributing anonymous flyers sent by email across the city–flyers that highlighted potential cuts and expenditures in the budget.

The flyer itself warned that budget cuts and a “realignment” of city funding would lead to a shift away from East Point’s DEI initiatives and would instead go to fund initiatives advocated for by Ward A At-Large Councilwoman Japera Hemming.

The next council meeting will be Monday, July 13th.

See Councilmember Ziegler’s comments by clicking the link below: