CUMMING — The State Attorney General’s Office is being asked to review the possible impeachment of a Cumming elected official.

During a special called meeting Tuesday morning, the Cumming City Council voted 4-1 to ask the office to review the process and determine whether it is violation of state law to release city employees’ insurance information.

Councilman Rupert Sexton, who is facing impeachment for allegedly having released such a list that later surfaced on social media, was the lone opposing vote.

City Attorney Dana Miles reviewed Cumming’s situation with the council.

“Number one, does Section 51 of the charter of the city of Cumming Georgia, as supplemented by section 2-20 of the city’s ordinances adopting Robert’s Rules of Order provide sufficient due process for the impeachment process under both the Georgia and U.S. Constitution,” Miles said.

“Number two, does the city employee financial data or information, other than compensation and or health insurance information, violate OCGA Section 50-18-72(A) subsection 20 through 21, in that it discloses financial data and insurance information in public record, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, HIPPA, and that it violates the HIPPA privacy rules.”

The city’s position is that the list should not have been released. Sexton, a retired insurance agent who has served on the council since 1971, has denied leaking it but maintains the information was a matter of public record and not as personal as others have portrayed it.

The council also discharged the three-man investigatory panel — Miles, Steve Page and former Forsyth County Commissioner Patrick Bell — that was looking into the matter.

After the meeting, Sexton said he had been expecting council to pursue an impeachment hearing, and said his colleagues should have first consulted the state Attorney’s General’s office.

“They took the easy way out,” Sexton said. “The attorney general’s office has basically ruled on those two questions.

“They didn’t do anything. They put everything in the lap of the attorney general. I’ve already had an attorney review this ... It’s just a kangaroo court. ”

Sexton said he couldn’t reveal his sources, but felt the process was unconstitutional and that the attorney general likely would agree.

According to Sexton, the threat of impeachment was a push to get him to resign, and that he only worked for the people of Cumming, not the mayor or council

“It’s just another way for him to embarrass me,” Sexton said. “I’ve not done anything. I mean, they’re trying to accuse me of illegal maneuvers and force me to resign and get me off the board because I revealed information that was public record.

“I didn’t reveal any information. But it was revealed to the public, which is public record, that there are people on the city health plan that are not supposed to be there, and the taxpayers are paying for them.”

The list in question purportedly shows that City Attorney Dana Miles and Mayor H. Ford Gravitt’s girlfriend, Angie Mullinax, are receiving health insurance through Cumming.

Gravitt, Miles and Councilmen Lewis Ledbetter, John Pugh, Quincy Holton and Ralph Perry were not immediately available for comment after the meeting Tuesday.

The officials have previously referred all questions to Miles, who has declined to comment on the matter.

At the request of Sexton, the state attorney general’s office previously looked into whether some of the city councilmen had held an illegal meeting Dec. 16.

However, the matter came to a standstill after the city’s response seemed to reflect “a scenario of dueling factual accounts.”

It was earlier on Dec. 16, officials say, that the insurance issue arose after Sexton had asked council during an executive session to consider granting spouses of councilmen lifetime health benefits.

Gravitt told the investigatory panel last week that Miles had informed him such a discussion was improper for an executive session and he adjourned the meeting.

According to Gravitt, Sexton then said as he left the room that he would “do what I have to do.”

In addition to possibly looking into the impeachment/insurance matter, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens is locked in an ongoing legal battle with Cumming over an April 2012 open meetings case.

In that matter, a senior Superior Court judge ordered the mayor and city to pay $12,000 in penalties plus attorney fees for violating the Georgia Open Meetings Act. The city has appealed that ruling.