A former Bibb County official has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that Mayor Robert Reichert failed to promote him due to racial discrimination.
Reichert declined comment, saying he can't comment on a pending lawsuit.
But he suggested 13WMAZ look up Charles Coney's record as city manager in Hampton -- where, according to published reports, he was recently fired after just seven months on the job.
Coney filed his lawsuit against Reichert and Bibb County on Oct. 28 in U.S. District Court in Albany.
It says he worked for Bibb County from 2013 through early 2018, rising to the post of assistant county manager.
Coney's lawsuit claims he had a "stellar work history and record."
When the county manager's job opened up last year, the suit says, he applied to fill the job.
But Coney, who is black, say he was never interviewed for the job.
After two white men turned down the job, the lawsuit says, Reichert named Coney co-interim county manager.
Coney says he and others complained to the county about him not being considered for the job.
He claims that's when Reichert picked Keith Moffett as county manager. Moffett is also black.
The lawsuit says Reichert had previously told Moffett that he would not be picked.
Coney filed a complaint in May with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claiming that Moffett was picked "to retaliate against me for claiming of discrimination and to mask the discrimination against me."
But the federal agency dismissed his complaint in July, saying that they could not prove discrimination in the case.
Coney's lawsuit asks a jury to award him damages in the case and to make him county manager or COO or some comparable position.
According to court records, Reichert and Bibb County were served summons in the case Nov. 20.
Coney was hired as Hampton's city manager in April.
But the Henry Herald newspaper reported that the Hampton city council fired Coney on Nov. 13 by a 4-3 vote. City council members said that Coney had failed to submit a city budget in time and had problems interacting with both the public and other city officials, the newspaper reported.
Coney's lawyer, Maurice Luther King Jr. of Albany, told the newspaper that they intended to sue the city of Hampton if he was fired. Apparently, he has not.
