Bill Simonds and the EEOC

My View by Jim Yacavone

Bill Simonds may be the best argument for Fannin County changing to a county manager form of government. Having a county manager would help ensure there is a least one trained, professional government administrator involved in county decision-making. The latest revelations of the county’s recent age discrimination settlement is but one example that illustrates my point.


The story is that soon after Simonds was elected chairman of the county commission he fired four county employees who were over 50 years old. Sources say that he replaced them with younger workers. Any knowledgeable government administrator would know that’s a prima facie case of age discrimination under federal law. A prima facie case is a lawyer’s fancy way of saying the case is established unless the defendant can prove otherwise.

Not surprisingly, the fired employees brought an EEOC claim for age discrimination against the county. As we recently learned, the county’s insurer decided to settle the claims rather than defend them in court. The total amount of the settlement is a staggering $660,000 representing back wages, compensatory damages and attorney’s fees.

One local paper ran a headline that said that the county was found “not guilty” in the case. That’s extremely misleading and could cause Fannin residents to believe Simonds did not discriminate against these employees.

As someone who defended cities in cases like these, I can tell you based on the amount of the settlements that the county’s insurer paid just about full value to avoid taking these cases to trial. This wasn’t a settlement; this was a full-blown capitulation. The only reason an insurance company pays that much to settle cases like these is because it knows its insured’s actions were so blatant and egregious that a jury would likely award a greater amount in damages if the case were tried.

Simonds and this other paper would have you believe these settlements do not impact the county financially because the county’s insurer is reimbursing the county for the money the county paid to settle these cases. What they are not telling you is that the county’s insurance premium is probably going to be bigger in the future because of these settlements.

Every year or two an insurance company looks at its insured’s loss ratio. Loss ratio is a measure of how much the company had to pay in claims against the insured. Insureds with high loss ratios pay more in premium than insureds with low loss ratios. Well managed local government who do not make bonehead employment decisions tend to have lower loss ratios.

Simonds’ actions raise a lot of questions. What was he thinking when he fired the four employees and replaced them with younger workers? Was he thinking at all? Does he know anything about age discrimination claims? Did he ever think to consult with the county attorney or an employment lawyer before firing the employees?

To add insult to injury, we also learned that Simonds signed checks in excess of his spending authority to pay the county’s share of the settlement without receiving commission approval as he is required to do. Maybe he thought no one would notice.

Simonds seems to have a lot of problem with his spending limit. As Commissioner Sosebee pointed out, this is not the first time Simonds has issued checks in excess of his spending limit. Clearly they don’t trust him because they just changed the rules so that one of them has to cosign checks over the chairman’s spending limit.

Someone recently described Simonds' tenure as commission chairman as an accident waiting to happen. That’s food for thought for Fannin County residents.

That’s my view. What’s yours?