Activists and clergy members clergy gathered around Snellville city clerk Phyllis Moreland-Richardson at city hall Monday and prayed.
At a rally outside the building, they recounted claims of how the city manager and members of city council had kept her from doing the job she was appointed to by the mayor last year.
They said Moreland-Richardson had been kept from the building, despite showing up to work each day for six months. She was not allowed on the dais during city council meetings and forced to take minutes from the audience.
They say members of city council cut her pay once she finally was allowed to work, and tried to move her office. Moreland-Richardson said she was even “shunned” by members of city council, who would turn their backs when she walked in and refuse to say hello.
Snellville has been dogged by near-constant infighting between the mayor and members of city council for several years. One other case, about whether Mayor Kelly Kautz had the authority to appoint the city attorney, went all the way to the state supreme court, where Kautz prevailed.
But Moreland-Richardson’s attorneys say her case is not about the bad blood among elected officials. It’s about race.
Moreland-Richardson is Snellville’s first black city clerk, and the first black person appointed to an executive position in the city government, her attorneys said. At the rally, activists said her situation could shine a light on other racial disparities in the city.
One compared Moreland-Richardson to Rosa Parks.
“She said, as Phyllis Richardson said, I refuse to be mistreated,” said Richard Rose, president of the Atlanta branch of the NAACP. “She has demonstrated she has the courage to stand up to bullies.”
Moreland-Richardson filed a federal lawsuit Oct. 21 alleging council members and Snellville’s city manager prevented her from accessing the tools she needed to do her job.
“It has not been easy,” she said. “Many days, I cried in my office behind closed doors.”
Moreland-Richardson said she is qualified for the job, and she will fight for it. She has filed previous complaints about her treatment, including to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Snellville appoints its city clerk to an annual contract, and Daniels said Snellville city council members falsified information in an attempt to keep the previous clerk, Melissa Arnold, in her role.
Neither Kautz nor current city attorney Chris Anulewicz returned a phone call seeking comment. Tom Witts, one of Kautz's foes on city council and the newly elected mayor, said he couldn't speak about the lawsuit. He said he wants to unite the city, which has been divided by the situation with Moreland-Richardson and other fights.
“To my knowledge, no one on the city council has ever been anything but professional to her,” he said.
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