'Retaliation': Council member censured after contentious fight to get bilingual ballots in Georgia election

A Georgia city council member who promoted bilingual ballots for an upcoming election was censured by her colleagues just a week after the council agreed to allow residents to vote on her proposal, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

The Morrow City Council in a 4-1 special session vote Tuesday censured Councilwoman Van T. Tran on allegations of “unacceptable behavior and inappropriate actions towards city employees,” according to a document cited in the report.

“The city has received multiple complaints against and grievances from the city of Morrow regarding Councilwoman Tran’s unacceptable behavior and inappropriate actions taken toward city employees in violation (of the) city’s charter and city’s policies,” the censure document reads.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

It does not give details of what the "unacceptable behavior" was – and Tran claims she's being retaliated against for making the proposal.

Tran, who is Vietnamese American, had sought that ballots be made available in English, Vietnamese and Spanish.

The Clayton County city has a population of around 6,500 of which approximately 41 percent are Black, 33 percent are Asian and 22 percent are Hispanic or Latino, according to 2022 U.S. Census Bureau estimates cited in the report.

Tran, in an email to the AJC, said the allegations are without merit.

“The resolution is a retaliation against me for trying to do my job for the citizens of the city of Morrow,” Tran said. “There was no due process, my colleagues had a conflict of interest in making that decision.”

Councilwoman Dorothy Dean, considered among the most outspoken opponents of Tran’s proposal, just a week before the censure vote asked her colleagues to put the issue of bilingual ballots before voters in a Nov. 7 referendum.

Dean last month assailed Tran’s proposal in fiery remarks that made national headlines.

“You have failed in your oath of office,” Dean told Tran.

“You have failed as a citizen of this country. You disregarded and you dishonored the oaths that you took as an American citizen. I would like to say that is un-American and inexcusable. Shame on you, Van Tran.”

Leon Stafford writes for The AJC that, “The controversy over the proposal grew as word spread in the weeks following Dean’s comments, and debate on the issue divided the community during public comment at council meetings. Advocates of the plan said it would encourage more voting by residents who struggle with English while opponents insist that Morrow citizens should know English to participate in governance.”

At least two dozen state legislators denounced Dean’s comments in a letter.

“There is no official national language of the United States, a country founded by immigrants,” the legislators said. “People who do not speak English as their first language are just as American as those who do.”

Read the full article here.