Burns takes Cullars off police committee

Following the motion to suppress evidence in the Federal case against Nathaniel Cullars Jr. and the accompanying affidavit by the defendant's father, Washington City Councilman Nathaniel Cullars has been removed from the City Council's Police Committee by Mayor Willie Burns.

The removal took place last Friday, August 25, and Burns said that

he and Cullars "were cordial," adding later that, "There was no debate and no argument."

An attempt to contact Cullars for comments yielded no results in time for this publication as there was no reply to a message left on his telephone answering system.

Chronicling the conversation he had with Cullars, Burns said, "I told him, 'It's very clear that you stepped

over the line. We have the facts here and it is my opinion that you didn't follow my instructions and so I will give you the opportunity to resign.' Of course, Mr. Cullars refused and I said, 'Effective today ... you are officially no longer on the police committee.'"

Burns said he has no plans to appoint a replacement to the two-member committee, of which Councilman Pam Eaton is the other member, at least until after the election when we have a full council again. "Then we will assign people accordingly because we are going to swap people around," he said. The election to which the mayor was referring is the special election on September 19 to elect a replacement for the seat vacated by the departure of Anna Norman earlier this month.

"If there is an issue with the police department," Burns explained, "what I will do is, if it is a major issue, bring the whole council together."

Concerning what finally prompted him to take action with Cullars, Burns said, "I'm not going to get into particulars but the affidavit clearly states that he stepped over the line. The City Attorney and I are in agreement on that. I said that in my opinion, it appears that, conclusively, we have an issue and if that's the issue, he's clearly stepped on the line here."

In part, the affidavit reads, "I am a duly elected member of the City Council of Washington, Georgia and presently serve as Chairman of the Police Committee of the City. In this

capacity I oversee and monitor the conduct of police department including personnel. Prior to being appointed as Chairman I served as a member of the police committee since I was elected to the council."

Burns continued in his explanation, saying, "It has nothing to do with what he said - just the mere fact that he used his title as City Councilmember to say what he had to say. Just saying 'I'm a duly elected member of the City Council of Washington' - that in itself is enough, in my opinion ...

"In that paragraph alone, it was enough to conclude that he had not recused himself from what the instructions were that night with the Council," the mayor concluded, referring to his comments during the regular July meeting of the Council. At that meeting, Burns said that City Attorney Barry Fleming had advised him that "as long as we recuse him [Councilman Cullars] from issues involving his son's case, we're fine, and I'm going to stand by that."

To date there has been no decision on the pretrial motion and there has still been no trial date set for Cullars Jr..

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