CUMMING — The details surrounding the possible impeachment of a Cumming city councilman started locally, expanded to involve the state attorney general’s office and appear this week to have drawn the attention of federal authorities.

According to City Administrator Gerald Blackburn, an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation visited city hall Wednesday to gather insurance information on Dana Miles, the city’s attorney, and Angie Mullinax.

“He asked me, of course, if I knew Dana Miles and if I knew Angie,” Blackburn said. “He said is Mr. Miles on the city’s insurance, and I said ‘yes sir.’ And he wanted to know about Angie Mullinax and is she on the insurance, and I said ‘yes.’”

Blackburn said the interview was brief, lasting less than 10 minutes, and that the agent may also have spoken with Phil Higgins, Cumming’s human resources manager.

Since the news surfaced in December, insurance coverage for Miles and Mullinax has drawn scrutiny as neither are full-time employees of the city.

In addition, the employment of Mullinax, who is the girlfriend of longtime Cumming Mayor H. Ford Gravitt, has been disputed. Blackburn has said she works part time for the city, while Councilman Rupert Sexton, who is facing impeachment, contends she doesn’t.

Meanwhile, questions continue to swirl around the impeachment process itself, although it is allowed under the city’s charter.

Sexton faces impeachment for allegedly releasing the controversial list of employee insurance and personal information, which he has denied doing. The council decided to go forward with impeachment at a special called meeting Dec. 23.

In the public notice of that special called meeting, the city council stated that Sexton was being charged with violating Section 51 of Cumming’s charter, which states an elected official can be removed if found guilty of several possible charges.

The charter reads, “Be it further enacted that in case the mayor or any councilman while in office shall be guilty of malpractice or willful neglect of duty in office, or the abuse of the powers conferred upon him, or shall be guilty of any conduct unbecoming his station or convicted and sentenced of violating the criminal law of the state, involving moral turpitude, he shall be subject to be impeached by the city council, or by the alderman composing the council in case of the mayor and upon conviction by not less than three votes shall be removed from office.”

If it’s determined Sexton did release the list, he would likely face charges of abuse of power or conduct unbecoming his post.

The impeachment of an elected official differs from a recall petition, Forsyth County elections officials said. Cumming voters would not have a say in the process.

Sexton, who has held office since 1970, secured another four-year term in 2013. He ran unopposed, as did Gravitt, who has been mayor for 44 years.

For his part, Sexton has admitted that he requested and received the list from the city’s human resources manager, Higgins, but denies releasing it. He also maintains that Gravitt and other councilmen have copies of it.

The impeachment process is going through an investigatory panel consisting of Miles, Steve Page and Patrick Bell, a former Forsyth County commissioner.

Though not a Cumming employee, Miles has acknowledged he receives health insurance from the city, saying he has “an official role as the city attorney and therefore I qualify under the Georgia Municipal Association.”

He also has said the situation wouldn’t affect his decision as part of the investigatory council.

After hearing from the panel about Sexton, Cumming’s city council can choose whether to move forward with impeachment.

If it decides to go forward, a trial would be set up before the council at a later date. Impeachment would require support from at least three of the five members.

The vote to approve the investigatory panel was 4-1, with Sexton the lone dissenter.

Besides Sexton, the other councilmen have either been unable to be reached or have declined comment on the matter.

However, during the called meeting last month, Councilman Lewis Ledbetter made a motion to approve going to the panel to “pursue it and get to the bottom of it.”

The purported list shows that Mullinax and Miles have been receiving city insurance for an unspecified amount of time.

The effort to impeach Sexton arose after an executive session was called at a regular council meeting Dec. 16 to discuss providing councilmen’s wives with lifetime health benefits.

Miles has said that the use was not a “proper purpose” for executive session, and that Sexton twice said that he would “do what he had to do.”

The list of employees’ information reportedly surfaced online the evening after that meeting.

Though Cumming has contended that the information released was illegal, the state attorney general’s office said Thursday that it doesn’t necessarily agree with that position.

Since the meeting, Sexton has fired back, first contending that Miles, who also receives city insurance, has a conflict of interest serving on the investigatory panel.

He has also asked the attorney general’s office to explore whether the mayor and some other councilmen met illegally between the Dec. 16 meeting and a public hearing on Comcast service issues later that night.

According to Sexton, he heard Gravitt and three councilmen talking in an office.

Sexton said he heard the mayor say, “Had it not been for Rupert and [Sexton’s wife] Dana, we would not be in this mess.”  

The council’s next meeting, and first since the impeachment issue, will be held on Jan. 20.