Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4A
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Sunday, November 17,2002
FIRE from 1A
never tried to kiss Lindstrom.
• In addition, he said he never
' tried to embrace Lindstrom
I “bear hug style,” but only
from the side, in a manner
similar to how he would put
his arm around the shoulders
; of a male firefighter.
Lindstrom, however, said
the punishment meted out to
' Adams should have been more
severe, and that he should at
least have been “demoted
from lieutenant.”
’ “They said there was a
zero-tolerance policy,” she
said while being questioned
by the county’s attorney,
Angela Davis. “To me, (the
suspension] sent the wrong
message.”
Anderson said he wanted
to fire Adams, but the director
of human resources for
Forsyth County, Pat Carson,
who also investigated the sex
ual harassment complaint,
argued in favor of a lesser
punishment.
In her testimony Thursday,
Carson said she based the pun
ishment on standardized labor
practices in Forsyth County
government and Adams’ prior
history.
“This was the first instance
of sexual harassment against
Lt. Adams in the county, that I
know of,” she said.
The testimony of the sec
ond firefighter who spoke
against Adams yielded more
questions than answers.
Anderson said he learned
of the other female firefighter
who may have experienced
harassment from Adams dur
ing his investigation of
Lindstrom’s complaints.
This second female fire
fighter also never filed a for
mal harassment complaint but
she was called into the investi
gation when Anderson heard
from others about Adams’
alleged behavior toward her.
Andrea Brown testified
that Adams got “touchy feely”
while .attempting to dance
with her at a Halloween party
in 2001.
Adams asked her out more
than a dozen times in 2001,
she said. She declined, and
when he persisted, she told
him that she didn't like to date
co-workers.
But, in January of 2002,
she met a volunteer firefighter
and began dating him, she
said.
At that point, “a lot of ani
mosity and problems started”
between herself and Adams,
she said.
Brown testified that on one
occasion. Division Chief
Danny Bowman reprimanded
her for not helping to clean in
a fire station. Brown said she,
in fact, had been cleaning, just
not in the same area that most
of the other firefighters were.
She said she thought Adams
told Bowman that she wasn’t
working. Bowman later apolo
gized, she said, when he found
out that she had been con
tributing.
But, in testimony by tele
phone at the end of the hear
ing, Bowman directly contra
dicted Brown’s statements. He
said he never spoke to her a
second time, never remem
bered her actually cleaning
and especially never said he
had been sorry.
THE FORSYTH COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF
ENGINEERING TO HOLD PUBLIC
INFORMATION MEETING FOR
MODERN ROUNDABOUT
Date: Monday, November 18th
Time: 6:00 P.M.
Where: Mashburn Elementary School Cafeteria
The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the ..
proposed construction of a Modem A
Roundabout on Buford Dam Road at the
intersection of Samples Road/ ■ vW
Lanier Beach South Road. J&\
For more info on the Modem Roundabout, jHV
please go to:
www.engr.orstedu/~tae|crtha/round.htmi I w
66
Sounds to me
like the fox is
checking the
hens for mites.
- Terry Smith
99
“That is a false statement,”
he said. “I never apologized
for taking those actions.”
A question of timing
For his part, Adams testi
fied that the harassment alle
gations and subsequent disci
plinary action came weeks
after he approached county
officials with several serious
concerns about firefighter
safety and personnel practices
in his department.
He said he believes his role
in bringing about Chief Norris
Bennett’s June 24-26 suspen
sion for inappropriate hiring
practices subsequently led to
the sexual harassment charges.
In May, Adams and anoth
er lieutenant in the fire depart
ment, Brian Gary, took a list
of grievances to Forsyth
County Commissioner A.J.
Pritchett.
He said Pritchett, a volun
teer firefighter, referred them
to Commissioner Marcie
Kreager, who, in turn,
arranged for the firefighters to
meet privately with County
Administrator Stevie Mills.
Adams said he and Gary
had been assured that the
meeting would be completely
confidential because their
complaints implicated high
ranking officials within the
department, including
Bennett.
At the meeting, Adams
said, the two lieutenants pre
sented Mills with three pages
of grievances.
“We couldn’t take it any
more,” Adams said.
Adams testified that they
told Mills that Bennett has
never done anything to replace
more than 70 faulty seals that
are part of the firefighters’
protective face pieces. He said
they also reported that four
firefighters have been burned
on their knees because the
department doesn’t provide
adequate protective equip
ment. And he said they com
plained that the fire chief per
mitted corrupt hiring practices
that allowed less-qualified
candidates to be hired over
better-qualified recruits.
In addition, Adams said
Bennett broke department
rules by authorizing firefight
ers to take used tires from one
fire truck'and put them on
another one. He said the chief
lied to Mills about the tires.
After he provided docu
ments to Mills attesting to the
hiring problems and tire
switching, Adams said,
Bennett received the three-day
suspension.
At some point, Adams
said, information about the
meeting was leaked.
Adams said he still is
unsure how it came out, but
several ranking firefighters
subsequently began talking
about the two whistleblowers.
The sexual harassment
investigation began on June
25, while the fire chief was on
suspension. A separate inquiry
into Adams’ allegation of retri
bution by Bennett took place
at the same time.
Complicating matters even
further was the fact that
Anderson was one of the peo
ple also investigating the retri
bution complaint. At that time,
Bennett was Anderson’s
supervisor.
“Sounds to me like the fox
is checking the hens for
mites,” said the Civil Service
Board chairman.
None of the parties
involved in the complaint
against Adams ever found out
who told Lt. Head to report his
alleged sexual harassment to
the internal affairs investiga
tor.
That omission in the inves
tigation greatly concerned the
board.
While questioning Carson,
Smith asked, “If Lt. Head had
told you he was ordered by
Chief Bennett, would that
have been of any conse
quence?”
Carson said she was told
by Mills and Assistant County
Administrator Dane Perry not
to compel Head to say who
told him about the harassment
because they were concerned
about low morale in the fire
department and “compelling
individuals to talk would be
very demoralizing” and “drive
morale down deeper.”
The board asked Adams
why he appealed his suspen
sion.
“I didn’t do anything,” he,
said. “And I can’t see taking
punishment for something I
didn’t do.”
In an interview Friday,
Mills said his May meeting
with the two concerned fire
fighters was part of the reason
for Bennett’s suspension a
month later. He declined to
comment further.
Mills also said that he did
not break his promise of confi
dentiality to the pair.
“I didn’t disclose it,” he
said. “I gave him my word.”
He said he could not
remember what he had told
Carson concerning whether to
force Head to disclose who
had told him to go to the inter
nal affairs investigator about
Adams.
“I don’t recall,” Mills said.
“There were a lot of discus
sions back then about issues in
the fire department, but I don’t
recall specifically.”
Bennett was not available
for comment Friday.
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'______
Residents comment on Forsyth’s
Community Greenspace Program
By Todd Truelove
Staff Writer
About 20 people attended a
public hearing Thursday night
to comment on an update of
the Forsyth County
Community Greenspace
Program.
Residents made comments
ranging from the need to pro
vide passive parks with horse
trails to how developers could
be influenced to donate land to
Forsyth County that could be
permanently protected under
the greenspace program.
Since the program’s incep
tion in 2000, Forsyth has
received more than $1.7 mil
lion from the state to pur
chase greenspace.
County Parks and
Recreation Manager Jim
Brennan, who is also the
greenspace coordinator, said
the state money will be used in
upcoming months to purchase
two tracts totaling 102 acres
on Sawnee Mountain ridge.
“Our main focus in the
greenspace program has been
the Sawnee Mountain ridge,”
Brennan said.
Robert Betz, the contractor
who developed the county’s
2000 greenspace plan and is
working on the update, said
the Georgia Department of
Natural Resources wants to
see counties working toward
protecting from development
at least 20 percent of their
total acreage.
He said Forsyth County,
through stream buffers and
measures taken by the U.S.
MHHMjMI Crescent w
Army Corps of Engineers,
currently has a little more than
7.5 percent of its total geo
graphic area protected.
Prescott Eaton, who lives
near Samples Road, asked
about the possibility of using
the greenspace program to
acquire small tracts of land.
Brennan responded that,
while it is an option, the pro
gram is reviewed by the state
every three years and could
eventually be suspended.
“If we can buy land for
$15,000 or $17,000 an acre,
let’s grab up as much as we
can and spend this money
because a year or two down
the road, the state legislature
may say we’re going to have
to disband the greenspace pro
gram because of lack of fund
ing,” Brennan said.
Another member of the
audience questioned if the
program, by attempting to take
20 percent of the county from
development, would cause
more suburban sprawl.
Betz answered that conser
vation subdivisions could be a
possible solution, adding that
such subdivisions are being
conceptualized in the county
planning and development
department. Two near the
Etowah River recently were
approved by the Forsyth
County Board of Supervisors.
Amy Findley said she
wants to see equestrian trails
on the Sawnee Mountain ridge
and was told to bring up that
idea when plans for Sawnee
Mountain are developed.
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Horsing
around
Fall is in
the air as
horses
graze in
their pas
ture off
Pilgrim Mill
Road.
Photo/
Johnthan
Phillips
tioned if anything could be
done to preserve the area sur
rounding the Etowah River.
Betz said there is a protec
tive buffer around the river
and that Forsyth County has
planned for the river to be a
future greenway.
“When we developed a
recreation master plan a cou
ple of years ago, we singled
out the Etowah River as being
a future greenway,” he said,
adding the City of Canton in
Cherokee County is in the
process of developing a green
way along the river.
“The vision is that it will
continue all the way up
through Forsyth,” Betz said.
But DuMont wanted to
know how developers could be
encouraged to protect the
environment around the river.
Charles Laughinghouse,
who will begin serving on the
Forsyth County Board of
Commissioners next year, sug
gested the possibility of allow
ing developers to build at
higher densities in exchange
for donating to the county
large areas of open space adja
cent to their developments.
A developer could pur
chase 200 acres, for example,
and deed 100 acres to the
county as open space to allow
the original landowner to con
tinue farming and to maintain
the agricultural nature of the
area. Laughinghouse said.
“What you have to give up
is you have to give them
additional density on this 100
acres he wants to develop,” he
said.