This morning, Todd Rehm of GaPundit.com posted two confidential documents that appear to back up a charge made by former congressman Bob Barr, alleging 11th District rival Barry Loudermilk, a former state senator from Cassville, was involved in a racial discrimination complaint filed by a 61-year-old African-American woman who had served as his General Assembly secretary. She was fired in 2011.
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| Barry Loudermilk is an American politician from the state of Georgia who represented Georgia's 11th congressional district as a Republican in the U.S. Congress. |
Rehm, a consultant for the Barr campaign, said the documents arrived by email, and that he does not know their source.
The AJC’s Jeremy Redmon has inquired with Melvin Everson, executive director of the state Commission on Equal Opportunity, who notes that the documents don’t appear to be stamped an notarized.
But Ed Buckley, an attorney in the law firm that represented Ethel Blackmon, told Redmon that the paperwork is indeed authentic.
One document details the complaint of Ethel Blackmon. The other is a confidential settlement agreement awarding her $80,500 – on the condition that she was to keep quiet about all details of the award.
From the complaint filed by Blackmon with the EEOC:
XV. Mr. [Jason] Fleury [a human resources director] said he could not move me because there were no openings for administrative assistants and that he could not budget the funds to pay for both me and the new administrative assistant they were hiring to replace me (supporting Senator [William] Ligon and Loudermilk). Mr. Fleury told me it was my last day at the Senate.
XVI. I asked why I was not given the opportunity to correct any issues or concerns of Senator Ligon and Loudermilk. After all, I had successfully performed my job as an administrative assistant in the legislature over the course of five years supporting several other senators. At this point, because of budget week, I had only worked for the Senator Ligon and Senator Loudermilk for approximately three weeks.
XVII. Mr. Fleury responded – “just face it, you are not the face they want representing them to their constituency.”
XVI. I asked why I was not given the opportunity to correct any issues or concerns of Senator Ligon and Loudermilk. After all, I had successfully performed my job as an administrative assistant in the legislature over the course of five years supporting several other senators. At this point, because of budget week, I had only worked for the Senator Ligon and Senator Loudermilk for approximately three weeks.
XVII. Mr. Fleury responded – “just face it, you are not the face they want representing them to their constituency.”
XVIII. In response to Mr. Fleury’s statement about my face not being the face the senators wanted to present to their constituents, I asked directly if they were replacing me with a young white candidate. Mr. Fleury claimed the “leading candidate” was middle aged and African American. (I later learned that a young Caucasian woman was hired to replace me.)
From Loudermilk spokesman Dan McLagan:
“It’s clear Barry had nothing to do with this — didn’t even know about the suit until after it was well over — and personnel actions in the Senate are done by the Secretary of the Senate. Employee gets fired, sues the taxpayers and gets a payoff. It’s a sad commentary on the system and a sadder commentary on Bob Barr and his character.”
