[Editor's note: The following letter was released last week by the Fayetteville City Council. It is from A. Lee Parks, attorney for Main Street director Sherri Anderson.]

Jan. 10, 2000

Dear Mr. Bryant:

Our law firm has been retained to represent Sherri Anderson. Based upon the information I have been provided, it appears that the work environment in the office that is supervised and managed by you has become one that falls beneath the minimum standards required under federal law. Ms. Anderson reports that, upon her return from vacation, she was called by one of her subordinates and advised that you had directed her to show up for work “in jeans so that she could clean up the basement while the subordinate would escort a special guest on a tour of the Main Street district.” This type of demeaning directive would obviously have no rational relationship to the job description of Main Street director. It was an obvious attempt to humiliate and retaliate against Ms. Anderson is an effort to get her to resign her position. Ms. Anderson will not resign her position and intends to take action against you and, if need be, the city of Fayetteville in order to protect her right to a harassment free work environment.

Ms. Anderson has documented the repeated invitations made by you to join you at dinners, movies and other purely social activities outside the office. The fact that she has refused all of your invitations to date has led to flagrant retaliation such as reprimands, denial of pay and other efforts to denigrate and otherwise limit her ability to perform her job. While you may attempt to deny that you have made advances toward Ms. Anderson, there are a number of other city employees who have come to Ms. Anderson and expressed sympathy and understanding regarding her situation. Moreover, your penchant for making sexual advances to attractive female employees of the city of Fayetteville has been documented by several third parties, including Mandy Jones and Anne Kirschner.

We believe that, should we be put to the task of actually assembling this quantum of evidence, it will reflect a clear pattern of sexual harassment and other sexually offensive conduct by you during your tenure with the city. This includes an incident of sexual harassment by you to a Main Street merchant. We also have documentation that you made the statement at a department head meeting less than a year ago that you were looking for a new “personnel director” that was blonde, five feet seven inches tall, slim good looking and when she stood against the wall, her nose shouldn't touch before her body did.”

I believe that a face to face meeting attended by you and appropriate members of City Council to hear Ms. Anderson's grievances is in order. We need to determine whether or not there is a way to resolve these issues before we move into the judicial arena and it becomes public knowledge due to the inevitable media coverage that will ensue. I look forward to hearing from you or your counsel at the earliest possible opportunity. It is not Ms. Anderson's desire to harm the Main Street program; however, she has reached the point where she feels compelled to fight back against the treatment she has suffered under your direction.

A. Lee Parks