Former Mayor Evans Defends Ordinance 1455: 'Our Intentions Were Very Noble'

CONYERS, Ga. — Former Conyers Mayor G. Vincent Evans Jr. says the charter amendment process that sparked public controversy last fall began 14 months before it ever reached a council vote — and that accusations of a last-minute, secretive power grab could not be further from the truth.

In an exclusive sit-down interview with CJ Lester Investigates at the Conyers Chamber of Commerce on March 11, 2026, Evans spoke at length about Ordinance 1455, the proposed charter amendment he signed on October 1, 2025, which was paused following intervention by state legislators and pushback at a November public town hall.

"Our intentions were very noble," Evans said. "We came across as being this underhanded action we were trying to take — and it was like, that couldn't be further from the truth."

It Started With a Personal Matter

According to Evans, the entire charter review grew out of a routine personnel matter — with a vote on a personal matter that should have been taken but wasn't. The error was later corrected.

That discovery led the council to ask a broader question: if they had not looked at the charter in years, were there other provisions that no longer applied or needed to be clarified?

"Why not take a comprehensive look at the entire charter and see if there are things we might want to change?" Evans said. "That's how it started. It started probably fourteen months before the end of the year. There was no big sense of emergency. The charter is basically fine."

The city attorney was tasked with going through the document line by line. Evans said the process took roughly ten months.

What the Changes Actually Were

Evans pushed back on characterizations that Ordinance 1455 was a sweeping rewrite of city governance.

"It wasn't a full charter replacement," he said. "It was changing probably a dozen lines in the entire charter."

He described several examples of what he called common-sense modernization. One provision required the city to provide physical copies of the city code at the lowest possible price. Those who asked could instead be directed to the city website, where the code is available for free.

Another outdated provision required the city to make extensive efforts to contact council members before a special called meeting — written at a time before cell phones and text messaging. The proposed change condensed that to a single line: council members will be notified within 24 hours.

"That's thirty years ago," Evans said. "Now everybody's got a phone with them. Everything is instantaneous."

Evans also described a real-world problem with the charter's candidate residency requirement. The current language requires a candidate to have lived in their district for one year — but does not specify that the year must immediately precede the election. He said a prospective candidate once pointed out she met the requirement based on residency from five years earlier.

"She said, 'The ordinance says you just have to have lived in the district one year. I've lived in the district one year — it was five years ago, but I've lived in the district one year.' And I go, hmm, you're right," Evans said. "If she had challenged that, I would have been on her side, because that's what the charter says."

He said the proposed fix was simple: add the words "immediately prior to the election."

Among the other changes Evans cited was an additional layer of auditing oversight for the finance department — something he described as a prudent update for modern government accountability.

'Why Are You Rushing?' — Evans Says He Had No Warning of Opposition

Evans said he had no indication, until the October 1 council meeting itself, that any council member had concerns about Ordinance 1455.

"I did not know until that moment that there was a problem," he said. "Months had gone by and I wasn't aware of any concern. At the eleventh hour — we've been talking about this. I've never heard anyone come in with any concerns about it."

He said he had wanted the charter vote to be unanimous — a higher bar than a simple majority — because of the significance of amending the charter.

"Since we're making changes to our charter, I really wanted it to be a unanimous vote," Evans said. "And if I had one council member saying I'm not ready — okay, guess what, that's fine. I get it. Let's wait. I want everybody to be comfortable with what we're doing."

State legislators also became involved, contacting the city and questioning why they had not been consulted. Evans said the city was not required to seek legislative approval — the process falls under what is known as home rule — but acknowledged the city probably should have given them a heads-up.

"Looking back as a courtesy, we probably should have notified them what we were doing," Evans said. "Just to say, hey, we don't have to have you weigh in on this, but we just want you to know we're cleaning up our charter. We didn't do that."

He also addressed the public confusion at the November town hall, where one attendee accused the city of trying to change to a city manager form of government.

"No, we already are one," Evans said. "You can't change it to something that you already are. So they had some confusion about that."

"People thought we were trying to do something underhanded," he added. "That bothered me. I thought people trust me to lead the city government. We would never try to slide something in."

New Council's Inaction: 'That's Disappointing'

Evans said his understanding is that the new council reviewed the charter at their January 2026 retreat but has chosen not to act on it. He said he finds that disappointing.

"They have chosen not to do anything, and that's disappointing because there are clearly things in there that need to be cleaned up," Evans said. "Maybe they're going to take it up later — I don't know. But I haven't seen anything on any agendas saying they're going to talk about it."

He said the charter itself is fundamentally sound — but that leaving outdated or ambiguous language in place creates unnecessary problems down the road.

"You should be able to read it one time and know exactly what it means," Evans said. "Not have to go get an attorney to tell you what it means."

Evans on Mayor Alsobrook and the Chain of Command and the Need for a Personal Assistant

When told about what took place at the March 4 work session — where Alsobrook indicated she was uncertain about what assistance she could request from city staff — Evans said this about that.

He explained that under Conyers' city manager form of government, the mayor and council are not supposed to go directly to department heads with requests or directives. The proper channel is through the city manager.

"It appears to me the mayor may have misinterpreted the intentions of the city manager," Evans said. "It's fine to ask questions, fine to seek advice. But if you're going to ask them to actually do a task — you're asking one on one for them to do something — it's like, no, no, you need to do that the proper way."

Evans also said he never felt the need for a personal assistant during his own time as mayor, and that the mayor who preceded him — who served for twenty years — felt the same way.

"I've talked to the previous mayor who was mayor for twenty years and he never had a need for an assistant," Evans said. "Many things people want the mayor to be — they don't want a substitute. They want the mayor to read a proclamation or come to the school to speak. And if you manage your time well and utilize what's around you, I never had the need."

He pointed to the city's experienced staff as a resource readily available to any mayor.

"The staff is a wealth of knowledge and experience," he said. "If I had a question, they were always happy to stop what they were doing to help. It's rare that I ever asked a question and they said, 'I'll have to research it.' It was like — this is the answer."

On the Council's Diversity

During the interview, I noted to Evans that the current Conyers City Council may be the most diverse in the city's history — with three Black women, two white men, and one Hispanic council member. Evans agreed and expanded on the point.

"Before we had the Hispanic council member, it was like three Black and three white," Evans said. "And the ages were like one in the thirties, one in the forties, one in the fifties, one in the sixties, two in the seventies. That's a good thing. That way we don't miss things, because different people have different experiences and different viewpoints."