CORDELE, Ga. — A federal appeals court says evidence supports a former Cordele city manager's claim that he was fired two years ago because he's white.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals this week rejected a lower court that threw out Roland McCarthy's discrimination lawsuit against the city. They sent the case back to the Albany federal court for another look.
But the appeals court also said McCarthy can't sue city commission chairman Joshua Deriso as an individual.
The 11th-circuit ruling calls the case "a complaint about racial politics in a small town."
The question, judges wrote, is whether the facts support McCarthy's argument that he was fired by a majority-black commission because he's white.
"The lower court said no and dismissed his complaint," the ruling says. "We disagree."
Roland McCarthy served as Finance Director for the City of Cordele from 2017-2021, until the City Commission “unanimously promoted McCarthy” as City Manager.
Seven months into McCarthy's new role, Joshua Deriso began his campaign for chairman of the city commission.
McCarthy's appeal document says during his campaign Deriso made several remarks about his goals to make the City Commission, “an entirely African American Commission” and to “replace Caucasian employees with African Americans.”
On Facebook, he wrote that if elected he planned to replace McCarthy as City Manager with a person of color, preferably a woman, the appeal alleges.
Other posts from Deriso included statements such as, (the) “new City Manager should be Black,” and “Cordele’s heads of Departments are not diverse at all! Structure needs to change . . . More Blacks!!!” the document said.
It also alleges on Facebook Live, Deriso promised to make all department heads Black, replacing White predecessors if necessary.
Deriso was elected chairman of the commission in Nov. 2021.
In December, before Deriso took the oath of office, the outgoing commissioners voted to renew McCarthy’s employment as City Manager for another year.
McCarthy’s renewed contract stated, that if he was fired during his term, he would “be entitled to all compensation including salary, accrued vacation, and sick leave” through the end of 2022.
On January 4, 2022, after new commissioners were sworn in, McCarthy was fired as city manager and replaced by Angela Henderson Redding—a Black woman.
Deriso did not participate in the vote. Since he was Chair of the commission Deriso would only vote as a tiebreaker, however, three of four commissioners voted for McCarthy's termination.
The three who voted to oust McCarthy are Black. The one commissioner who voted to keep McCarthy is White.
Deriso and Commissioner Royce Reeves, one of the Black commissioners who voted to fire McCarthy, told McCarthy before the vote “they were replacing him with an African American candidate.”
McCarthy asked Deriso and Reeves whether he could at least return to his former position as City Finance Director. Deriso and Reeves told McCarthy “that would not be possible” because he does not “look like them,” according to a court document.
The City refused to pay McCarthy the rest of his contract's salary.
According to his appeal, McCarthy sued the City and Deriso in May 2022 for intentional race discrimination and breach of contract.
He argued both the City and Deriso, in both his individual and official capacity, violated federal laws prohibiting racial discrimination.
He also alleges the City violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits racial discrimination in employment.
Both the City and Deriso dismissed McCarthy’s complaint. The case was terminated in March 2023.
They argue McCarthy failed to state a claim of racial discrimination against the City because he did not have enough evidence that a “majority” of the five-member Commission voted to fire him as City Manager because of racial hostility.
They also argue McCarthy’s claims against Deriso in his official capacity were “impermissibly duplicative” of his claims against the City; and that qualified immunity barred McCarthy’s claims against Deriso in his individual capacity.
Although McCarthy claims Deriso “expressed an intent to replace him with a person of color,” Deriso did not actually vote for his termination.
The only racial hostility shown by a voting commissioner was Reeves’s statement about McCarthy was being replaced with a Black woman and could not return to his former position because he is not Black, the appeal says.
The district court ruled a single argument against Reeves was not enough to accuse the entire commission of acting with a discriminatory motive.
The district court declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over McCarthy’s claim for breach of contract.
McCarthy disagrees and continues to claim, that Deriso "led, directed and encouraged" the other commissioners to fire him even though he was "an exemplary employee."
He says they planned to fire him even before taking office.
The case is now being taken back to a lower court.