CUMMING -- The three-man investigatory panel probing the possible impeachment of a long-serving Cumming official met Tuesday to question “potential witnesses” in the matter. 

“The issue to be investigated is whether or not City Councilman Rupert Sexton is responsible, directly or indirectly, for the disclosure and publication of a list put together by the city’s human resources director that contained confidential insurance and financial information of city of Cumming employees,” said City Attorney Dana Miles, a member of the panel.

The panel, which also includes Steve Page and former Forsyth County Commissioner Patrick Bell, questioned Councilmen Ralph Perry and Lewis Ledbetter, Mayor H. Ford Gravitt and Phil Higgins, the city’s human resources director.

The group took no action after hearing from the men and will report its findings to the city council at its next meeting, which is scheduled for Jan. 20.

At that time, council can decide whether to move forward with impeachment. If it chooses to do so, 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.

Impeachment has been sought after a list containing employee insurance information appeared on social media following a Dec. 16 council meeting.

The city’s position is that the list should not have been released. Sexton has denied leaking it, but maintains the information was a matter of public record and not as personal as others have portrayed it.

Sexton, a retired insurance agent who has served on the council since 1971, had requested the list months earlier in connection with a city matter.

He has previously said he had received the list from Higgins and then sent copies of it to Gravitt, Ledbetter and Perry.

On Tuesday, all those questioned denied putting the list on social media.

“The minute I saw it, I said to my wife, my exact words were, ‘Oh my God, that’s my spreadsheet,’” Higgins said. “Needless to say, I was extremely concerned how my spreadsheet had gotten on to this social media site and I had not shared it with anyone else.”

Under questioning Tuesday, Higgins said Sexton had asked for the list in summer 2014, when the council had been discussing changes to the city’s insurance.

More recently, Sexton had reportedly gone to other members in an attempt to change the city’s insurance coverage to allow the wives of councilman to receive insurance benefits for life.

Higgins said such a move likely would have cost more for Sexton’s wife, as she is younger than the other men’s spouses.

“It would have cost about $1.8 million to fund that,” Higgins said. “[About] $1.5 million of that would have been used solely to fund Councilman Sexton’s wife.”

During the Dec. 16 meeting, the mayor and council met in executive session to discuss Sexton’s insurance proposal.

Gravitt told the panel Tuesday that Miles had informed him the discussion was improper for an executive session and he adjourned the meeting.

“When I said, ‘The meeting was adjourned,’ Mr. Sexton got up and said, ‘I’ll do what I have to do,’ is what I understood him to say. I said, ‘Rupert, what did you say?’ He said ‘I said I’ll do what have to do.’ And then he walked out of the room,” Gravitt said.

The mayor and councilmen questioned Tuesday all said they don’t use social media sites and infrequently, if ever, use computers.

The three also said that they each received print copies of the insurance list, but those were in their homes or offices and had not been leaked.

Gravitt noted that as a member of the council, Sexton and his wife both receive city insurance, just not for life.

“To just clarify one thing, Councilman Sexton he has insurance on his spouse, so it’s no different from any other city employee or public official,” Gravitt said. “He has the same insurance as everybody else does.”

The panel also invited Sexton, his wife Dana and county resident David Milum, who reportedly published the list on a social media site, to the proceedings Tuesday. None of them attended.

Reached by phone afterward, Sexton said he had been advised be legal counsel not to attend, and that the gathering was unconstitutional. He added, however, that he would be at the city council meeting next week.

Gravitt, Perry and Ledbetter each told the panel Tuesday that they are not friends with Milum on social media sites, though it was pointed out that Sexton and Milum reportedly are friends online.

Part of the controversy surrounding the insurance matter is that the list appears to indicate that Miles and Gravitt’s longtime girlfriend, Angie Mullinax, receive city insurance, though Miles is not an employee and Mullinax’s employment has been questioned.

Mullinax, who City Administrator Gerald Blackburn has previously said works part time for Cumming, was present at the meeting. Sexton has contended she’s not a city employee.

Miles said Tuesday that he is eligible to receive benefits under state law, and demanded a “retraction, correction and apology” from media sources “claiming or implying to the contrary.”

The insurance issue has drawn the attention of federal authorities.

Last week, Blackburn confirmed that an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation had visited city hall to gather insurance information on Miles and Mullinax.

While not common, impeachment is allowed under Cumming’s charter.

In the public notice for the special called meeting Dec. 23 that started the impeachment process, the city council stated that Sexton was being charged with violating Section 51 of the 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 have said, noting that Cumming voters would not have a say in the process.

Sexton and Gravitt have held their offices for the past 44 years. Both secured four-year terms in 2013.  

Since the insurance issue surfaced last month, Sexton has fired back, first contending that Miles has a conflict of interest serving on the investigatory panel because he receives city insurance.

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.