Confidential government docs found in College Park dumpster, mayor apologizes

COLLEGE PARK, Ga. - A resident in one metro Atlanta city found a trove of highly confidential government documents lying in a dumpster, and the Georgia State Attorney General is now involved. 

The documents included city employees' social security numbers and some vendors' banking information. The mayor is now apologizing for the incident. 

Bob Van Orden, a resident of College Park, found the documents while trying to drop off his recycling. 

"Newspapers, magazines, papers for recycling in College Park," Van Orden said. 

Van Orden said he found about fifteen hundred pages worth of highly sensitive government documents tossed in the dumpster. "I said, 'Wait a minute, maybe there's some more. If there's one document, maybe there's more,'" he said. 

Van Orden said there were also documents addressed to the city manager that were hard to miss. "There were about 1500 pages right on top, right in the corner," he said. 

He gathered all the confidential documents he could find and turned them over to the state.  

"We've taken them to the Attorney General's office, and they are now in the possession of a deputy State Attorney General," Van Orden said. 

The Attorney General's office confirmed to FOX 5 that they are reviewing the documents but wouldn't say if there's an investigation. 

College Park Mayor Bianca Motley Broom has apologized. 

She took to her website to say, "I understand the distress this situation has caused and want to assure everyone impacted that I take this matter very seriously." She added that she trusts the AG's office to figure out what happened. 

Van Orden thinks this incident is indicative of a larger problem inside College Park’s City Hall, which has been plagued by infighting among city council and city staff.  

"I mean, it's 2024. Everyone knows about confidential information, scammers, and online fraud," Van Orden said. "Cut the excuses, get to what actually happened. There has to be accountability and at the top." 

Who dumped these documents remains a mystery.  

Mayor Broom committed to stricter protocols, audits, and more training for city employees moving forward.