Fannin County Board of Commissioners held a special-called meeting on Monday, May 2^nd to so that Fannin County Attorney Lynn Doss could explain how the county lost a civil discrimination lawsuit when previous trials about the same case had resulted in favorable rulings for the county.

The civil lawsuit settlement at the center of the meeting is the end of a string of cases dating back to 2011 when Fannin County was sued by employees  (read article here) who said that they were fired because they were over 60.  The employees filed a discrimination case with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

According to Ms. Doss, the case went through several rounds of rulings.  First, the EEOC stated that the plaintiffs had no grounds.  Then the EEOC itself brought a discrimination suit against the county. Ms. Doss did not explain why the EEOC decided against the plaintiffs’ case going forward and instead decided to bring the lawsuit itself. After the initial judgement that the EEOC has sufficient reason to sue Fannin, the county asked for a rejudgement which was ruled in Fannin’s favor.  Additionally, the court said that the EEOC must pay for legal costs.

Much to Ms. Doss’ dismay, the civil lawsuit, brought about by four plaintiffs in the EEOC case, succeeded.  Ms. Doss explained that the County prepared over 33,000 documents to support their rejudgement case and several levels of courts had ruled in the county’s favor which, she had felt, made a very strong case against the civil lawsuit plaintiffs.

Instead of going to court, the civil lawsuit was dealt with in mediation conducted by the risk management company hired by the county.  As Ms. Doss explained a couple of times, it was not the county that actually settled the lawsuit in favor of the four former employees, it was the risk management company.  In fact, as part of the mediation, the plaintiffs all signed that it was the risk management company’s decision, not the county’s decision to settle the lawsuit through mediation. She said the county had been well-prepared and anticipated going to trial, not mediation, for the civil lawsuit.

Attendees at the meeting learned through Post-Commissioner Earl Johnson that Commission Chairman Bill Simonds signed checks totaling a lump sum of $208,000 to the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG). It  collected the original checks and provided reimbursements.  ACCG is a para-governmental organization which county commissions throughout Georgia belong to.  An ACCG division handles liability insurance for county commissions belong to the organization (see related story “Chairman Bill Simonds Admits to Signing  Checks Totaling $208,000 Check without  Approval”). Fannin County Board of Commissioners checks’ were sent to ACCG on April 15.  Fannin County received reimbursement ACCG on April 18.

Ms. Doss did not say what the complete sum of the mediation settlement would be although she said that the attorneys for the plaintiffs would make much more money than the plaintiffs themselves.  When asked by an attendee if the settlement would increase the monthly insurance payments for the county like a car accident would increase car insurance, Ms. Doss circumvented the answer by saying that the county gets reimbursements each year from the insurance company.  She did not say if the county will receive a reimbursement this year.

Ms. Doss herself did not attend the one-day mediation proceedings between the plaintiffs and the county’s insurance company.  She said that the lawyer handling the county’s case had assured her than she needn’t be there.  The only reason why she would need to be there is if any of the plaintiffs were to ask for their job back and there had been no indication that one would.  FetchYourNews’ Brian Pritchard asked Ms. Doss when the mediation took place.  She couldn’t give the exact dates, only sometime in late March.  The Board of Commissioners, however, waited until May 2 to give Fannin residents a status update.  Ms. Doss did not give an explanation as to why she didn’t attend the one-day mediation.

The meeting agenda was topsy-turvy.  At the beginning of the meeting the Mr. Simonds items 1 and 2 on the agenda and went to discussion requested by Mr. Sosebee, who was the Commissioner who initiated the meeting.  Mr. Sosebee called for Executive Session and the Commissioner left to talk behind closed doors, just 45 seconds after the meeting began.  They were gone for almost two hours.

Executive Session, according to every agenda, occurs after Commissioners’ Comments and Public Comments. Also, Executive Session is to only cover personnel and current legal matters, not ones that have been settled.  James Wolf of The News Observer asked if other topics were discussed in the Executive Session.  Mr. Simonds remained silent.

Upon return to the bench, Ms. Doss began her ten minute explanation of the lawsuit settlement.  Then the meeting turned to $208,000 worth of checks that Mr. Simonds had signed without the approval of the Post- Commissioners (see related post).  Finally, after waiting two hours, the die-hard library supporters presented, once again, their case for a stand-alone library in Fannin County.

This article has been updated to reflect new information.