Removing commissioner cost Hope Mills $37,000

The effort to remove embattled Commissioner Tonzie Collins from office cost Hope Mills taxpayers more than $37,000, officials said Thursday.

The town's Board of Commissioners voted in September to oust Collins, who was the subject of 14 formal complaints from town employees, dating to 2006, accusing him of sexual harassment and intimidation.

Collins then lost his re-election bid in November, finishing last in a six-person field.

Paying for attorneys and a court reporter for a formal hearing to present a case against Collins cost $37,562.94, according to figures provides by Town Manager John Ellis.