Former Albany utility employee suing city for wrongful termination

ALBANY — The Georgia Supreme Court decided last week that former Albany Utility Board employee Serless West can proceed with a racial discrimination and Georgia Whistleblower Act lawsuit against the city.

West sued the city in 2015, alleging she was fired for reporting financial irregularities, but the city immediately sought dismissal of the case, claiming West had not sent proper notice of her intent to sue.

The city argued that West was required to provide such notice under the Georgia statute mandating that “ante litem” (before the case began) notices must be presented to the municipality within six months of an event, stating the time, place and extent of the injury as well as the negligence that caused the injury.

According to West’s attorney, LaTonya Nix Wiley of The Wiley Law Firm in Atlanta, West lost wages and various employment benefits, suffered reputational injury, emotional distress and humiliation, as well as incurred attorney’s fees and costs of litigation due to her wrongful employment termination on Nov. 21, 2014.

West claims her termination was retaliation for blowing the whistle on financial irregularities at the Utility Board, according to Wiley.

“Ms. West worked for the city of Albany from March of 2005 until she was terminated in November of 2014,” the attorney said. “Ms. West had worked in the Finance department, but was transferred to the Utility Department. Once she got over to the Utility Department, because of her years of experience in Finance, she noticed that there were some financial irregularities in the way cash payments were handled. There was a lack of control, a lack of checks and balances, and people were coming up short. She knew this was a problem. So she sent a written letter of concern to management about the lack of financial control. Within days, they fired her.”

Albany City Attorney Nathan Davis said he doesn’t know much about the case or the circumstances surrounding West’s termination.

“I don’t know a lot about the merits of that lawsuit,” Davis said Monday. “It is being defended by some council out of town. The case is coming back to the U.S. District Court. It is a federal court lawsuit, and the issue that the Supreme Court decided was a state law one. The federal courts will do that when there is a question that they can’t find an answer to in state law.”

Wiley said that the state Supreme Court’s decision was a victory for West.

“The Georgia Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, has allowed Ms. West to pursue her whistleblower claim,” Wiley said. “The Supreme Court rejected the city’s efforts to have Ms. West’s whistleblower claim dismissed. The case will now go back to federal court in Albany for further litigation on all issues.

“This is a significant victory for Ms. West. It has been over two years since her termination, and she is thrilled that she will finally be able to litigate the merits of her claims now that the city’s procedural tactics have been rejected.”