The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has rebuked the administration of former DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones. The federal appeals court has denied the county’s request to dismiss a long-running discrimination lawsuit.
So compelling is the lawsuit, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled the suit can proceed after the county filed an appeal. The court said in its ruling "DeKalb County embarked on a wholesale plan to replace its white managers with African Americans.” It also says there is “shocking” evidence of “an overt and unabashed pattern of discrimination.” The court continued by remarking "evidence shows “compellingly” that Jones “was the architect of a racially discriminatory scheme” and that “unquestionably, he spawned the claims the plaintiffs have brought against him.”
Morris Williams is a major player in the lawsuit, and was Vernon Jones' assistant county administrator. Since then, the commissioners were so impressed with his job performance; they have named him "Chief of Staff" to the Board of Commissioners.
The lawsuit is expected for trial in about 8 months. Rational reasoning would lead you to believe the county will settle out of court, less the chance of the finding of guilt resulting in such a monetary judgment, the county government will be brought to its knees.
But in the meantime, why was Morris Williams placed in such a position to continue his discriminatory practices? During his time as chief of staff, how many citizens trying to reach a commissioner have been discriminated against? The situation is perfect for him and the commissioners. Doubtfully there is a system in place documenting race of citizens and local business owners trying to reach a commissioner.
The entire board of commissioners need to explain how Williams was chosen and what are his qualifications other than being a racist.
Are the past discriminatory practices of our county government intentionally continuing as we speak?
Here is the link to the lawsuit filed.
The Madness Continues!
17 comments:
Hopefully by the BOC hiring this racist idiot it will help the aggrieved win even millions more . This is not a whole lot different than Flemister,TEBo.et al. I wish Mr Burrell Godspeed in straightening out Vern's cluster movement but with the BOC supporting this clown the future looks bleak. To the citizens WAKE-UP! and demand better from these clowns the BOC.
Remember they were told to buried the investigation in CID involving the charge brought by his ex-wife.
Good old Vern and his buddies.
" I want to do for the state of Georgia what I did for Dekalb County"
Williams being BOC Chief of Staff sort of makes you wonder what power Vernon Jones still has over the BOC.
My response to Vernon running for Governor: Run Vernon, Run!
It looks like Burrell Ellis had a boner for terminated Parks and Recreation Director Marilyn Boyd Drew when she gave him reason to fire her at his first chance.
What is he going to to with Morris Williams? Let him remain as chief of staff with Ellis's blessings or move him to a position where he discriminatory practices can be kept in check.
Once the obvious outcome is handed down, will he too be terminated? This will determine the character and legacy of Burrell Ellis and the rest of the BOC.
Will the citizens tolerate it?
It is time to speak of things that receive no discussion within the county. It is politically incorrect to talk about hiring and advancement practices within the county. Demographic employee statistics have been unavailable for 20 years or so ever since the DeKalb EOC was formed and although the DEOC is no longer in formal existence, the impact of the hiring, purchasing and contracts policies formulated for minority participation has been abused by the CEO and BOC to steer business to lesser qualified and higher priced contractors and vendors.
The hiring practices of Dekalb County Government are cloaked in secrecy. No one can explain why only blacks are included in the recruiting pool available to my department for hiring. No demographic employment statistics are available in any form from HR. No white employee feels comfortable asking some very obvious questions for fear of losing their jobs. Time and time again white employees are passed over for promotion in favor of an equal or lesser qualified black employee. No one can explain why, and questions can not be asked because of the pervasive atmosphere of racial discrimination against white employees within Dekalb County Government.
The county can continue its unethical discrimination of employees based upon race and sex, or it can lend some transparency to the hiring practices of Dekalb County Government by producing demographic employment statistics by department and job classification. Continuing down this sordid path of racial discrimination of employees can only lead to more un-winnable reverse discrimination suites by the county until so much money is lost that the county can no longer justify the policy of employee discrimination based upon race and sex. A couple of good labor lawyers could financially ruin the county with a valid class action lawsuit by white county employees.
Ellis appointing O’Brien was a heartening surprise by the CEO; perhaps the CEO does intend to use character rather than color as the basis for promotion in the county. It is also obvious that the BOC, Purchasing and HR have no intention of changing discriminatory employment and contract policy until forced.
Make no mistake, 25 or 30 years ago there was racial employment discrimination against blacks by a majority white Dekalb County Government. DeKalb officials realized the error of their ways and changed hiring practices to prevent discrimination against black applicants and employees. It was the DeKalb Equal employment office that changed a level playing field to assist in diversifying employee base to reflect the county population, at least that is the official version of events. In reality the Dekalb EOC had no interest in true diversity as can be seen by the ongoing under-representation of the growing and vibrant Hispanic population in DeKalb County. For the last 15 years diversity in Dekalb County Government has been the justification for overrepresentation of DeKalb’s black population in the DeKalb employee base. It is time to level the playing field for employment of all races and sexes within Dekalb County Government. Character, experience, ability and education should be determining factors of employment and promotion within the county. Anything less is an insult to all DeKalb citizens who provide their hard-earned cash to run the county, and the countless DeKalb employees who go the extra mile to provide efficient service to our citizens.
He had the conversation with Vernon, what did he do..........NOTHING.
Once Burrell Ellis was elected iwondered how Barnes Sutton would affect the balance of the BOC. Since she votes with Larry Johnson (aka little vernon), Connie Stokes, Lee May, and Connie Stokes I am not suprised that they would hire this alleged racist. Remember it was these commissioners who would almost always vote with Vernon Jones. Vernon hired many questionable hires with baggage including Terrell Bolton. This board has shown that they do not take the compelling evidence against Morris seriously. The people of this county need to take note of this disregard for prudent hiring practices when the next elections return. This kind of incompetance not only costs taxpayers money to pay for lawsuits, it costs us in opportunities and time that are lost due to leaders with little competance much less vision for a great DeKalb
If you've been on a promotional list during the last eight years get ready to be part of a class-action suit against such promotional practices. Auburn already indicated they can't defend it in open court under oath.
Loflyer, you said "Make no mistake, 25 or 30 years ago there was racial employment discrimination against blacks by a majority white Dekalb County Government" Yep and who paid for this, who was punnished? I'll tell you who, the low level guy that busted his ass and worked his busted ass off and was held back and discriminated against in promotions and assignment, while the minorities were advanced ahead of the hard working nobody who was not responsible for any discrimination. And by the way those who did discriminate, the ones in charge...what happened to them? nothing at all, in fact they made "the eight captain deal" to get their boys advanced before the crap hit the fan and splattered all over the lower nobody's. The who thing stinks. Some of us were a victim of affirmative action and the white good ole boys at the same time. DKPD has a long history of being a slimey place on the inside. Awful !
Everyone not promoted because of Flemister's recorded, documented, blatant racism, should have sued the county: white, black, asian, or whatever, male or female. If you were up for promotion, you were being held back because of Flemister's racism, no matter what your race or sex was.
Hey if any of you know who we need to contact regarding the class action lawsuit regarding promotions within the last 8 years please post it. Its payback time!
Loflyer, it's well known that county Human Resources head Joe Stone was not only one of Vernon's top allies, Stone has been pretty open that he will do everything is his power to always promote an African American over a caucasian. And Stone will never hire a Latino or Asian over an African American.
Ellis has kept Stone is his position as HR chief. You would think Stone would have been fired on Day One of the the new administration. What does Stone have on Ellis?
All of this was just discussed on television on The Ga Gang this am.
When I was reading the comment on " THE EIGHT CAPTAIN DEAL", I was thinking that I could not have stated it better my self, in fact I thought I wrote it for a second. The writer was totaly correct when he said the lowely nobody, who worked hard and never discriminated against anyone were the ones craped on by the county and the BURGESS GANG.In fact the main members of the Burgess Gang were the receipients of the eight captains promotions, which was the beginning of the long wait for the rest of us to get promoted. What was it almost 10 years that the rest of our career's were put on hold?...and the eight captain deal was the launching point for the future advancements of most of those eight captains..Burgess good ole boy's system at it's best. A sad era at DKPD. We were suckers for working so hard for nothing...Jackasses !
How is anyone surprised these criminals are elected to office in Dekalb time after time? Just look at the voting public in much of Dekalb.
The northern tax base obviously had enough and created their own city government.
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