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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. And Teddy DuMont ques- FREE heater! Save sss on a " IFH pool before 2003 *17,995 Al Low As Mirage Pools, Atlanta’s #1 pool builder In cus tomer referrals, is offering an aggressive discount for those who purchase a gunite pool before our price increase on 1/03. 50 years of combined experience. Financing ax Call for a free in-home visit 770-886-1304 spools www.miragecustompools.com \ 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.