Varnell City Council's referendum to eliminate its police department in question

Will Varnell, Ga., city council meet again?

Varnell citizens in attendance of a canceled council meeting cheer as Councilman Jan Pourquoi walks out Tuesday, July 25, 2017, at the Varnell City Gym in Varnell, Ga. The Varnell City Council were meeting to decide whether or not to eliminate its police department, but the only two councilmen in attendance left once the meeting was canceled due to low attendance by the council.
Varnell citizens in attendance of a canceled council meeting cheer as Councilman Jan Pourquoi walks out Tuesday, July 25, 2017, at the Varnell City Gym in Varnell, Ga. The Varnell City Council were meeting to decide whether or not to eliminate its police department, but the only two councilmen in attendance left once the meeting was canceled due to low attendance by the council.

The Varnell City Council, North Georgia's latest capital of controversy, will meet again Aug. 22.

At least, that's the plan.

But Councilman Jan Pourquoi has his doubts. After two elected officials resigned in the last four weeks, the council is left with three people, the minimum for a quorum. If one person misses the meeting, the council legally cannot vote or take any actions.

That's what happened Tuesday, when Councilwoman Ashlee Godfrey didn't show up. Mayor Anthony Hulsey told the audience that Godfrey had a family emergency.

"It's a show, " Pourquoi said later, claiming he does not believe Godfrey couldn't make it.

Pourquoi and Councilman David Owens want to put a referendum on the ballot in the November city election. The referendum would ask voters whether they want to eliminate the city's police department, which has about 10 officers (four of them full-time employees) and costs about $300,000 a year. In exchange, Pourquoi and Owens said, the council would eliminate property taxes.

They want to vote to put the referendum on the ballot for the next meeting. But Pourquoi said Godfrey will not show up. Either that, he said, or Hulsey will miss the meeting - forcing Owens to shift to the mayor's role, leaving them again with two council members. (Godfrey did not return calls seeking comment.)

From the looks of it, the referendum would be unpopular, even if it were on the ballot. During a public forum on July 20, every speaker told the council they were opposed to eliminating the police department. On Tuesday, when the meeting was canceled, a crowd in the bleachers of the Varnell gym stood up and jeered as Pourquoi and Owens exited.

Still, the councilmen believe the referendum could pass. Pourquoi said a "silent majority" will show up to the polls. To be clear, it doesn't take much to have a majority in Varnell. The city has 1,159 registered voters, and in the 2015 municipal elections, only 178 people came to the polls.

If the council doesn't move to add the referendum at the Aug. 22 meeting, it won't do it at all. Pourquoi said September is the deadline for adding items to the November election. In addition to Godfrey, he said Hulsey doesn't want the vote to go through.

"It's a ploy against the vote of the people," he said after Tuesday's meeting. "They don't want a referendum. That has been the game plan all along."

Dispute with police

On June 13, a dispatcher directed Varnell police to the home of Councilman Sheldon Fowler, reporting that there was an ongoing "verbal disagreement." Chief Lyle Grant and Lt. Greg Fowler, who is not related to the elected official, responded to the scene.

Grant said Sheldon Fowler mixed alcohol and Ambien and seemed to have an adverse reaction. He said Sheldon Fowler's wife did not want him arrested. The officers told her and her daughters to leave for about an hour so they could help Sheldon Fowler go to sleep.

A couple of days later, Councilwoman Andrea Gordy said a neighbor called her and said she had seen officers at Sheldon Fowler's home. Gordy said she asked City Manager Mike Brown about the issue but did not receive many details. A source then told her to request the body camera footage from the incident.

She and Pourquoi later watched a video of the incident with Hulsey and some members of the department. The council members said Sheldon Fowler yelled at the officers at the scene, cursed at his daughter and ranted about rumors he had heard about city officials, including the police chief and the mayor.

During the visit, Grant told Sheldon Fowler that sheriff's office deputies would arrest him if they had to come to the scene. (The chief said he didn't think Sheldon Fowler had broken the law at the time he said that, but he used the threat to calm the councilman.)

After watching the video, Pourquoi called Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood, telling him he was disturbed. Chitwood, in turn, told Pourquoi to report the incident to Conasauga Judicial Circuit District Attorney Bert Poston.

On June 22, nine days after the incident, Grant took out a warrant for Sheldon Fowler's arrest, charging him with disorderly conduct and simple battery against law enforcement because he poked the officers in the chest. Grant explained the delay by saying he wanted another investigator in the office to review the facts of the case.

In a Facebook post, he said he wanted Hulsey and the council to review the case, too. But Gordy and Pourquoi said the chief did not reach out to them; they only learned about it through Gordy's neighbor. On Wednesday, Grant said, he passed the information along to the mayor and city manager, believing they would then tell the council about it.

"That's not my job," Grant said. "My job is to notify the mayor and the city manager. As soon as the report was done, they were notified."

The charges against Sheldon Fowler are pending. As a result, the video of the incident is not a public record.

Fallout

The council suspended Grant, believing the Georgia Bureau of Investigation would look into how he handled Sheldon Fowler's arrest. But the GBI only investigates crimes, not questions about whether an officer followed proper procedures. On July 11, Gordy, Owens and Pourquoi voted to eliminate the police department entirely.

They said the police department cost too much money. In addition to the $300,000 budget, two police car crashes - including a fatality - led to settlements totalling $920,000. Those didn't directly cost the city, but Varnell's liability insurance premium has increased 64 percent in the last two years, from $34,000 to $56,000.

They argued the Whitfield County sheriff's office could handle patrols. According to the Census Bureau, the city covers only 3.4 square miles. Whitfield County's 911 center says that from January through June, the Varnell Police Department worked about 5.4 calls a day.

Gordy, Owens and Pourquoi said the city should enter into a contract with the county. It would pay about $50,000 a year and ask for a designated deputy to patrol Varnell at all times of the day.

On Monday, two residents sued the three council members. The lawsuit claims the July 11 meeting violated the open meetings act because it was not properly advertised. It also claims Gordy has no legal standing because she no longer lives in Varnell.

Gordy said she moved out of town briefly during her divorce last year, but has since returned. Marcus Morris, the attorney on the lawsuit, said he has several documents showing Gordy still lives out of town. Nevertheless, with her resignation, the council is down to three.

Even if they pass it, Pourquoi and Owens' idea has not been well received - at least not among those attending council meetings, who say the police department responds faster to their calls than the sheriff's office. Some residents also praised the department for catching several speeders.

"If you live in the city of Varnell, if you work in the city of Varnell or you own a business in the city of Varnell, and you want to keep the police department, please stand," resident Bill Caylor said Tuesday night, after Owens and Pourquoi left.

Everybody in the gym's bleachers rose.

"[If you] would like to get rid of our police department and dismiss them," Caylor said, "will you please stand."

The crowd remained seated. Some laughed. Others clapped.

"Mr. Mayor," he told Hulsey, "I do not see a silent majority here."

Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or at tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.

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