Wednesday, May 28, 2003

I never thought that I would file a lawsuit against anyone. Not too long after I filed suit against my former employer, the Development Authority of Peachtree City, my children asked me what would happen if I won.

I told them that by the time a situation has deteriorated to the point that a lawsuit is filed, everyone loses. There is no winner. I still believe that.

But lawsuits do bring about change. They do shine a light upon practices that are unethical, unjust and archaic. Lawsuits force us to examine the way we do business and why we make the decisions that we make. Lawsuits challenge the status quo.

And as painful a process as it has been, I made the right decision for myself. I'm just not the kind of person who can look the other way or pretend that something is not happening.

I have been so encouraged by the many people who have expressed their support to me. It has been overwhelming. When I filed the first portion of the lawsuit, the Equal Pay Act complaint, in late January 2002, I was dismayed to pick up The Citizen newspaper from the driveway just a few days later and discover a front page article about it. I had still not confided my decision to file suit with my closest friends and now it was front page news.

After the first couple of phone calls, I decided to keep a list of those who expressed support for me so that as the lawsuit dragged on I could look back and remember those who encouraged me from the beginning.

My attorney told me to expect the lawsuit would probably take several years to be resolved, possibly three to five years. I knew that it would be a long haul.

I pulled out a notepad and began recording names of supporters. Within days I had several pages of names and couldn't keep up with the many people who stopped me at the grocery store, spoke to me at sports games, community events and those who made a point of looking for me at church. These people continue to encourage me and pray for me. I didn't need to keep a list after all.

I have been most struck by the number of women who have told me that they have also experienced discrimination in the workplace. Amazing, intelligent, strong, productive, hard-working women from fields as varied as banking, sales, retail, manufacturing, education, hospitality, finance and even the legal profession.

The most gratifying thing for me has been to hear from women who are now standing up for themselves and insisting upon equal pay and an end to discrimination and unfair practices within their workplace. To know that I have encouraged these women is an unexpected gift.

There are some specific things that I want to say in regard to my Equal Pay Act and Title VII Discrimination lawsuits:

·The lawsuits have been filed against the Development Authority of Peachtree City. Virgil Christian, as I was, is merely an employee of the DAPC. This suit is not against Virgil, with whom I had an excellent working relationship when we were colleagues. Virgil did not make the decisions that led to this suit. The seven men who served on the DAPC bear the responsibility for those decisions.

· The suit is not against the Frederick Brown, Jr. Amphitheater. Taking the amphitheater and transforming it from an underused, overlooked, disregarded small town amphitheater into the wonderful regional concert venue that it is today is an accomplishment of which I am very proud. I hold the current leadership at the amphitheater in the highest regard. The spotlight focused on them due to this lawsuit has been unfortunate but they have risen to the occasion and kept the focus of the amphitheater on its future and not its past. They are doing a great job and I am very proud of them.

· The suit is not against the Peachtree City Tennis Center. While the Tennis Center has certainly had its own problems over the past couple of years, my lawsuit has nothing to do with addressing those issues. I know the staff at the Tennis Center to be hard-working and sincere. They do their jobs well.

· I tried to work with the DAPC for many years to resolve the issues that eventually led to the lawsuit. This decision was not made in haste and it was not made in regard to any other factor beyond the merits of the suits. This is one of the most difficult things I have ever done.

· I do not want my job back at the amphitheater. I'm not the kind of person who sees a movie twice or reads a book more than once. I don't want to go backward in my life, only forward.

So what's next? More filings, more responses, eventually a federal trial by jury. It will undoubtedly be a lengthy, arduous journey but it is a necessary one.

It is imperative that the DAPC create an objective method for determining the compensation of its employees. Every employee should receive an objective annual performance evaluation and that evaluation should be the basis for giving pay increases.

The DAPC also needs to conduct a full-scale review of its pay structure for every employee and clearly define the positions, titles and responsibilities of its employees in compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act.

They shouldn't do these things because a lawsuit has been filed against them or because they are ordered to do these things by a court of law. They should do these things because it's simply the right thing to do.

And that is what this is all about.

Kristi Rapson

Peachtree City