A Fulton County board that is designed to be an arbiter between government employees and their supervisors has not been functioning, county leaders said, and they are taking steps this week to disband it.
“It’s out of control,” County Attorney Patrise Perkins-Hooker said of the seven-member county personnel board. “People don’t want to go on the record or tell you that, but I’m here to tell you.”
Perkins-Hooker said it can take several months for employees’ appeals of their discipline or dismissal to be heard, and when they are, board members often make decisions that have little connection to the actual case. They accuse government officials of “having a conspiracy” against employees, she said, or blatantly disregard the issues that department heads are concerned about.
In one case, according to documents Perkins-Hooker gave to county commissioners, an employee who was fired after he threatened violence against co-workers remains employed by the county after the board refused to admit a report that included statements from 17 witnesses about the employee’s behavior. The statements confirmed the aggressive behavior, and the fact that the employee was seen with a gun on county property.
In another case, a firefighter who was demoted after falling asleep during a medical call, training an employee by telling that person to watch YouTube videos of specialized equipment and telling a radio dispatcher that his engine was on the scene of a fire call when it was not had that demotion reversed by the board. It was later enforced by the courts.
“They’re all across the board with issues,” Perkins-Hooker said.
She said only 27 other counties in the state have similar boards, because Georgia is a right-to-work state. A proposal that county commissioners are scheduled to vote on Wednesday would replace the existing board with one made up of attorneys who have specific employment or human resources skills.
The existing board costs the county as much as $70,000 a year, but the new setup could reduce that by more than 80 percent, a county spokesperson said. Lee Morris, a county commissioner, noted that the county spends a lot of money getting board decisions reversed.
About the Author
