Commissioners agree to meet with former county clerk about termination

Commissioners agreed to meet with Fortson at 5 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 22, an hour and a half before their final regular business meeting of the year.

The board also issued an “amended notice of proposed termination of employment” to Fortson, which contains several additional charges.

These additional charges include:

Under “continued accounting errors,” the board states that in addition to “cutting checks to employees that were in error, requiring cancellation of issued checks and correction of payroll accounting errors,” that Fortson also “failed to remit payroll tax payments to the federal and state governments in a timely manner, exposing the county to punitive and remedial action, including possible monetary fines,” and that he “incorrectly reported inconsistent gross millage rates for the year 2007 for the incorporated and unincorporated areas of the county.”

What corrective action this will necessitate for 2007 is unknown at this time; it is known that for 2008, making the rates consistent as required by law, without undertaking the process of increasing millage, will result in a loss of expected revenue.”

Fortson will now have three days to respond in writing to these new charges, county attorney Mike Pruett said.

Burton “Chip” Chandler took the podium during the discussion and told commissioners he wanted to thank Fortson, Chairman Wesley Nash and District 4 commissioner Wes Jordan for their service to the county.

“I know a lot of people didn’t like Morris, but he got blamed for both running the county and not running the county,” Chandler stated.