The deputy director of Cobb County's emergency management agency, whose husband resigned under a cloud from a county job last year, turned in her own resignation Friday after an investigation into complaints about the work environment in her office.
Lanita Lloyd stepped down two weeks after County Manager David Hankerson proposed firing her, according to documents released Friday through the state's open records law.
In November, members of Lloyd’s staff complained that she made them do personal tasks during and after work hours, including helping Lloyd find a second job, driving her child to and from events and researching issues related to her husband's earlier departure.
“I have regrettably lost confidence in your ability to effectively manage and lead Cobb EMA,” County Manager David Hankerson wrote Lloyd in a Feb. 22 letter.
Lloyd had been on leave from her job since the county’s investigation began Feb. 14.
Hankerson did not comment on Lloyd’s resignation Friday.
A person answering the phone at her home said she was not available.
Lloyd’s resignation came seven months after her husband, Mickey Lloyd, resigned July 30 after seven years as Cobb’s public safety director amid questions that he lied about his military service record.
The Jan. 27 complaint investigation report on Lanita Lloyd’s case, released Friday, includes 12 concerns raised by employees that Lloyd either admitted to or did not deny involving incidents such as instructing her staff in July to research military service issues related to her husband. The same month she asked an employee to help clean her garage.
On several occasions employees reported having to drive Lloyd and her daughter to events during and after work hours. . Employees also said she required them to to help her with an election to a regional emergency management position, and help with a class she taught at Chattahoochee Technical College, according to the report.
After Mickey Lloyd resigned, employees said Lanita Lloyd told them of her financial hardships and required them to help her apply for other jobs, including an EMA position in Atlanta.
In some instances Lloyd said the requests were not mandatory, that the employees were compensated or given time off to do the work, or that the instances occurred less frequently than the employees reported.
Because the matters couldn't be reconciled as simple misunderstandings, lingering crediblity and trust issues would likely strain continued working relationships, the report found.
Although the complaints did not rise to the level of a hostile work environment, they showed employees experienced emotional distress at work and that the imposition on their personal lives caused them to feel “offended, imposed upon, and at time, degraded,” the report stated.
Lloyd’s department includes four full-time and one part-time employee. County record show Lloyd earned $68,779.62 a year.
Lloyd began her work with the county’s EMA department in July 2003 and was appointed deputy director the following year.
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