Atlanta-Fulton PL Settles Discrimination Suit for $18M

-- Library Journal, 1/8/2004

Fulton County, GA has agreed to settle the reverse discrimination lawsuit won by eight white librarians at the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System for $18 million, the value of the verdict plus attorney's fees. Previously, the county had offered to settle for $12 million, with the provision that the five plaintiffs still employed resign. In the final settlement, the resignations were not required. Fulton County officials said they decided to settle after the plaintiffs agreed to take payment over three years-thus reducing the burden on the county budget-and after county lawyers said it was unlikely that the U.S. Supreme Court would hear an appeal, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The named defendants in the suit include three board members, two of whom no longer serve, and board member William McClure and library Director Mary Kaye Hooker. They have not commented on the lawsuit recently nor on whether they intend to keep their positions. Before the settlement, board Chair Annette Steed said, "The board, on its own timetable, will speak in its own voice." Hooker, according to a library staffer, abruptly cancelled a monthly managers' meeting scheduled for today. During the meeting, she was slated to give plaintiff Maureen Kelly her 10-year service certificate.