The former assistant director of the Parks and Recreation Department Tim Fulton is sticking to his promise to take legal action against the city over his somewhat forced resignation due to racial discrimination in October 2022.
Fulton, who is White, says the Director Maurice McDowell has purged the department of White employees and made his life on the job “a living hell.”
Fulton’s resignation letter to McDowell in October pulled no punches.The letter identified by name seven individuals in senior positions who were forced to quit, retire early or were outright fired by McDowell. All of them, according to Fulton, were highly qualified, and all of them were White.
Local attorney Kenneth Ratley, who represents Fulton, says he is in contact with the city attorney Wayne Brown and hopes the matter can be settled in negotiation, but says he is prepared to file suit should talks break down.
“There has been a purge, there is no question that (McDowell) has a problem with White people,” Ratley said.
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Ratley says he has given the city a deadline to respond.
While not interviewed for this particular article, District 8 Commissioner Brandon Garrett acknowledged in July of last year that the Parks and Rec Department has lost most of its qualified management personnel under McDowell’s tenure.
“He’s gotten rid of or forced out most of the staff with institutional knowledge and abilities to run these programs. We keep hearing of plans to make improvements, but none seems to come to fruition,” Garrett said in July.
Over the past two years, city cemeteries, the Boathouse at the Marina, Riverwalk, area tennis courts, the Augusta Aquatics Center and other area pools have made the news over costly problems due primarily to neglect. This week, the Augusta Commission was forced to allocate $850,000 in emergency funding to completely redo the plumbing at Diamond Lakes Recreation Center.
Due to the fact that much of the Parks and Rec infrastructure is failing due to neglect, the city has had to hire an outside consulting firm, to the tune of $7 million, to assist McDowell in doing his job.
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According to public records, McDowell made a salary of $131,051 in 2019 and that was prior to the Augusta Commission giving across-the-board raises to all city employees using American Rescue Plan funds.
Fulton, who holds a master’s degree from the University of Buffalo, says that, in meetings, he would offer McDowell what he thought were common sense solutions and that McDowell would ignore him and instead ask his deputy, Alphonzo Williams, who is Black, what suggestions he had. According to Fulton, Williams has no experience running parks.
In May of 2022, Fulton filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Compliance Office with a list of documented grievances including the claim that he was being forced to allow his unqualified subordinate basically do his job for him as well as documented exit interviews in which employees reported they were being forced to quit or retire because they were “old and White.”
EEO Compliance Director Yolanda Jackson and interim City Administrator Takiyah Douse responded by accusing Fulton of “falsifying government documents” and suspended him for five days.
For Fulton, the suspension was the last straw, and he tendered his resignation.
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However, Fulton says that McDowell had one final degradation in store for him.
“(McDowell’s) final act of humiliating me was to have me marched out of the office as if I had been terminated,” Fulton said.
Fulton, who has moved on to a position in El Paso, Texas, says that his motivation is to set the record straight and put a stop to what he calls the “most toxic work environment” in Augusta government.
Another former Parks and Rec employee, Marcus McDaniel, is also taking legal action against the city.
McDaniel filed a sexual harassment claim against a coworker at Bernie Ward Community Center and found himself fired. After a lengthy hearing in November of 2021, the Augusta Personnel Board upheld the termination.
Radley also represents McDaniel in his case.
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
