Dwight Brown, former CEO of Cobb EMC, wants the Marietta co-op to pay him the $1.8 million outstanding balance of a three-year consulting contract, according to documents filed in Cobb County Superior Court.
The consultant agreement, which was signed by Brown and then EMC board chairman Larry Chadwick, was for Brown to begin work March 1, 2011, a day after he announced his retirement from the company. The retirement was required as part of a 2008 settlement agreement in a lawsuit filed by some EMC members.
The consulting contract -- which the EMC is disputing because the board never authorized it -- called for Brown to be paid $13,800 per week, plus expenses and $5,000 in attorneys' fees.
Cobb EMC terminated the consulting agreement last July, after a June court ruling that Brown could not be rehired as the co-op’s CEO. The utility also notes another court meeting where Cobb Superior Court Judge Stephen Schuster made it clear that his June order also prevented Brown from working as a consultant for the company. The EMC is also requesting Brown return any money he has received as part of the consulting agreement.
Both sides had been working on the issue in arbitration, but the EMC asked that the arbitration be stopped and for Schuster to rule on whether the settlement agreement and order ending Brown’s work with the co-op allowed him to provide paid consulting services for the EMC.
A hearing on the matter is set for April 3.
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