Feud between Garden City residents, city manager leads to ethics complaint dismissal

After about 50 minutes of deliberation in an executive session, Garden City’s ethics committee dismissed a wide-ranging ethics complaint filed by the Garden City Housing Team (GCHT) president, MonaLisa Monroe, against City Manager Scott Robider.

The Garden City Housing Team is a group of residents, employees, business owners, neighborhood groups and church affiliates recruited by city officials to provide input on community housing.

Filed on Feb. 9, the complaint alleged six different ethics code violations, most of which accused the city manager of thwarting certain development decisions. Robider had responded to the complaint on Feb. 26, disputing all claims.

On March 29, the three-person ethics committee reviewed the documents and determined in a report that the allegations were either unjustified or failed to rise to the level of an ethics violation.

However, because the initial meeting was not advertised to the public, as is required by Georgia’s Sunshine Laws, the ethics committee reconvened on Tuesday to review the complaint again.

According to City Attorney James P. Gerard, the three volunteer members were not aware that the meeting was subject to advanced notice since the requirements in the state’s Open Meetings Laws were not outlined under the city’s ethics code.

Gerard said he informed the committee of the misstep and pointed to a code section that states “any action taken at a meeting which is not open to the public as may be required by the Act shall not be binding.”

Because the ethics complaint concerns the disciplinary action of a city employee, the discussion still took place behind closed doors during the redo.

Read: The original ethics complaintRead: city manager's responseRead: ethics committee March 29 Report

What was in the ethics complaint?

Monroe, who heads the nonprofit, GCHT, filed the complaint on behalf of the housing team. The allegations, which span from March 2022 to February 2023, are wide-ranging, but mostly reference development decisions within the city and the manager’s alleged attempts to sway them.

The complaint states that the city manager violated the “Intent” section of the code of ethics, which involves “impeding government efficiency or economy or affecting adversely the confidence of the public in the integrity of government” on three separate occasions:

• Alleged Robider told a planning commission member, Gary Monroe, who is the husband of the housing team president, that “their opinions and comments do not matter” after the Nov. 22, 2022 council meeting. Robider responded in his letter that Monroe had “accosted” him after the meeting and “announced that (he) was a failure” for not recommending a certain housing developer for a piece of city-owned property on U.S. 80 that could have created a housing authority. Robider said he responded to Monroe by saying his personal opinion of him did not matter.

• Alleged the city manager refused to answer questions at a Feb. 3 community town hall meeting about a separate piece of property behind the State Farmers Market. Robider responded that the meeting was solely between the developers and community and that his role was to facilitate the meeting.

• Alleged that there were direct questions from residents about the awarded developer on U.S. 80 property during an October and November council meeting. The complainant did not provide further details as to what the questions were, wrote the committee.

The second complaint refers to an audio recording that Gary Monroe took in March 2022, in which Robider allegedly discussed with former Mayor Don Bethune about preventing Monroe from building residential property on the site of the old Haynes Elementary School.

The complaint claims there was a conflict of interest in this interaction, which the ethics committee failed to find. Both the city manager and the committee also pointed out that the audio was past the six-month time limit for filing an ethics complaint regarding that issue.

Dispute of U.S. 80 property

Three of the allegations centered on the aforementioned 10.6-acre city-owned property on U.S. 80, in which the city council ultimately selected Konter Development Company to built a townhome complex. The losing bid was Park Terrace Development owned by Ambling, which had proposed a public-private partnership with the city and the possible creation of a city housing authority that would control the development.

More: Addressing Savannah's housing shortage: A new townhome complex is coming to Garden City

Konter Development offered $1.9 million for the property, while Ambling/ParkTerrace offered $0 upfront. Ambling’s funding mechanism, however, promised a larger return in 10 years and the city would retain ownership of the property.

“You have one entity proposing $0 and another entity that is proposing $1.9 million, a firm price to promote residential housing,” Robider previously told the Savannah Morning News.“One (Konter) is falling more in line with the spirit and intent of the bid.”

The complaint, however, insinuated that Robider had intentionally sidelined Ambling and showed favoritism towards Konter Developers.

Monroe described that the city manager failed to communicate with Ambling about meeting times and failed to provide proper background on each developer to the council so that members can make an informed decision. By citing certain ethics codes, the complainant was implying that Robider had a financial, business or personal relationship with Konter Developers and had swayed the council’s decision.

Robider denied any relationship with Konter and pointed to a detailed memorandum that outlined the bid process. A seven-member team composed of city staff and department heads had scored each proposal and Konter Development’s bid was rated higher.

More: First City Progress: Garden City seeks to build affordable housing at former school site

More: Affordable housing is hard to find in and near Savannah. Garden City leaders see opportunity.

An Ambling representative told the Savannah Morning News in a previous interview that the company “certainly understands why they (the city) picked the other offer” since the city needed cash upfront to fund a recreation complex.

In the final allegation of the complaint, Monroe stated that the method by which the ethics committee members are chosen – by mayor and council – is biased since the public has no input. The response from the ethics committee is that they have no jurisdiction over determining whether their formation or the formation of past committees, outlined in the city ordinance, is valid.

The ethics committee will, once again, send their recommendations to council for review, which will likely take place at the next council meeting in June.

Nancy Guan is the general assignment reporter covering Chatham County municipalities. Reach her at nguan@gannett.com or on Twitter @nancyguann.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Garden City ethics committee dismisses complaint against city manager