The former head of the Atlanta airport, fired two weeks ago by Mayor Kasim Reed, has hired a lawyer known for wrongful termination suits and whistleblower cases.
Miguel Southwell, the ex-general manager at Hartsfield-Jackson International, retained the law firm of Parks Chesin & Walbert to represent him, according to a letter sent to Reed’s office by lawyer Lee Parks.
The letter says Southwell was told his dismissal was due to recent long lines at the airport. But it also suggests the mayor’s office wanted more control over contracts to be awarded during an upcoming wave of construction and remodeling projects.
Reed in a written statement responded: “Miguel Southwell is struggling to rescue what remains of his career and this is evident in the fact that he is now making false statements against my Administration and me.”
Parks wrote that the firm is “initiating an investigation” into Southwell’s termination and asked for documents and other information from the city. The letter also said “we hope the City will participate in settlement discussions or mediation at the conclusion of our investigation.”
The letter said Southwell was “given just thirty minutes to make a major career decision and then ‘bull rushed’ out the door when he refused to resign.” He was offered three months severance, according to the letter.
The letter suggests there were other tensions related to Southwell’s independence.
It cites a conversation last year in which Reed “made a statement to Mr. Southwell that you (Reed) thought he went out of his way to be independent of you, provided examples, and also made a statement to the effect that, ‘You worked in Miami. I thought you knew how things work,’ that can only be interepreted as a blunt reference to Miami International Airport’s own long and difficult history of patronage-based awards.”
In addition it cites “direction from senior officials of the City’s Procurement Department to take a number of actions that would impact the award of active procurements of concession and construction contracts at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport by causing the contracts to be awarded to companies other than the highest-ranked bidder in the procurement process, and those same senior officials represented that these directions were origination from the ‘second floor’ or ‘the Mayor.’”
The city owns Hartsfield-Jackson and Reed had chosen Southwell to lead the airport two years ago.
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