Aрpellant-employee Gil Bearden was notified of his proposed termination as a police officer for the City of Austell. After an evidentiary pre-termination hearing, the Police Committee of the Austell City Council voted to fire Bearden. This decision was upheld after a de novo evidentiary administrаtive hearing before the entire city council, with the mayor not participating. Cf.
Knight v. Town of Jesup,
1. Bearden asserts that the superior court applied an erroneous standard of review and that the evidence does not support his dismissal. After the hearing, the city council entered written findings of fact, itemizing the evidence deеmed credible and distinguishing the testimony given little or no weight. Three reasons were given for his termination: 1) that Bearden had asked the dispatcher to falsify his availability or readiness while on duty; 2) that he had been insubordinate to the mayor; and 3) that he had left his post without proper authorization.
The scope of review applied by the superior court on certiorari “shall be limited to all errors of law and [the] determination as to
*399
whether the judgment or ruling below was sustained by substantial evidence.” OCGA § 5-4-12 (b). Contrary to Bearden’s contention that the superior court erroneously applied an “any evidence” test, the order of the superior court expressly recites that the “substantial evidence” standard of review was applied below. Compare
Graham v. Wilkes,
In support of his cоntention that the evidence is insufficient to authorize his termination, Bearden argues that the administrative hearing was quasi-criminal and that the evidence adduced below does not prove the specific facts alleged against him. In essence, he urges a fatal variance between the allegatiоns and the evidence. However, a disciplinary hearing before the police committee of a city council is
not
a criminal or quasi-criminal proceeding.
City of Atlanta v. Stallings,
2. Bearden was notified of the proposed termination in a letter signed by the mayor and delivered to Bearden by the mayor in the presence of the chief оf police. Claiming that he could be fired only by the chief of police and not the mayor, Bearden argues that his dismissal is unauthorized by law. However, the initial termination by the mayor and police committee was superseded by the subsequent decision of the entire city council. Any impropriety or procеdural irregularity in the mayor’s unilateral attempt to fire Bearden raises only a question of the form of the notice of adverse action, thus any irregularity has been rendered moot by the decision of the entire city council made after an evidentiary hearing. See generally Smith v. City of East Point, supra. Bearden’s second enumeration of error is without *400 merit.
3. Bearden asserts that his complete termination for such minor infractions is unauthorized under the City of Austell’s personnel policy employing a concept of progressive disciplinе. We are unable to address whether a progressive disciplinary policy confers upon Bearden any substantive rights which have been violated by his outright termination as opposed to a warning or reprimand or some lesser punishment, for it appears that this issue was not raised before and ruled upon by thе superior court. “No ground of error shall be considered [by the superior court] which is not distinctly set forth in the petition [for certiorari].” OCGA § 5-4-12 (a). Although Bearden rаised this issue before the police committee, his failure to insist upon this ground in the superior court amounts to an abandonment and precludes considеration of this issue by this court. See
Savannah, Thunderbolt & Isle of Hope R. v. Fennell,
4. Having affirmed Bearden’s dismissal, the superior court entered an award of costs against him pursuant to OCGA § 5-4-17, in the amount of $1,495.18. This award purportedly represents the costs incurred by the City for the certiorari proceeding. Bearden enumerates this award as error, claiming that the award impermissibly includes attorney fees as an element of those costs.
OCGA § 5-4-17 provides in part: “If the certiorari is dismissed and a final decision is made in the casе by the superior court, the defendant in certiorari may have judgment entered in the superior court against the plaintiff and his security for the sum recovered by him, together with the costs in the superior court.” (Emphasis supplied.) Included in the City’s claim for “costs in the superior court” is an item for the professional services of the city attorney, in the amount of $1,988. The superior court allowed $1,121 of this item as “costs in the superior court” and it is to this portion of the judgment for costs that Bearden objects.
“The term
‘costs,’
as applied to proceedings in a Court of Justice, has, in the acceptation of the profession, and by the practice of all Courts in Geоrgia, a well understood meaning. It includes all charges, fixed by statute, as compensation for services rendered by officers of the Court in the progress of the cause. It does not embrace fees, to which counsel prosecuting or defending may be entitled.” (Emphasis in original.)
Davis v. State of Ga.,
Judgment affirmed on condition.