Newspaper Page Text
Forsyth Count vNesy*
•/ Your "Hometown Paper Since 1908 •/ : E g N ?^; TY 0F G eor GIH
MAIN LIBRARY-UGA
Vol. 93, No. 188
A department under fire
Personnel controversies aired at Civil Service Board hearing
Norris Bennett
——I —IT Li
1 H fl
” - J
P®*" V c ? v ' jHBsEISSBk tL *
1■ F 1
Photo/Steven H. Pollak
Attending Thursday’s Forsyth County Civil Service Board hearing were, from left, attorney Robert
Shaker, Lt. Paul Adams, Chief Steve Anderson and attorney Angela Davis.
McDonald asks for recount
in his PSC election defeat
By Susan Norman
Editor
Gov. Roy Barnes wasn’t the only
Democrat to lose his Nov. 5 reelec
tion bid in a surprise upset.
Forsyth County’s own Lauren W.
“Bubba” McDonald Jr. also lost his
District 4 seat on the Public Service
Commission, the panel that regulates
utilities in this state.
McDonald, a longtime Commerce
businessman and career politician
who now co-owns L.W. McDonald
& Son Funeral Home in Cumming,
was running for his first full
PSCterm. He originally was appoint
ed to the commission by former Gov.
Zell Miller to temporarily fill an
unexpired term until a 1998 special
election that he won.
With that special-election win
four years ago and a healthy cam
paign war chest, McDonald was the
clear favorite in a race that pitted his
deep political roots in the
Democratic Party against two rela
tively unknown opponents
Republican candidate Angela
Elizabeth Speir and Libertarian can
didate James W. Harris.
McDonald raised $186,456 in
campaign contributions compared to
Speirs’ meager $1,250 beyond her
$3,183 candidate qualifying fee.
Harris raised nothing more than his
candidate qualifying fee.
But when the election results
were tallied, McDonald found that he
had lost the statewide race by 8,053
votes.
The winner was Speir, an
employment recruiter from Gwinnett
Missed paper policy:
For a replacement paper, call
8 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday, and 9 a.m. -1
p.m. on Sunday - (770) 887-3126.
Copyright © 2002 Forsyth County Hswi
w
t*
■L./
M I a. 1
Danny Bowman
McDonald
votes (47.5 percent), McDonald
909,612 votes (47.1 percent) and
Harris 104,937 votes.
Though McDonald doesn’t expect
the outcome to change, he has
requested a statewide recount that
should take place sometime next
week, after all of the county election
boards in Georgia have certified their
vote counts.
“I have asked to reconfirm the
election results,” he said. “I’ve dis
cussed it with the secretary of state
and don’t really expect any change,
but this will give them an opportuni
ty to verify the new voting system.”
A spokesperson in the press office
of the Secretary of State’s Office said
Thursday that McDonald, who lost
by the closest margin in any race, is
the only candidate requesting a
recount.
With the new electronic system,
the recount should be easier than
with the hand checking of paper bal
lots that was required in the past.
Gary J. Smith, Forsyth County
superintendent of elections, said
Thursday that the recount will
See VOTE, Page 2A
INDEX
Abby lie
Classifieds .5C
Cuming Events 10A
Deaths 2A
Forsyth Life— IB
Horoscope 11C
OpmiOn HWMMHMHMMMHMM 1
SUNDAY November 17,2002
County who had
lost in a previous
attempt at elected
office and is in her
mid 30s.
According to
the “unofficial”
vote totals posted
on the Georgia
Secretary of State
Web site, Speir
received 917,665
Business
Commissioners
approve new zoning
request.
Rage SA
| W >Sfld
' . k jflOßte*
SMB •■ Sk $
MJL
Stevie Mills
HELPING HANDS
Uy
aH
Hands Across Forsyth volunteers are
signing up families that need help over
the holidays at The Place off Antioch Rd.
Deadline for client signup for Christmas is
Dec. 14. Families may apply on weekdays
from 9 a.m. until noon. They will receive
certificates for a turkey or ham, as well as
other food and gifts through sponsorship
by individuals and businesses. For more
information, call (770) 781-8846. Above,
Brandi Stapleton helps an unidentified
woman fill out her paperwork so that her
family may enjoy the holidays.
By Steven H. Pollak
Staff Writer
Is the Forsyth County Fire
Department mired in corruption, low
morale and faulty equipment that
fails to protect the safety of firefight
ers?
Or, is a firefighter accused of sex
ual harassment trying to save his own
reputation when he says that, after
raising those concerns to county offi
cials outside his department, he
became the target of retribution that
included the harassment charges?
The firefighter in question, Lt.
Paul Adams, appeared before the
Forsyth County Civil Service Board
on Thursday for a hearing that lasted
more than 10 hours.
Employees who have been pun
ished or fired from Forsyth County
government jobs including law
enforcement officers and firefighters
may appeal to the Civil Service
Board to reverse or adjust those deci
sions.
In July and August, Adams was
suspended without pay for more than
two weeks for alleged sexual harass
ment of two female firefighters. He
maintains his innocence and has
asked the board to strike the discipli
nary action from his personnel record
and force the county to repay the
salary lost due to the suspension.
The board’s members, Robert
Ranaldi, Dr. A.Y. Howell and
Chairman Terry Smith, decided not
to vote on Adams’ appeal at the end
of the hearing. Instead, they contin
ued the case to Dec. 4. when they
plan to question about a half-dozen
more people connected with the case.
According to Thursday’s testimo
ny, the sexual harassment charge
against Adams was the result of
Sports
It’s time
for high
school basketball.
PagelC
Perry’s appointment was
‘surprise’ to Castleberry
By Phillip Hermann
Business Editor
A real estate broker and
developer who has had a
stormy past relationship with
the county government has
been appointed to serve on the
Forsyth County Planning
Commission.
At its Nov. 12 meeting, the
commissioners approved a
request by District 5
Commissioner Eddie Taylor to
replace Carroll Castleberry
with Charles “Chuck” Perry.
In announcing the change,
Taylor said he had discussed
the matter with Castleberry.
However, Castleberry on
Friday said that while the two
during the summer talked about
a possible replacement, they
had not talked since. He said
the move to replace him “came
as a complete surprise.”
Added Castleberry: “I think
he could have showed me the
courtesy of at least telling me
he was going to replace me
instead of just doing it out of
the clear blue sky. I had to find
out from another source after
the appointment was made I
was not told by Mr. Taylor.”
This is the second time this
year that Taylor has replaced an
appointee to a county board
suddenly and without notifying
the incumbent prior to the
action.
In January, he replaced the
chairman of the Board of
Partly Cloudy
High in the low 40s.
Low in the low 30s.
UFK, 1B
n inspires help for others
events that began June 25.
On that day, Barry Head, a lieu
tenant in the Forsyth County Fire
Department, came to the depart
ment’s head of internal affairs, Chief
Steve Anderson, and said he had
learned that a fellow firefighter was
sexually harassing another.
Anderson said the victim would
need to contact him directly. The vic
tim, firefighter Debbie Lindstrom,
said Thursday that she never planned
on coming forward with the informa
tion until Head told her she needed to
go speak with Anderson.
She never filed a formal com
plaint but only came forward when
she thought an investigation was
already underway.
In the subsequent investigation,
Anderson said he learned of three
instances of unwanted physical
advances by Adams toward
Lindstrom.
On two occasions, he attempted
to hug Lindstrom and she told him
not to. The other incident occurred
outside a convenience store on Hwy.
369 where, Lindstrom said, Adams
leaned in her car and kissed her on
the mouth. Again, she told him not
to, she said.
Lindstrom gave tearful testimony
about the incidents and told the Civil
Service Board that she was afraid of
Adams.
“I feel very intimidated by his
persona in the department,” she said.
“He’s very well connected. Whatever
he wants or needs, he’s taken care of.
He seemed to have a lot of power.”
Adams, who came to the hearing
with his attorneys, Beverly Snell and
Robert Shaker, said Thursday that he
See FIRE, Page 4A
Appeals, the panel that hears
requests from property owners
seeking variances from zoning
code regulations. Chairman
Susan Sanner was replaced
with local attorney Dana Miles.
At that time, Sanner said
Taylor never told her he was
going to take such action.
Perry, a Cumming resident,
now serves as chairman on the
same Board of Appeals. But
Perry said in an interview that
he plans to resign from that
board prior to taking his new
seat on the planning commis
sion on Jan. 1, 2003.
Last year, Perry was at the
center of a controversial deal
involving the county’s purchase
of the old Fowler family prop
erty off Hwy. 9 as the site for a
new wastewater treatment
facility.
Perry, CEO of The Atlanta
Company and Pine Street
Partners Inc., served as the bro
ker for Peachtree Best LLC and
developer Lamar Wakefield.
Eventually, the board of com
missioners paid Peachtree Best
$14.2 million for the site and
has since broken ground for the
new facility.
Prior to the board voting in
February 2001 to approve the
purchase of the property, how
ever, close ties were revealed
between Perry and Forsyth
County Board of Commission-
See PERRY, Page 2A
LAKE LANIER LEVELS
Date Level
Nov. 12 1063.93 ft
Nov. 13 1063.03 ft
Nov. 14 1063,09 ft
Nov. 15 1063.12 ft
Full 1071.001%