Clay Jones voted out as Board Chairman of Sumter County BOC

Published 5:40 pm Tuesday, December 29, 2020

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From Staff Reports

 

 

AMERICUS – The Sumter County Board of Commissioners (BOC) held a Called Meeting on Monday evening, December 28, to discuss issues involving personnel. However, it turns out that the BOC made a very big personnel decision at this Called Meeting and voted unanimously to remove Board Chairman Clay Jones from his position as Chairman, though he will still will remain a member of the BOC.

Commissioner Mark Waddell will fill in as Chairman for the remainder of the year until the BOC’s reorganizational meeting in 2021.

All of the other commissioners were present at the meeting, which was held virtually via Zoom, but Jones was not present. At one point of the meeting, Commissioner Waddell made a motion to move into Closed Session to discuss personnel and litigation issues and Commissioner Scott Roberson seconded the motion. The BOC voted unanimously to go into Closed Session and did so at 6 p.m. After a Closed Session that lasted two hours, the BOC came back into Open Session at 8 p.m. A motion to approve the minutes as read during the Closed Session by County Attorney Kimberly Reid was made by Commissioner Waddell and seconded by Commissioner Roberson. A vote was taken and the approval of the minutes passed unanimously. A motion was then made by Commissioner Roberson to remove Jones from his position as Chairman of the BOC until its next reorganizational meeting in 2021 due to an alleged Title VII violation on the part of Jones. Commissioner Thomas Jordan seconded the motion. The BOC voted and the motion to remove Jones from his position as Board Chairman passed unanimously.

According to information on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s website; www.eeoc.gov, Title VII is a provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. According to information gathered from the website; www.justia.com, under Title VII, an employer may not discriminate with regard to any term, condition or privilege of employment and it applies to employers in both the private and public sectors that employ 15 or more people. Title VII also applies to the federal government, employment agencies and labor organizations.

According to www.justia.com, under Title VII, no employee that is employed by a company covered by Title VII, or is applying to work for that company, can be denied employment or treated differently based on perceived racial, religious, national or sexual characteristics and no employee can be treated differently based on his or her association with someone who has one of these protected characteristics.

At the BOC’s Called Meeting, another motion was made by Commissioner Roberson that Jones be required to attend 16 hours of Title VII Human Resources training and for his certificate of completion to be turned in to the BOC sometime during the 2021 calendar year. Commissioner Jordan seconded the motion. The BOC voted and the motion passed unanimously.

With Jones now out as BOC Chairman, the floor was open for discussion as to who would take his place. Commissioner Roberson nominated Commissioner Waddell to serve as the BOC Chairman until the BOC’s reorganizational meeting in 2021. No other nominations for the position were made. The BOC voted unanimously to make Commissioner Waddell the Board Chairman until the BOC’s reorganizational meeting in 2021.