County okays
$150,000 to DSS worker
By NICOLE CARTRETTE
Staff Writer
It’s a lawsuit settlement involving a county employee and commissioners have approved it, but the details of the settlement and cost to taxpayers remain a mystery.
In a Monday closed session commissioners approved a $150,000 award, sources say, to a former social services worker for settlement of her complaint against the Columbus County Department of Social Services.
Chairman Sammie Jacobs called the meeting “to discuss and possibly act on litigation,” according to a notice sent to the media on Dec. 8.
Commissioner James Prevatte made the motion to go into the closed session and announced the session was being called under attorney-client privilege to discuss the Deena Ward vs. the Columbus County Department of Social Services case and other “confidential personnel” information. At a previous commissioners meeting the board failed to name the parties involved when going into a closed session to discuss the suit.
Rachel Esposito, a Raleigh defense attorney in the case, was present during the Monday closed session and a previous closed session held at a Dec. 4 commissioners meeting.
When commissioners came out of the closed session, Commissioner Bill Memory made a motion to appoint Esposito public information officer regarding the Deena Ward case. The motion carried with a unanimous vote of all commissioners.
County Clerk to the Board June Hall, not included in the closed session, was sent to her office for her notary seal after the closed session. When she returned she was called into an office at the back of the commission chambers with Esposito who carried what appeared to be a typed and completed document into the private room.
County Manager Jim Varner announced Esposito would return to consult with the media. Commissioners did not remain in the chambers.
While Esposito, at the request of The News Reporter supplied her telephone number she would not comment as to whether a settlement was voted on in closed session. She maintained that the session was held for the purpose of attorney-client privilege and was confidential.
Esposito cut short the five-minute press conference when questions were asked about her fees.
“I don’t know why it’s relevant, I really can’t comment any further,” said Esposito, who indicated that insurance companies retained her.
The county manager refuses to even face reporters. Esposito did not return a phone call to her office on Wednesday. Messages left with Ward’s attorney, Bartina Edwards, a Charlotte attorney, were also unreturned.
The settlement puts to rest an appeal of a June ruling of an administrative law judge that was scheduled to be heard on appeal before the Office of State Personnel Commission today.
On May 5, 2005, Deena Ward filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging she was sexually harassed by a female supervisor from March 2001 to May 2004 and throughout September 2004, and was retaliated against when she complained.
In June 2006, an administrative law judge ruled that supervisor Becky Williamson and DSS Director Marva Scott “allowed and essentially condoned (Ethel) Patrick’s harassment” of caseworker Deena Ward.
Administrative Law Judge Melissa Owens Lassiter awarded Ward 10 days back pay for her unwarranted suspension and also attorney’s fees.
Lassiter stated that DSS’s disciplinary actions against Ward, including many conferences with supervisors, “were petty and retaliatory in nature” in violation of state law. The judge wrote that DSS’s claim that Ward did unsatisfactory work was wrong.
Ward’s complaints had only a temporary effect on the problem and that Scott did not address the issue, the opinion stated.
Ward filed a formal grievance with the state in November 2004 and sought counseling for work-related stress, according to the legal document. In January 2005, she filed other formal grievances against the DSS governing board alleging they failed to address her complaints and did not give her a hearing, as required by county policy.
In June, a source told The News Reporter that in the spring of 2006, a judge referred the matter to mediation, but Scott refused to attend. Scott also turned down an offer to settle the matter for $25,000, the source indicated.