Sources: City manager will be
‘strongly encouraged’ to resign
amid racism, sexism probe.
James Taylor is likely replacement.
By Kevin Hogencamp
Lying to his bosses wasn’t enough.
Neither was breaking the law – over and over again.
Or fudging budget numbers.
Or conducting “investigations” with predetermined outcomes.
Or hiring a convicted felon, Downtown Manager Don Buie, allowing him to pillage Albany taxpayers, and then trying to cover it up.
Or giving hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money to the mayor’s political friends.
Conspiring with a city commissioner to commit corruption didn’t do it, either.
But whatever Albany City Manager Alfred Lott said or did that led Human Resources Director Mary LaMont to file a discrimination complaint and later resign, it “crossed the line” with at least four City Commission members, three sources close to the situation told The Albany Journal today.
Today, the sources said, at least three City Commission members had discussions about whether to demand Lott’s resignation during the commission’s meeting Tuesday.
“It’s just a matter of getting on the same page and getting it done,” said one of the sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Let’s just say this, it is strongly encouraged that he resign.”
The ideal scenario for Lott’s separation from the city, the sources said, would be for Lott to voluntarily resign effective Sept. 19, his fifth anniversary, but to immediately go on paid leave. An alternative would be for the transition to be more seamless and allow Lott to stay on board until he finds another job, the sources said.
That doesn’t mean, though, that the City Commission would necessarily fire Lott if he doesn’t relent to the pressure. Indeed, he hasn’t been reprimanded for any previous transgressions and the City Commission hasn’t fired any of its appointees since before any of the current commissioners and mayor were elected. The City Commission, meanwhile, is currently in breach of its contract with Lott because it has not evaluated Lott’s performance.
Most commissioners favor Assistant City Manager James Taylor over Assistant City Manager Wes Smith to serve as interim city manager. Indeed, City Commissioner Bob Langstaff has said he hopes Taylor, who has told city leaders he does not intend to remain on the job as assistant city manager for much longer, will become Albany’s next city manager.
Lott makes $138,000 plus benefits annually. Under terms of his contract, the commission could pay Lott $69,000 – half of his salary – as severance upon firing him.
But the Albany city government doesn’t necessarily follow the rules; indeed, with the City Commission’s blessing, Lott gave $40,000 to police chief James Younger in return for his resignation, although his contract made no such provision.
Many of Lott’s failings on the job, up to and including conspiracy to commit corruption, are chronicled at www.TheAlbanyJournal.com.
LaMont, meanwhile, said that she did everything she could as the city of Albany’s human resources director to ensure that employees were treated fairly and that taxpayer funds were spent appropriately. But 13 months into her job and being forced to lie to federal investigators, LaMont said, “Enough was enough because there’s really nothing I could do about what was going on any longer. I complained to everyone I knew to complain to and nobody cared.”
After filing a federal discrimination complaint against the city and Lott last month, LaMont resigned last week. LaMont says that in addition to being racially and sexually discriminatory, Lott attempted to force her to lie to federal authorities during a discrimination investigation. And, later, Lott was retaliatory, stripping LaMont of her authority, LaMont said.
Among LaMont’s most damning complaints, she said:
Lott, who is black, refused to allow LaMont, who is white, to fire a subordinate because the subordinate is black and might would file a discrimination suit.
Lott attempted to require LaMont to make false statements to the U.S. Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission to create a “credible and believable” story in response to a discrimination complaint filed by a white employee that Lott required LaMont to fire.
In her two-page resignation letter and in an interview with The Albany Journal, LaMont describes city hall as being a deliberately racially biased and sexist organization. LaMont says that while Lott participates in and is responsible for illegal, dishonest and conniving actions at city hall, he is doing so with the City Commission’s apparent blessing.
