The East Point City Council Will Hold Its Regular Meeting Tonight: City’s Budget, Thousands Of Dollars In Proposed Councilmember Spending, Reduced Paid Council Meetings, And Charter Changes Take Focus

The East Point City Council will hold its regularly scheduled meeting tonight at City Hall, but this meeting comes with controversy as the city’s budget is almost two months overdue while some members on Council seek to unlock access to thousands of taxpayer dollars for their own priorities within their prospective wards.

There is also an effort by some on Council to seek a revamp of the city’s Charter in order for the Council to reduce its number of meetings from 3 per month to 2. In addition, some on Council expressed an interest in adopting a period of “recess”–meaning entire lengths of time where the Council does not meet at all.

In last week’s meeting, Ward A Councilmember At-Large Japera Hemming and Ward B At-Large Councilmember Shean Atkins discussed making changes to the Charter that would open the door to the proposed changes while allowing them to access $5,000 in taxpayer dollars for what was vaguely described as “communication”.

But a Council that has yet to pass its own budget while at the same time seeking access to more taxpayer dollars has sparked opposition from many members of the community, who have vowed to speak out at tonight’s meeting–or make their feelings known by voting in future elections.

“No way”, said Ward A resident Bonita. She plans to attend tonight’s meeting and said she has spoken to neighbors interested in speaking out against the drastic changes sought by Hemming and Atkins during public comments. “You want money but you don’t even show up to meetings. Chile please”, she added.

“My thing has always been vote them out”, offered Marvin, a longtime local resident and business owner. “Whoever votes for this craziness needs to be voted out next year and in 2029. It’s not about them and their ego, it’s about doing what’s right for the city, and this ain’t it”, he said.

Many other community members The East Point News spoke to shared Marvin and Bonita’s sentiment.

The city’s budget was due to be passed by June 30. But widespread confusion over what was included and excluded in the budget prolonged the process as Councilmembers Tremayne Mitchell and Starr Cummings from Ward C and and Latonya Martin-Rogers and Andrea Caldwell from Ward D held multiple budget town halls to address resident concerns.

A meeting last month to discuss the budget was skipped by Hemming and Atkins along with Ward A Councilmember Eric Friedly and Ward B Councilmember Carrie Ziegler.

Tonight’s Council meeting starts at 6:30 P.M. and can be streamed live here.