The City of Guyton Notary was ordered to destroy the stamp after police sent affidavits to households.  • The Georgia Virtue

A senior county official recently ordered the City of Guyton’s notary public to destroy their official stamp after city officials dispatched police to homes to take affidavits.

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The problem stems from the reinstatement of the city’s Ethics Committee, the body tasked with overseeing complaints brought by citizens against city officials and employees. The committee was technically dissolved after the terms of office of the appointed members expired without reappointment or reappointment by the city council. The Ethics Committee is a mandatory requirement to be a member organization in the taxpayer funding lobbying organization known as the Georgia Municipal Association. The committee’s non-compliance was only discovered when citizen Andy Harville filed an Open Records Request about the committee’s members in June of that year.


Attempts to restore the defunct Ethics Committee

Following a series of Open Records requests from Guyton citizens and questions during City Council workshops, Guyton officials made appointments to the committee in July. But the oaths signed by the new members reflected one signature on the same night of appointment, another on a Sunday, all without the full force and effect of a notarized affidavit.

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Citizen Jeremiah Chancey alerted council members that the oaths were not in accordance with city ordinances. When the city was alerted, officials seemingly reluctantly tried to remedy the situation.

The new affidavits, which showed a notary stamp from a city employee, were later obtained by a city resident via an Open Records request in September. This time affidavits were signed on a Saturday.

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Further investigation revealed that the affidavits were not signed in front of the notary at City Hall, but after city officials ordered Guyton police officers to visit committee members’ homes and collect the signatures. Upon completion, officials returned the documents to City Hall and they were notarized without the person present.

Complaint to the notary

Subsequently, on September 20, 2022, Andy Harville filed a complaint with Jason Bragg, the clerk for the Effingham County Superior Court who oversees notarizations.

According to Georgian law, a notary is prohibited from performing a notarial act “without confirming the identity of the document signer, sworn or affirmative on the basis of personal knowledge or satisfactory evidence”.

According to the Cooperative Authority of the Georgia Superior Court Clerks’ Cooperative:

the appointment of a notary who performs an improper or prohibited act is subject to revocation. Any notary who issues a notarial deed containing false information known to the notary to be false, or acts with intent to deceive or defraud, may be prosecuted for a criminal offense under the provisions of the law .

The offense is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 12 months in prison and a $1,000 fine. It’s also a fingerprinting offense.

An Open Records Request was later filed with the City of Guyton, requesting all documents related to the request from the Effingham County Clerk’s Office. The city did not attach the original correspondence, but did attach the notary’s response to the investigation launched by Clerk Jason Bragg. The letter was emailed to Bragg by District Attorney Ben Perkins.

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Guyton gets it right after the complaint is filed

After filing the complaint with the regulatory office against the notary, the oaths and affidavits were issued again to the members of the ethics committee.

After months of illegality, the Ethics Committee was finally formally and duly reinstated on September 27, 2022.

Notary revoked anyway

On October 3, 2022, clerk Jason Bragg announced his decision through Tidwell’s notary and ordered her to destroy her stamp.

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