Former Municipal Clerk erred when publishing Cop City petition forms, Inspector General finds
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An Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigation determined that former Atlanta Municipal Clerk Vanessa Waldon violated a city resolution requiring that Cop City Vote petition forms be published online in accordance with the Georgia Open Records Act.
“OIG initiated an investigation into the activity of the City Clerk’s Office when it received 13 complaints alleging the clerk violated a city resolution.” Deputy Inspector General Shelby J. Williams told the OIG’s governing board Thursday.
“The resolution required the clerk to redact personally identifiable information—in this case, unlisted telephone numbers and cell phone numbers—in accordance with the Georgia Open Records Act,” Williams said.
The OIG sent a referral letter to Atlanta Municipal Clerk Corrine A. Lindo on Sept. 17 summarizing the findings of its investigation. Lindo was appointed municipal clerk in early 2024 after Waldon resigned. The Atlanta Community Press Collective obtained a copy of the letter through an open records request.
The OIG determined that the clerk’s office should have redacted unlisted telephone numbers and cellular phone before publishing the petitions on its website.
According to the referral letter, the Georgia Open Records Act “states records that reveal an individual’s unlisted telephone number, cellular telephone number, personal email address, and social security number shall be redacted prior to disclosure of any record in which this information is found.”
The OIG randomly sampled 30 petitions the former clerk had published online and found that all the associated phone numbers were unlisted and/or cellular phone numbers.
Council ordered redactions, and Clerk failed to comply
The Cop City Vote Campaign collected over 116,000 signatures on petition forms calling for a referendum. The campaign sought to add a ballot question asking Atlanta voters to decide on overturning the lease of 381 acres of previously forested city land to the Atlanta Police Foundation for the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, also known as “Cop City.”
In addition to signatures, the petition form circulated by the Cop City Vote Campaign included lines for telephone numbers and birth dates to assist with any signature curing that may need to take place.
The campaign turned in the signed petition forms on September 11, 2023. The Atlanta City Council passed a resolutionthe following week instructing the municipal clerk to scan and publish digital copies of the signed petitions. The resolution stated that personal information on the submitted petitions must be redacted in accordance the Georgia Open Records Act.
Council President Doug Shipman and Council Member Liliana Bakhtiari sent a letter to the municipal clerk that same day requesting that the clerk’s office redact certain information from the published petitions, including street addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers and signatures.
The clerk’s office published the petition forms on its website on Sept. 28, 2023. The clerk redacted birthdates but left unredacted street addresses, phone numbers, and signatures.
The OIG attempted to interview the former municipal clerk about her decision to publish petition forms with some personal information unredacted, according to the OIG referral letter. However, the OIG stated in the referral letter that Waldon “expressed the intention of having an attorney from the Department of Law accompany her” and that the interview did not occur for that reason.
Civil rights groups raised the alarm about unredacted personal information
In October 2023, three civil rights organizations, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR), and the Center for Constitutional Rights, issued a joint letter calling the clerk’s publication of personal information a potential violation of the First Amendment. The organizations demanded the municipal clerk remove the petitions with unredacted personal information from the clerk’s website.
The petition forms with unredacted personal identifying information remain on the clerk’s website.
“When we joined NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Center for Constitutional Rights in raising the redaction issue by letter, City officials summarily disregarded our concerns,” said Tiffany Roberts, SCHR’s director of public policy.
The OIG recommended in the referral letter that the municipal clerk “redact unlisted and cellular numbers from the Petition posted to the Clerk’s website.”
According to OIG’s Director of Information and Outreach Felecia E. Henderson, Municipal Clerk Lindo has not yet responded to the referral letter.
“We are hopeful that the OIG’s recommendation will be honored by the Clerk in the interests of Atlantans,” Roberts said.
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