DeKalb County has agreed to a $1.3 million settlement with two former parks employees in a 6-year-old racial discrimination case.
According to a filing dated April 14, the previously awarded $1.9 million in legal fees and $185,000 in damages will be replaced by the settlement amount.
The settlement amount brings the county’s tab to well over $4 million since the case was filed in August 2004. By early 2010 the county had already spent more than $2.5 million in legal fees.
The suit alleged that Vernon Jones, when he was DeKalb's CEO, wanted to get rid of white managers so he could create a “darker administration” that would reflect the county's racial makeup.
Attorneys for former parks employee John Drake and the estate of former employee Michael Bryant, who died in February 2010, did not return calls for comment.
Speaking on behalf of Jones, attorney Dwight L. Thomas said the settlement is “mutually beneficial to all parties,” but he declined to elaborate.
“It is a fair and equitable settlement, and it is the right disposition of this matter,” he said.
DeKalb “maintains that it did not discriminate based on race or create a hostile work environment for any of the plaintiffs,” county spokesman Burke Brennan said in a statement. He added that DeKalb “does not tolerate racial discrimination.”
The federal case originally involved four former parks employees who all alleged that Jones discriminated against some white managers.
In April 2010, a jury decided that Jones, his executive assistant, Richard Stogner, and parks director Marilyn Boyd Drew "created and maintained a hostile work environment." It also found DeKalb to be responsible for racial discrimination. The jury also said Jones, Stogner, Drew and the county were liable for damages.
Stogner is now DeKalb's chief operating officer and executive assistant to county CEO Burrell Ellis. Jones and Drew are no longer with the county.
The jury awarded $105,000 to Bryant's estate, represented by his daughter, Kristi Bryant Yule, and $80,000 to Drake. The jury did not award any damages to former parks director Becky Kelley, who now is the state's parks director, and Herbert Lowe, a former deputy in the Parks Department.
A federal judge awarded the plaintiffs $1.9 million in legal fees in October, but the county's attorney appealed the award in November. The case has been in the hands of the appellate court since then.
About the Author
