Tonight’s special called meeting for the City of Demorest dealt with appointing a new city accountant and city attorney. The city’s meetings have been live-streamed in the past several months to accommodate COVID-19 precautions, but it didn’t stream tonight. Mayor Rick Austin wasn’t aware that it was not streamed, nor did he know why.
Alan Burton of Ed K. Burton, LLC., based out of Lavonia, GA was made accountant for the City of Demorest. Burton will cover the 2019 audit for the city. Burton has also submitted an offer to do the 2020 audit but cannot take further action until November and December of the 2020 financials have been closed out.
City Manager Kim Simonds suggested bringing former city treasurer Joely Mixon back to finish the 2020 finances as a contractor. Simonds had not spoken to Mixon since the vote to not reappoint Mixon to her position during the city’s last meeting. In order for Simonds to ask Mixon to return, the council had to vote to allow Mixon to do contracted accounting work for the city. Hendrix, who voted to remove Mixon, made the motion. It passed unanimously.
Mixon, who was not made aware that she would not be reappointed, will make the choice of whether or not she will return to finish out the 2020 finances. There has not been a decision regarding who will replace Mixon as the new city treasurer; a discussion on this will begin in the city council’s coming work session. Simonds did ask if a member of the council could be made the city treasurer, which is not legal.
Thomas Mitchell of Carothers and Mitchell, LLC. in Buford, GA was appointed to be city attorney to the Demorest City Council, replacing Joey Homans. Homans attracted controversy as the city attorney, being that he had previously represented Mayor Austin in personal legal matters. Mitchell made it clear that he did not represent any council member, that he would only represent the city, and that he would not be involved in the city’s politics. Austin is “confident that he [Mitchell] will provide apt services.”
This article has been updated to better clarify the relationship between Mayor Rick Austin and Joey Homans, as well as Mixon’s former position with the City of Demorest.
