DeKalb City Council could formally censure Clerk Sasha Cohen

DeKALB – DeKalb City Manager Bill Nicklas is proposing to formally censure City Clerk Sasha Cohen over what he said is an abandonment of his official duties.

The resolution, made public Thursday, would allow Executive Assistant and Recording Secretary Ruth Scott to perform the duties of the city clerk whether or not Cohen is absent for the remainder of his four-year term.

City records show that Cohen missed seven of the 19 meetings in 2019 after taking office. Of those, four of Cohen’s absences were without notice or explanation.

In 2022, Cohen missed 23 of 26 meetings through Nov. 28, according to city documents.

First elected in 2021, Cohen has defended his track record at work and questioned the proposed censure.

“The fact that suddenly they are attempting a resolution to censure when I have suddenly showed up to assert the responsibility and such seems strange to me,” Cohen said. “If the concern is that I’m not performing my job, why is the response to me attempting to perform my job being censured?”

But since 2021, the city has relied on Scott to perform Cohen’s city clerk duties in his absence.

Nicklas said he finds that crafting the proposed resolution made sense for the city.

“I thought that this was the appropriate step at this time,” Nicklas said. “The council will decide for itself how it wants to proceed. I believe there will be support to go Monday night for the censure.”

According to the resolution, the city clerk failed to complete an annual ethics and sexual harassment prevention training and file a statement of economic interests with the DeKalb County clerk within the time required by law, among other things.

Nicklas acknowledged that the resolution represents a symbolic expression and said the city needs to document the clerk’s job performance.

“He is the clerk because he was elected to be the clerk, and the city cannot undo that,” Nicklas said. “But they can declare that because he has not been performing his duties that he deserves to be censured for that and that the council intends to assign any and all duties of the clerk’s office to our executive assistant and recording secretary.”

Nicklas said he is hoping to receive the council’s support to push the resolution forward.

“We have a lot of good things and challenging things facing us in 2023,” Nicklas said. “This will hopefully take this and put it in its rightful place, which is inconsequence, lack of consequence. Once the work has been officially assigned, we know where it’s been. We know how good a job Ruth Scott does. End of this chapter in the history of the city clerk position.”

Cohen said he still is proceeding with a lawsuit against DeKalb, alleging that city leaders usurped his statutory rights to accept candidate nomination documents last month.

City staff said Cohen had not made the necessary preparations to assume the duties of the city clerk at the time, but Scott already had.

That case is expected to be heard in DeKalb County court Feb. 1.

Cohen pointed to the timing of the city manager’s proposed censure resolution and questioned the motivation behind it.

“I question whether it could be a retaliatory move in response to pending litigation,” Cohen said.

Cohen acknowledged that DeKalb city leaders disapprove of his conduct as city clerk.

“City officials have long expressed complaints regarding me,” Cohen said. “They’ve expressed complaints regarding my attendance or lack of attendance at meetings.”

State law prevents municipalities from impeaching or firing elected officials such as the city clerk.

Nicklas said passing the resolution could be a step by the council toward formally assigning all the rest of the city clerk’s duties to the executive secretary.

The city manager’s censure proposal will go before the City Council at 6 p.m. Monday at the DeKalb Public Library.