Federal judge dismisses Tracy Williams’ lawsuit against Dougherty County School System

ALBANY — U.S. District Court Judge Marc Treadwell on Thursday ended a four-year legal battle between former Dougherty County School System Human Resources Director Tracy Williams and the DCSS when he granted the system a summary judgment dismissing her discrimination lawsuit against the school administration.

In his 34-page ruling, Treadwell wrote that Williams had not presented “a convincing mosaic of circumstantial evidence that would allow a jury to infer intentional discrimination by the decision maker.”

Williams, who was hired in 2009, was fired in September 2011 after an incident between Williams and a female co-worker in the School Administration Building. The co-worker was later identified by a source as Lynn Cook.

The incident occurred two days after school system Attorney Tommy Coleman sent a letter to board members expressing his concern that the system ran the risk of ending up in court over the conduct of its personnel director.

In the letter, Coleman wrote: “Ms. Williams has been abusive to subordinates as well as senior staff resulting in a number of longtime employees choosing to resign rather than continue in their positions in the Dougherty County School System.”

Four months before being fired, Williams was terminated when a short-handed School Board voted to not renew her contract with the system. Less than two weeks later, the full board voted 4-3 to rehire Williams.

The September incident, however, finally led to her eventual dismissal.

Her suit, filed last September, centered on alleged mistreatment by former DCSS Executive Director of Finance and Operations Robert Lloyd and unnamed white member(s) of the Dougherty School Board.

The suit stated Lloyd “took every opportunity to demean” Williams and refused “to allow her to carry out her job duties of reviewing personnel actions and recruitment to fill vacant positions even though other white managers were allowed to perform their job duties. Mr. Lloyd continually berated her, countermanded decisions she made, harassed Plaintiff and generally created a hostile working environment.”

Lloyd is white; Williams is black.

The suit then gave several examples of Lloyd’s alleged hostility. Among the allegations:

— Refusing to increase Williams’ compensation after she wrote a letter requesting a raise based on her experience;

— Requiring Williams to have a performance plan when no white managers were required to have one for their conduct. In that instance Williams said she had done nothing to warrant one;

— Williams said she was told by one of the white School Board members that she needed to go sit down and “be a good little human resources director” when she raised the issue of disparity of pay between similarly situated black and white employees.

Treadwell’s ruling noted Williams and Lloyd had an “acrimonious relationship and the office was dysfunctional,” but added, “no rational jury could conclude that the [employer’s action] was discriminatory.”