Jury: College Park discriminated in firing white official

By April Hunt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

College Park racially discriminated when it fired its economic development director in 2004, according to a federal court verdict issued Friday.

A jury ruled that two of the three black councilmembers who led the charge to dump Christopher Jones, who is white, must pay $75,000 each in punitive damages. The city must also pay him $6,000 for offering no severance when it did not renew his contract.

Taxpayers will likely have to foot the bill. A 2008 city ordinance calls for all judgments from 2002 on to be paid by the city.

But the price tag could still go up. It will be up to U.S. District Judge Jack T. Camp to decide whether the city must also pay Jones front pay — the money he would have reasonably earned in his career — or give him his old job back, as he requested. Camp said he will make his ruling in the next two weeks.

“I want to walk back into College Park City Hall with my head held high, because I did nothing wrong,” said Jones, who now works as an economic development director in Alpharetta. “I am capable and the best person for the job and I was fired only because of discrimination.”

Councilmen Charles Phillips and Tracey Wyatt joined with former councilwoman Cynthia Jones to dismiss the development director in April 2004, saying he had not done enough to bring development to predominantly black areas.

Former councilman Rusty Slider, who is white, voted in favor of renewing Jones’ one-year, $68,000 contract. The fifth member, Mayor Jack Longino, who is white, did not vote.

Longino said Friday that the city is withholding comment on the case until Camp makes his ruling on Jones possible reinstatement. He declined to say if the city would welcome Jones back.

“That would be strictly up to the judge,” Longino said. “What has been ruled on is very clear. We don’t want to comment until the judge has made his decision.”

City officials said during the week-long trial that Jones had been disrespectful and ineffective. It was that, not race, that cost him his job.

The city did admit that Jones had brought more than $1 billion in investment to College Park in his six years of guiding it through urban renewal.

Despite that record, Jones’ attorney, Arch Stokes, said he had a difficult time finding work after College Park did not renew his contract. Other municipalities were wary about hiring someone who was accused of being insubordinate and incapable, Stokes said, until Alpharetta hired him about a year ago.

“He was just devastated and now he has been vindicated,” Stokes said.