This story was updated on Thursday, Aug. 21 at 10:44 a.m.
STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. — The Stone Mountain City Council voted 4-2 on Tuesday to initiate the removal of Mayor Beverly Jones from office following a report that found she violated her oath by taking control of city bank accounts.
Jones took over the city accounts in April. She claimed she was responding to a cybersecurity risk when she contacted Truist, the city’s bank, to have Mayor Pro Tem Ryan Smith and Councilmember Teresa Crowe removed from the accounts. She also took control of the Downtown Development Authority accounts, which the council doesn’t control. The city and DDA have since regained control of those accounts.
The report did not find evidence that Jones stole or misused city funds when she had control of the accounts.
Jones, who was presiding over the meeting, defended her actions and said the investigation is nothing more than an attempt to smear her. She called the investigation and her possible removal “a witch hunt to nowhere.”
Jones is up for reelection this year, but had not qualified to run again as of Tuesday.
Mayor Pro Tem Ryan Smith made the motion to initiate removal and was supported by Council Members Mark Marianos, Anita Bass and Teresa Crowe. Jones’ allies on the council, Gil Freeman and Shawnette Bryant, voted against beginning the process of removing her.
If the vote had been a tie, Jones could have voted to end her own removal from office. It’s unclear why Jones wasn’t asked to recuse herself from the discussion. She has presided over every meeting where the issue has been discussed.
The investigation, which was not a criminal probe, was undertaken by a private attorney. Jones said the matter needs to be taken up by another agency.
“This definitely needs to be taken to a higher authority,” Jones said. “There’s other agencies that this needs to be taken to and properly investigated.”
Stone Mountain councilmembers slam Jones investigation, investigator
Jones’ allies on the council, notably Councilmember Gil Freeman, were visibly angry about the council’s decision to pursue removing the mayor from office. During the meeting, they continued to raise an issue about $800,000 they claimed wasn’t spent to fix bathrooms at a park, while attacking the investigation and the investigator.
“We have an attorney who — we don’t even know what his qualifications are — who did some interviews that were not sworn testimony,” Freeman said. “When you file an ethics complaint against a council member, you have to have a sworn statement.”
In a related move, the council voted to subpoena Truist Bank, the institution that holds the city’s accounts. That vote was unanimous.
The move to remove Jones is the latest twist in a saga that has unfolded over the past four months.
In June, the city council, in another 4-2 vote, directed the city attorney to begin drafting an ordinance regarding procedures for removing elected officials based on the removal process allowed by Section 5.16 of the city’s charter.
The city’s charter outlines the process for removing officers, which includes a hearing before an “impartial panel.” Any removal can be appealed to DeKalb County Superior Court. It’s unclear how the city council will find an “impartial panel” in the small and fiercely divided city of Stone Mountain.
Here’s the charter’s language for the removal of public officials:
Section 5.16. – Removal of officers.
(a) A councilmember, the mayor, or other appointed officers provided for in this charter shall be removed from office for any one or more of the causes provided in Title 45 of the O.C.G.A. or such other applicable laws as are or may hereafter be enacted.
(b) Removal of an officer pursuant to subsection (a) of this section shall be accomplished by a hearing at which an impartial panel shall render a decision. In the event an elected officer is sought to be removed by the action of the city council, such officer shall be entitled to a written notice specifying the ground or grounds for removal and to a public hearing which shall be held not less than ten days after the service of such written notice. The city council shall provide by ordinance for the manner in which such hearings shall be held. Any elected officer sought to be removed from office as provided in this section shall have the right of appeal from the decision of the city council to the Superior Court of DeKalb County. Such appeal shall be governed by the same rules as govern appeals to the superior court from the probate court.
The city council first learned about Jones taking control of the accounts on May 6. The city hired Lawrenceville attorney Robert Jackson Wilson to investigate what happened and gave a copy of his report, dated Aug. 1, to Decaturish on Aug. 15.
The report pokes holes in parts of Jones’ account of what occurred. She has maintained throughout that she discussed the issue with the previous city attorney, Jeff Strickland, before she assumed control of the accounts on April 2. However, Strickland told the investigator that it didn’t happen.
“In a telephone interview with the Investigator, the former city attorney indicated that the first time he communicated with the mayor regarding the Bank and signature cards was May 5, 2025,” the report says. “He indicated that the mayor called him that afternoon to disclose to him the actions she had taken in April with respect to the signature cards. The city attorney indicated that the mayor did not contact him in late March or early April or at any time prior to visiting the bank.”
The report does not conclude why Jones did what she did. It could not substantiate her claim that an unnamed Truist employee contacted her about the alleged cybersecurity risk. During a May 12 council meeting, she said, “There was a cyber manager of three states who said that we were in distress.” She later said she received a call about it on March 28.
Jones did not provide Wilson with evidence to support her claim.
“On July 1, 2025, the Investigator offered the mayor an opportunity to provide a statement or documents in conjunction with this investigation,” a footnote in the report says. “The mayor declined to provide any information.”
Jones took control of the accounts on April 2. The report says the council did not learn about Jones taking control of the city accounts and the Downtown Development Authority accounts, which the city doesn’t control, until May.
“It appears that the mayor did not report signing these new documents to the city manager or to any other City personnel immediately upon signing or the days intervening between April 2 and May 7, 2025,” the report says.
For more information about the investigation and to read the full report, click here.
This story was provided by WABE media partner Decaturish.
