Dougherty County legal fees to fight lawsuit filed by former county administrator top $200,000

ALBANY – In a little less than a year, Dougherty County has accrued more than $200,000 in legal fees related to contesting a lawsuit filed by its former county administrator, who was fired in 2023.

Those fees include the costs of a judge, attorney and court reporter hired for a June 27, 2023, personnel hearing requested by Michael McCoy, who was terminated by the Dougherty County Commission in a series of 4-3 votes during the spring and summer of 2023.

Other attorney billing is related to a lawsuit filed by McCoy, including responding to the lawsuit and the filing of a counteraction.

In response to a Georgia Open Records Law request from The Albany Herald, the county provided, through its attorneys, invoices from two law firms. Those firms are Page, Scrantom, Sprouse, Tucker & Ford of Columbus and the firm of Johnson & Freeman, based in Atlanta.

The invoices submitted by Page, Scrantom, Sprouse, Tucker & Ford total $206,285. That figure includes Johnson & Freeman’s invoices, which the firm bills to Page, Scrantom, Sprouse, Tucker & Ford, which subsequently pays those costs and bills them to the county.

The $206,285 figure includes attorneys’ fees totaling $196,530 and other expenses of $9,755.

“A motion to dismiss is pending, as is a counterclaim to nullify the employment agreement and obtain attorneys’ fees for the legally frivolous claims asserted in his most recent lawsuit,” Carter P. Schondelmayer, a partner with Page, Scrantom, Sprouse, Tucker & Ford wrote in the response. “Mr. McCoy’s strategy in pursuing multiple litigation matters with claims that are not legally viable and duplicative is costly. Therefore, all of the county defendants are seeking reimbursement of their attorneys’ fees and expenses for the defense of those deficient claims.”

In her response to the the newspaper's records request, Schondelmayer explained that the fees and expenses covered four claims made by McCoy against the county. Those are:

— The June 2023 employee hearing;

— A petition for review appealing termination with Dougherty County Superior Court;

— A pending Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charge;

— The lawsuit filed in February in Dougherty County Superior Court.

The Commission voted on May 22, 2023, to terminate McCoy with a majority made up of Commissioners Victor Edwards, Gloria Gaines and Clinton Johnson and Commission Chairman Lorenzo Heard.

However, after there were questions about the legality of that vote, as the issue was not on the commission agenda for that day, McCoy was reinstated on a subsequent vote two weeks later, with another vote taken immediately to again terminate his contract. That motion was approved by the same four in December 2023 and extended through December 2024.

A third vote was taken on June 27, 2023, at the conclusion of a personnel hearing requested by McCoy, with that vote confirming the earlier votes with the same 4-3 majority. Commissioners Russell Gray, Anthony Jones and Ed Newsome were in the minority in all of the votes taken to terminate McCoy.

In the February 2024 lawsuit, McCoy is seeking $5 million in punitive damages, reinstatement to his job and other compensation in Dougherty County Superior Court.

The fees associated with the case are not at an alarming amount at this point, Edwards told The Herald.

“I don’t think that’s an outrageous cost,” he said. “That’s an acceptable amount. If somebody sues you and they want $5 million, that amount is a long way from $5 million. I think we’re being expedient with taxpayers’ money (by) not paying that $5 million.

“That ($200,000) is a drop in the bucket compared to $5 million.”

According to McCoy’s attorney, Albany lawyer Maurice King, the terms of the former administrator’s contract called for the county to pay him about $430,000. His annual salary for $2023 was $170,000.

Under the county’s charter, the administrator’s position is one that is reappointed on an annual basis.

Edwards, who along with Gaines and Johnson voted in opposition to the one-year extension of McCoy’s contract for 2023 in December 2022, said that the contract was changed from the previous year.

The terms of the 2023 contract included greater compensation in the event of termination of the contract than was the case in previous years, Edwards said.

“How did that happen?” he said. “How did you get that to $400,000? The question would be who changed that. If it wasn’t like that in 2021, 2022, who changed (the) contract?”

The majority’s position in the case reflected the four commissioners’ desire to move the county in a new direction, Edwards said, and something that should be defended.

“I think you have to fight for what is right,” he said. “You have to fight for what is right is where I’m at. I think we made a very appropriate decision in taking the county in another direction.”

So far, the only part of the contract the county has partially fulfilled is paying the former administrator for his unused vacation days, McCoy’s attorney said, although that payment did not completely meet the terms of the contract.

The lawsuit is still in the early stages, so the $200,000 figure for attorney costs will only grow, King said. The county could have avoided a lawsuit by meeting the terms of the contract.

“You’ve got to understand this case is just starting,” he said. “It’s $200,000, and we haven’t done one deposition. We haven’t had one hearing. If we had to try this case for a week, based on what you see now, what do you think the bills will be to the citizens of Dougherty County?

“They could have just got out of this by paying out McCoy’s contract. So the taxpayers are going to end up paying a lot more in attorney fees than that.”

The attorney also dismissed the countersuit filed by the team representing the four commissioners named in his February lawsuit.

“(It’s) frivolous,” he said. “I think what is was supposed to do is scare Mr. McCoy, but I don’t see it as a real countersuit. That was basically to intimidate Mr. McCoy. That was the purpose of that.”