Wednesday, October 25, 2000
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Wednesday, October 25, 2000 |
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Tennant: Fire city attorney for misconduct By DAVE HAMRICK
Peachtree City Councilman Dan Tennant has demanded that the city dismiss City Attorney Rick Lindsey because of Tennant's charge that members of Lindsey's law firm have improperly handled allegations against him. Questions about whether Tennant had sexually harassed a city employee were investigated by Lindsey, but the investigation was handled as an administrative matter and not pursued further. Tennant says he believes information about the matter improperly leaked from Lindsey's firm to a law firm representing Tennant's wife in the couple's divorce case. The councilman also has filed a complaint against Lindsey and Susan Brown, a member of his law firm, with the State Bar of Georgia. In a letter to Mayor Bob Lenox Oct. 16, Tennant's attorney, Peter Wynkoop, accused Brown, a lawyer working for Webb, Stuckey and Lindsey, of a "sordid and very unethical attempt to unjustly portray Mr. Tennant as a sexual predator." Brown is the daughter of City Councilwoman Annie McMenamin, who has had frequent strong disagreements with Tennant over city policy, including the appointment of Webb, Stuckey and Lindsey as the city attorneys. Brown and McMenamin also are close friends of Nancy Faulkner, city clerk. Faulkner was deposed Aug. 18 by attorneys Michelle Lundy of Peachtree City and Leslie Wade of Fayetteville, representing Tennant's wife, Kris, in the couple's divorce proceedings. Wade is married to John Wade, who also is an attorney for Webb, Stuckey and Lindsey. The Tennant's divorce since has become final. Questions in the deposition revolved around a variety of conversations between Faulkner and Tennant. As city attorney, Lindsey attended the Aug. 18 deposition because he was concerned that the questioning might relate to Faulkner's duties at the city, he said in a memorandum filed with the city. Part of the questioning focused on a conversation that took place as Tennant was helping Faulkner put some books into a city supply closet early this year. Faulkner said Tennant had asked if she had ever fooled around in a supply closet and, when she answered no, joked, "wouldn't you like to." She also testified that she took the remark as a joke and did not consider it sexual harassment. Faulkner also testified that Susan Brown had later asked her to voluntarily testify against Tennant in his divorce case after she told Brown in casual discussions about the supply closet incident. To Tennant, that's the key to his complaint. "Why would Susan Brown, Annie McMenamin's daughter, have any interest in asking any person to testify against me in my divorce?" Tennant asked in a letter to The Citizen. Following the deposition, Lindsey, City Manager Jim Basinger and Mayor Bob Lenox asked Tennant about the remark, and he said he remembered the conversation differently. "Mr. Tennant, who was in attendance at Nancy's deposition, denied that he had made any comments concerning 'sex in the supply closet' to Nancy and had no recollection of ever having made such statements or similar statements to Nancy at any time," said Lindsey. According to Lindsey, Tennant later sent him a memo stating that the conversation in question happened during the time that sexual harassment allegations resulted in the dismissal of Mike Bryant as city manager of Fayetteville this past spring. Tennant said he jokingly told Faulkner, "I'll bet Mike Bryant would manage to get himself into trouble in a situation like this," to which Faulkner replied something like, "Fortunately, I've never been in that situation." Lindsey told The Citizen this week that he is the only person in his firm that represents the city of Peachtree City, and "I didn't know a thing [about the entire matter] until I was given a 'heads up' that Ms. Faulkner was being subpoenaed." Even as city attorney, Lindsey said, he does not represent Tennant or any council member as individuals. "I represent the city," he said, adding that Brown and McMenamin have agreed not to talk about city business. Brown has denied calling Faulkner and asking her to testify against Tennant, he added. "Susan... did not make those calls to anybody, period," he said. In Faulkner's sworn deposition, she stated that Brown contacted her. "We had had a conversation and then she [Brown] called and asked me if I would be willing to testify about the conversation we had had a few days earlier or weeks. I don't really recall," Faulkner testified, according to the transcript of the deposition. Faulkner also testified that she had mentioned the supply closet incident to Brown's mother, Councilwoman Annie McMenamin. McMenamin earlier this year had filed and later withdrawn an unrelated ethics complaint against Tennant. Tennant's attorney Wynkoop said it's a matter of appearances. "Lawyers are supposed to avoid even the appearance of impropriety," he said. Tennant and Wynkoop charge that Tennant is being persecuted because he has stood up against special interests in his actions on City Council. As for Lindsey's assertion that he represents the city, not individual council members, Wynkoop said confidences still should be kept. "It's no different than if a law firm represents a corporate board of directors and finds out something about a member of the board of directors and gives that information to another member to use in a political way," he said. "Mr. Tennant will not accept the continued employment by the city of Peachtree City of this man or any person from his ethically challenged law firm," Wynkoop said in his letter to Mayor Lenox. "Pending resolution of these complaints, Mr. Tennant requests that Mr. Lindsey be suspended as the city attorney for Peachtree City. Failing this action, I request to be informed of the date and time of any public hearing on any action to continue the employment of Mr. Lindsey or any other attorney of the firm of Webb, Stuckey & Lindsey, L.L.P.," the letter stated. An investigation by Lindsey into the supply closet incident was closed Sept. 20 after the city clerk refused to be interviewed by him about the alleged Tennant remark. "On Monday, Sept. 18, 2000, I received an e-mail message from [City Clerk] Nancy [Faulkner] that she did not wish to be interviewed by me, that she did not feel that she was sexually harassed by Mr. Tennant, and that being interviewed by me would be a harassment in and of itself," Lindsey wrote in his concluding memo to Lenox, Basinger and council members. Lindsey in his report said he had conducted a "thorough investigation" into the incident and determined that "since Nancy Faulkner has continuously stated that she does not feel that she was sexually harassed by Dan Tennant and since both Nancy and Dan remember this event differently, it is my recommendation that no further action take place." The "investigation" apparently began after Lindsey met privately with Basinger, Lenox and Tennant Aug. 21 at City Hall, according to Lindsey's report.
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