The DeKalb County School District has settled with the smaller of two companies in a lawsuit involving more than $100 million in claims for mismanagement of construction projects.
The agreement with E.R. Mitchell & Co., approved by the school board Thursday, does not end the 5-year-old legal battle with DeKalb's former construction manager, nor does it provide any cash settlement to the school system, but it's a significant milestone.
Mitchell was the minority company in the partnership that managed DeKalb's sales tax-funded construction program until 2007.
The owner of the company has agreed to cooperate in the school system's lawsuit against the partnership, said school board member Paul Womack, chair of the board's budget committee.
"He's come across to our side," Womack told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, just after the board's 8-0 vote to accept the settlement agreement. "He's going to cooperate with us."
A spokesman for Heery said the company and its lawyers hadn't yet seen the settlement, so he couldn't comment directly about it. But the spokesman, David Rubinger, said Heery was confident that the facts of the case were still on the company's side.
"We believe that when presented to a jury, Heery will be vindicated," Rubinger said. "Nothing has changed on our side."
DeKalb suspended Heery/Mitchell in 2006 then formally fired the venture the next year, claiming the outfit mismanaged the school system's billion-dollar construction program. The partnership sued just after the firing, and DeKalb then countersued, ultimately seeking more than $100 million.
Negotiations have gone on for years.
Heery/Mitchell contended it was the victim, alleging it was improperly fired by the administration of former Superintendent Crawford Lewis and his chief operations officer, Pat Reid. Then, Lewis and Reid were indicted in an alleged criminal conspiracy to defraud the construction program. Also indicted was Reid's husband at the time, architect Tony Pope, to whom Lewis and Reid allegedly steered projects.
Heery/Mitchell's lawsuit suggested the criminal defendants orchestrated the firing to advance their scheme.
Recently, both cases got trial dates — the criminal trial for September and the lawsuit for February.
Womack said the settlement agreement would result in the dropping of Mitchell's claims against DeKalb and of DeKalb's claims against his company.
A lawyer for Mitchell, R. Joseph Burby of Bryan Cave LLP, said, "Today's settlement marks the end of what has been a very long and costly dispute for E.R. Mitchell Jr., and he is glad to put this matter behind him and move forward."
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