Ringgold councilman accused of ‘gobbling up’ appointments
The mayor of Ringgold, Georgia, is telling his supporters not to vote for Councilman Randall Franks in the November election after accusing him of “gobbling up all the appointments” in a dispute over an officer position on a statewide association for cities and towns.
In recent balloting by member cities in the Georgia Municipal Association, Franks won a state officer seat over fellow Councilman Kelly Bomar.
The association represents municipal governments like cities and towns and provides legislative advocacy, educational advice, employee benefit and consulting services to its members. The group is split up into 12 districts. District 1 represents Northwest Georgia.
Every year, the association makes a call out to local representatives to either self-nominate or nominate someone to serve as a district officer. In District 1, there are four officer positions: a president and three vice presidents.
Bomar nominated himself to serve as one of the vice presidents.
The nominating committee then sent out a sample ballot with four names for four positions for District 1 that included Bomar’s name.
A few weeks later, a second ballot was sent out that included those same four names but with the addition of Franks’ name.
Stan Brown represents District 1 and 2 for the Georgia Municipal Association in a leadership role. Brown said what happens every year is that the initial ballot will be sent out and at the same time, a final roll call for anyone else who would like to be added to the ballot may self-nominate or members can nominate someone else.
Within the next few weeks, Franks nominated himself and
also received a number of nominations from people in the area, Brown said.
“So we basically put forward, ‘Here’s the nominated slate of officers that have been nominated [and ask] is there anyone else that would like to be considered or anyone you would like to recommend or nominate to be considered on the ballot for the vote?’” Brown said.
Larry Stansell, mayor of Trion, said he was one of the people to nominate Franks. Stansell said that he had told Franks to run for an office seat over a year ago. Stansell added that he had previously nominated Terry Crawford for a position as well. Crawford ended up serving a year for the GMA.
Crawford, a former city councilman for Ringgold, was the last-minute candidate backed by Sen. Jeff Mullis to run against Catoosa County Commissioner Vanita Hullander in the 2020 election. Hullander defeated Crawford despite the last-minute candidate having establishment backing from state and local leaders.
“[Franks] didn’t call me and ask me to nominate him, I wasn’t pressured by other people, I don’t understand why there’s any controversy at all about it,” Stansell said. ‘There wasn’t anybody playing politics, wasn’t any backroom deals or anything like that.”
Ringgold Mayor Nick Millwood disagrees.
On Facebook last week, Millwood made a post saying Franks undermined Bomar’s chance at representing Ringgold for the Georgia Municipal Association and that Franks only put his own name on the ballot after seeing Bomar had thrown his own hat in the ring.
“I don’t mind Randall gobbling up all the appointments he can find, but when it’s actively done to undermine another council member, I’m not OK with it,” Millwood wrote. “His name was obviously added when it was clear Kelly’s name was on the ballot. This is just the latest example of gatekeeping and good-ol-boy politics, and it would be nice to see a change in that seat come November.”
In an interview with the Times Free Press, Millwood said the situation put the Ringgold City Council in an uncomfortable position.
“I thought my council was going to have to choose between council members, and that’s not too comfortable of a situation,” Millwood said when asked how he felt when he saw the second ballot come out. “I haven’t talked to Randall about it, but it’s kind of par for the course with the politics of it all. I’m just tired of it. It’s very frustrating.”
Franks did not return a call for comment. Instead, both Brown and Stansell called the Times Free Press minutes after a reporter called Franks. Stansell said he talked to Franks and was calling to “clear up” the situation.
When asked if Stansell nominated Franks after he already saw Bomar’s name on the ballot, Stansell said after a long pause that he doesn’t remember when he sent in his nomination.
“I do not specifically remember seeing the other guy’s name on the ballot,” Stansell said. “Now I will tell you, and maybe I did. No. I nominated him for when it was still the period to nominate people. I have been very, very involved with GMA, so I want to make sure we have good people in leadership positions.”
Bomar declined to comment on the issue.
“There are so many positive things going on this summer in Ringgold, and I am ready to focus on those things for our citizens,” Bomar said in a text message Thursday. “Moving forward, together.”
“It’s been a pattern with Randall,” Millwood said. “After so long when talking and persuasion don’t seem to work, that’s where I’m left is being public about the kind of stuff he’s pulling.”