Lula mayor, councilman to remain in office after attempted recall to remove them fails

Apr. 4—An application to recall Lula Mayor Joe Thomas and Councilman Gene Bramlett failed for lack of signatures required to remove the two men from office.

Both Thomas and Bramlett, who took office in January 2022, were present for a special called meeting by Hall County's Board of Elections Tuesday after signatures on the application were tallied for review.

Of the 103 residents who signed the application to recall Thomas, a total of 18 signatures were stricken by elections officials — four on the Banks County side of Lula and 14 from Hall.

Proponents who sought to oust Thomas and Bramlett needed a total of 100 signatures to proceed to the next step of the recall to remove the two men from office.

The application to unseat Bramlett had 101 signatures, and the same 18 names were deemed invalid by elections officials.

Members of Hall County's Board of Elections voted unanimously to reject both applications Tuesday. Hall County Elections Director Lori Wurtz indicated the names were stricken either because they weren't registered to vote when Thomas and Bramlett were elected or because they weren't registered voters at all.

"There are several reasons that a sponsor may be ineligible to sign the application and that could be because of a signature mismatch — we didn't have any of those," Wurtz said. "The other reasons a sponsor could be found to be ineligible would be due to not having been registered to vote in the city of Lula in 2021 ... you also have to be a registered voter in the city of Lula, currently, as well."

After the meeting, Thomas expressed a desire to move forward with city business without the prospect of a recall looming over his administration.

"Let's get the city running," he said.

Bramlett, after shrugging off the recall movement, conveyed a tone of cordiality with the people of Lula as a whole.

"By law, people have the right to do this — I think it was frivolous, anyway, to begin with," Bramlett said. "I didn't feel it'd go any further than this right here ... I appreciate all the people, even the ones that were against me. I'm still for the city of Lula. I don't care where you are or where you come from."

For almost seven months, clashes and heated disagreements between proponents of the recall and supporters of Thomas and Bramlett have become a frequent recurrence, often drowning out talk of regular city business at almost every meeting since September.

Residents behind the effort to recall Thomas and Bramlett first gained momentum in their movement after the release of a 45-page investigation into the city's code enforcement office and a final report that accused both elected officials of misconduct.

Proponents of the recall became more vocal about removing the two men from office in December after the release of a second investigation accusing Bramlett of sexual harassment against a city employee.

Further criticism would later be directed at Thomas after a comment he made at a Georgia Municipal Association-hosted sexual harassment seminar. During the seminar, which city officials were required to attend as a result of the allegations against Bramlett, Thomas appeared to trivialize the subject of unwanted advances when posed with a hypothetical question from a GMA official.

Both Thomas and Bramlett have three years left in office before their terms expire.

Lula's next meeting is a work session planned at 6 p.m. Monday, April 10, at City Hall.