UPDATE: Bates Mattison filed 11 amendments with the Brookhaven City Clerk on May 11 to fix apparent math mistakes to his campaign disclosures in 2012 that were then carried over in all filings through 2015.
Brookhaven City Councilmember Bates Mattison, who is also executive director of the new charter school Brookhaven Innovation Academy, has filed for personal bankruptcy, according to court filings.
Documents in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia show Mattison filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy on May 3. A court date with creditors is set for June 9.
Wells Fargo Home Mortgage is the only listed creditor in Mattison’s bankruptcy filing.
Mattison did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Chapter 13 bankruptcies allow individuals earning a regular income to develop a plan to repay their debts.
Mattison is the executive director of the new charter school, Brookhaven Innovation Academy, set to open in August in Norcross. His pay is $60,000 a year. As the executive director, Mattison is also in charge of fundraising for the school. Last year, legal counsel advised it would be unethical for Mattison, as a council member, to receive a commission based on how much he raised for the school.
The court documents state his assets are estimated to be worth up to $50,000. His estimated liabilities are listed as being between $100,001 to $500,000.
Mattison has been having issues with campaign finance disclosures. His numbers don’t add up more than half a year after he said they would be corrected.
Mattison’s campaign finance report filed last October, when he ran unopposed for re-election to his District 3 seat, showed total contributions of about $17,000 and total expenditures of about $24,000, but also a positive net balance of about $2,700. Those numbers were repeated on an end-of-year report he filed with the Brookhaven City Clerk’s office.
In several emails since then, Mattison has said he has an accountant figuring out the problem. “[My] accountant has all the paperwork, but tax season has delayed the completion,” he wrote in a recent email.
Mattison had another campaign finance filing issue last year, when the state imposed $1,375 in fees and fines on his campaign for failure to file various disclosures in 2011 through 2013. Mattison said he filed hard-copy versions of the form on time, but failed to file electronically as well under a widely criticized state system.