Cumming Pays $200K in Federal Lawsuit Settlement

The City of Cumming has paid a Roswell woman $200,000 in a settlement of a federal lawsuit that stemmed from a Cumming City Council meeting in April 2012, according to Forsyth County News.

Blogger Nydia Tisdale filed the lawsuit after she was reportedly prevented from filming the council meeting on April 17 by Mayor H. Ford Gravitt, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Tisdale was then “tossed out” of the meeting for bringing a camera despite her protests that Georgia law allowed her to film.

Georgia’s revised Open Meetings Act went into effect the day of the meeting, according to Forsyth County News.

“This settlement sends a powerful message that government officials cannot shroud their operations in secrecy by barring truth-telling video,” Tisdale’s lawyer, Gerry Weber, said on Tisdale’s website. “But more, the lawsuit has unveiled decades-old practices of an entrenched City government that has left its citizens in the dark. The Mayor’s actions were a blatant violation of citizens’ constitutional rights to record public meetings.”

As part of the settlement, the City of Cumming will adopt new policies to ensure the allowance of public filming of meetings, according to Forsyth County News.

The new policy states handheld recording devices are permitted from anywhere in the room provided they do not disrupt the meeting. Tripods are not allowed to be set up in the aisles, but officials will designate a special area for them in the meeting room.

-- Photo from City of Cumming website.