SOUTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Nearly 60 Fulton County employees have received termination notices amid a dispute that ties back to the annexation of the City of South Fulton.
“I’ve given the county 21 years. Faithfully,” said Robert Hand, a senior supervisor with the county’s Public Works Department. “To drop this bombshell on us….it’s a slap in the face.”
Like Hand, the employees work for the department's transportation division. One of them contacted Channel 2 investigative reporter Nicole Carr soon after receiving a Reduction in Force notice from Fulton County.
The notice, dated Oct. 4, informs the employees of the job loss scheduled for Nov. 4. That’s three days shy of when they were set to transition to the City of South Fulton, they told Carr. The public works department was the last group to complete that transition, after other departments to include fire, police and parks and recreation.
"It's a shame to know the new city is just basically going to throw us all away and all our families,” supervisor Phil Menghimpit said.
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All the employees told Carr they’d been guaranteed jobs by the city, making the transition similar to those of the previous groups.
“Not one of those people told us it’s not going to go,” said Timothy Ward, another employee. “That y’all might need to make other plans. Where are they now? Where are they?”
“If we had known that years ago, we would have been looking, trying to find jobs elsewhere,” said longtime employee Angela Colbert.
An intergovernmental agreement proposal shows the City of South Fulton plans to share the costs of a public works private contractor with the City of Peachtree Corners. That contractor, CH2M Hill Engineers, already provides services to Peachtree Corners.
“Two, three, four weeks before Thanksgiving, these families are gonna be out of a job?” asked Jill Lindsey, a department employee. “Something needs to be investigated or something because the money’s there.”
Money is at the root of the problem according to City of South Fulton Mayor Bill Edwards.
“The issue here is not the City of South Fulton. The issue here is Fulton County,” Edwards told Carr. “We have honored our end of the bargain from day one. We have brought everyone over and given them a 60 day tryout or whatever. We get to this and we’re faced with this kind of stuff.”
Edwards said the city refused to go along with a deal from the county that included public works equipment costs the city just couldn’t afford.
Edwards told Carr he believed the city has “been made to look like liars” amid the termination letters being issued. He said he had every intention of hiring the public works staff in a transition, and hopes to make that a condition of the private contracting deal.
“What kind of money are we talkin’?" asked Carr.
“Well, just in equipment alone, it was well over a million dollars,” Edwards said. "They (Fulton County) changed. They changed in the middle of negotiations (and said) ‘OK, now it’s gonna be actually cash value. The other thing too, is half that stuff they’re trying to sell us is probably not in good condition.”
Carr reached out to Fulton County ahead of her Monday afternoon conversation with Edwards. In a statement, county officials said the City of South Fulton asked for transportation services in August, which is what led to the reduction in force decision.
“As a result, on October 5, employees in the Transportation Division received notices of a Reduction in Force. This is the same process used in transition of all other services to the City of South Fulton," the statement read.
"On October 9, following the County’s Reduction in Force letter, the City of South Fulton City Council took a vote related to transportation services,” the statement continued. “Based on that vote, we have invited the City to meet with these employees to discuss the impact of this decision on employees of the Transportation Division."
When Carr asked about Edwards’ accusations of an unfair transition deal, a spokesperson for the county said she would get back to Channel 2 with a response. We haven’t heard back yet.
While Edwards said he hopes to make hiring public works employees a condition of the new private
contract, those details haven't been finalized.
Employees with decades of service said they’re not qualified for other open positions within the county government, and they haven’t been offered any transfer options.
“All I’m sayin’ is just be fair to us like we’ve been fair to you all for so long,” said Evonne Hollis. She and her husband are both losing their jobs.
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