College Park has adopted a new security policy for elected officials as political tensions between city council members and residents continue to intensify.

The policy allows the mayor and council members to receive security protection when there is a credible threat to their safety. It was spurred in part by Councilwoman Jamelle McKenzie and approved during a Sept. 8 council meeting.

In a July memo to City Manager Michael Hicks, McKenzie requested enhanced security measures and named nine residents who she said contributed to a “significant security concern” outside her Ward 1 town hall meeting. The residents have said they conducted a peaceful protest.

Some of the residents are affiliated with Speak Up College Park, a resident-led Facebook group whose members regularly scrutinize city government, file open-records requests and question elected officials about transparency, accountability and city decisions.

McKenzie and council members have often clashed with members of the group.

In June, 15 residents, including Speak Up College Park members, traveled 240 miles to Savannah to attend a College Park city council meeting which drew national attention and accusations of a lack of transparency and a violation of the Georgia Open Meetings Act.

Now, a Facebook post published Friday, Sept. 11, on the Speak Up College Park page raises new questions about McKenzie’s own role in the hostile political environment surrounding city council.

Novella Tascoe, daughter of former McKenzie supporter Allyson Blue, posted screenshots of text messages that appear to include McKenzie making racially charged, disparaging and retaliatory comments about some residents, Mayor Bianca Motley Broom and a fellow council member.

McKenzie did not return an email from SaportaReport requesting comment.

The social media post also includes photographs from a January city council retreat that appear to show McKenzie laughing and interacting closely with one of the male residents she later named in her security memo.

The images stand in contrast to McKenzie’s criticism during the Sept. 8 council meeting of the mayor’s alleged conduct at the same retreat.

The new security policy establishes a formal process for evaluating requests for security protection and reimbursement of security-related expenses stemming from credible threats connected to an elected official’s duties.

During the council meeting, McKenzie said she has filed police reports over concerns for her safety since she was elected.

“I’m trying to make sure that Captain Jeffrey McKenzie’s wife gets home in one piece and while she’s in her home, she can have peace,” McKenzie said. “And he can have peace knowing that she is safe and secure.”

According to an email from Hicks included in the council meeting agenda packet, council members have experienced nails being left in their parking spaces, trash being thrown into Councilman Joe Carn’s yard, and an incident in which a stranger aggressively approached Councilman Roderick Gay.

Gay said he was not seeking increased security, but instead wants a city policy that gives elected officials a way to respond to allegations he believes are false and damaging to their reputations. He has taken issue with claims made by members of Speak Up College Park.

Councilwoman Tracie Arnold, who sponsored the resolution establishing the new policy, said she has wanted an enhanced security policy in place since she was elected in 2023.

“This is very personal to me when people get to the point when they start acting out,” Arnold said, adding that members of her family have been victims of violence.

Arnold said public officials face security risks locally and across the U.S. because of the current political climate.

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