Ousted Augusta Parks and Recreation Director Maurice McDowell has turned up on a short list for city manager of Sylvester, Ga.
McDowell abruptly resigned from Augusta Feb. 13 after the release of an investigation into allegations of discrimination, favoritism, fraternization, sexual harassment and other inappropriate conduct by him within the department.
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McDowell emerged in May as one of three finalists for city manager in the small southwest Georgia city, according to a report in the Sylvester Local News, a print-only publication.
The Augusta Press requested McDowell’s resume, references and other application materials from Sylvester but was told McDowell had withdrawn his name from consideration earlier this month.
Georgia Press Association attorney David Hudson said state open records law permits a candidate to withdraw and avoid disclosure of the documents, but requires a government to release three finalists, so a replacement must be identified.
The Sylvester search was conducted by the city’s manager, Autron Hayes, after Hayes accepted a similar position in Greensboro, Ga., earlier this month. Hayes served as manager of Sylvester, a majority-Black city of 5,600, for about six years.
The other two named finalists were Chris Davis, development support services manager for Tift County, and James Austin Woods, the former city administrator of Fort Valley and city manager of Dawson.
McDowell, who has master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Georgia Southern University, was first hired as a project coordinator with Augusta Recreation, Parks and Facilities in 2011. He held a similar position in Bulloch County from 2004-2008.
McDowell, now married to a middle-school principal, was fired from the Bulloch job in 2008 for inappropriate conduct with the county clerk and misuse of his county phone. Witnesses testified he gave her massages and spent excessive time in her office.
The investigation into McDowell’s conduct as recreation director, including a substantiated claim of age discrimination, was not made a part of his 245-page Augusta personnel file, according to the file released to the The Augusta Press.
A heavily-redacted investigative summary provided separately to The Augusta Press depicted McDowell having an extremely close, beneficial relationship with a particular recreation employee.
She went by varying titles while performing tasks for him, and although she was not a direct report, he gave her special privileges, a phone and tablet, keys and access codes, the summary said.
Witnesses told investigators McDowell openly ridiculed employees’ children, disparaged employees without college degrees and told longtime employees to quit and directed male worker to look as females as they walked by.
Complaints, signed and unsigned, from staff members accused McDowell of constantly gossiping about everyone, including confidential information, destroying morale and making promises he had no means to keep.
