BOC officially fires Fortson

Fortson has not been on the job since Nov. 18, when he was suspended with pay, pending his permanent termination, effective Jan. 6.

On Monday, the board agreed to stand by last month’s decision, voting 4-0 — Wesley Jordan was not at the meeting — to terminate Fortson’s services as county clerk. That dismissal will still take effect Jan. 6.

Fortson didn’t speak up at the meeting, nor did any of the commissioners. Instead, Fortson’s attorney, Joyce Kitchens, did all of the talking.

The attorney noted that Fortson has worked for the county for 24 years, 11 as county clerk. She said that he has proven himself as a dependable county employee, that he took a pay cut to take the job of county clerk and that he is dedicated to helping the citizens of Madison County. She said that when the BOC office was short-staffed, he did the work of three people.

“You know what kind of man he is,” Kitchens told the commissioners. “You know his character. You know if he works hard. You know those things about him.”

Kitchens urged the board to consider Fortson’s length of service, work performance, loyalty, work ethic and results above any errors he may have made.

“I’m not going to pretend he didn’t make mistakes, but I am going to tell you that everyone does,” said Kitchens.

Kitchens asked for clarification on whether Fortson’s supervision of Melinda Spence, who has been charged with stealing over $80,000 from the BOC office, is included as a reason for his dismissal. As deputy clerk, Spence worked directly under Fortson. County attorney Mike Pruett said that he didn’t want to dissuade Kitchens from addressing any issues.

And the attorney did speak about Fortson’s relationship with Spence.

“I’m going to talk about the elephant in the room,” said Kitchens, referring to Spence. “… The problem with being an honest person and trusting people is that every now and then, that trust gets abused.”

Kitchens said that it’s quite common for people to look for a scapegoat in such instances, but she said Spence, not Fortson, is to blame in the theft, and that Fortson shouldn’t be “thrown to the wolves” for the misdeeds of another county employee.

“You have a person (Spence) who allegedly took county funds over a period of time in such a way that it was very clever and very hard to detect,” said Kitchens. “Nobody regrets that more than Mr. Fortson.”

She said that some people are very proficient at stealing and covering their tracks.

“It’s subtle, they’re good at it,” said Kitchens of some people who steal. “People trust them and like them.”

There has been considerable gossip by anonymous bloggers on newspaper websites about Fortson in relation to the government theft, but Kitchens noted that investigators found nothing to link him to the crime.

“None of it has been borne out by the GBI investigation,” said Kitchens to the BOC. “You have known him to be an honest man all these years. And he didn’t change yesterday.”

The attorney addressed each allegation spelled out in the BOC’s letter of termination to Fortson.

In one charge, the commissioners stated that Fortson mishandled an unemployment claim filed by Spence with the Department of Labor. Spence was awarded unemployment benefits by the DOL. Those benefits were later revoked by the DOL after the commissioners contested the claim. A DOL official stated in a letter to Fortson that the county’s human resource officer told a DOL representative that the county had no problem with Spence receiving unemployment benefits.

Fortson was handling human resources duties for the county at the time the claim was made, but he adamantly denies speaking in support of Spence to the DOL.

“Mr. Fortson denies saying that to any Department of Labor representative,” said Kitchens. “… You (the BOC) have to decide whether you believe him or someone you don’t know.”

Kitchens said the mixup could be the result of two DOL representatives working the case and failing to communicate their findings. She also suggested that Spence may have called the DOL and pretended to be a representative of the county’s human resources department.

“I think it’s very possible that this person would have called the Department of Labor and said I am a county representative and I have no objection to Mrs. Spence getting benefits,” said Kitchens.

In a separate matter, Fortson’s attorney responded to a charge that he made two, $500,000 budgeting errors. Kitchens said that former county employee Charlotte Kesler asked for a new line item in the county budget in 2004 for the Homeowners’ Tax Relief Grant and that “Mr. Fortson reluctantly agreed, because it wasn’t in the uniform chart of accounts.”

“In 2005, Mr. Fortson noticed that there was a shortfall and he set out trying to find why,” said Kitchens. “… He discovered that Ms. Kesler, when she made a conversion to a separate line item had put it (the grant) back in the line item, but she had not taken out the line item where it originally was. It was being counted twice. When he discovered that, he immediately restricted the county’s spending so the budget worked. And for the next year’s budget planning, he explained to you what happened and what the problem was.”

In another charge, the BOC stated that Fortson failed to implement recommendations of county auditors. Kitchens said this allegation lacks specificity and that Fortson implemented the changes as adequately as possible, given the limited staff he had.

The BOC also said Fortson committed errors in accounting, including running a payroll and cutting checks to employees “that were in error, requiring cancellation of issued checks, issuance of corrected checks, and correction of payroll accounting entries.”

Kitchens said that the computer program used for payroll printed checks for the Oct. 31 pay period on direct deposits for county employees, instead of the Nov. 16 pay period.

“Mr. Fortson was suspended before he could figure out what happened,” she said, noting that Fortson had come in to the office on Veteran’s Day to handle payroll and adding that this was an example of “no good deed going unpunished.”

The BOC said Fortson failed to remit payroll taxes in a timely manner. Kitchens noted that the human resources officer was in charge of handling these taxes and that the officer must have a password from the Internal Revenue Service to perform the task. She said that it takes 30 to 60 days to get the password and that Fortson was delayed in remitting the payroll taxes because he didn’t have a password from the IRS. She said the county attorney was able to get penalties for the delay dropped and that there was really no way Fortson could have been expected to handle the taxes in a timely manner given the password problem.

In another charge, the BOC contended that Fortson failed to keep the board informed on significant issues, such as Spence’s unemployment claim and the BOC theft case. They said Fortson instructed employees not to disclose the theft to the board.

Kitchens said Fortson did not attempt to hide the issue of the missing funds from the commissioners and that Fortson was instructed by county attorney Pruett not to speak on the matter until it could be investigated.

“You always want to keep a lid on investigations, loose lips sink ships,” said Kitchens.

Early in the conference, Kitchens asked for clarification on who ultimately has authority over the clerk’s position, the BOC or the chairman.
“Who is the clerk’s boss?” she asked.

Pruett said that Monday’s meeting with the BOC was not a question and answer session, but a chance for Fortson to respond to the issues spelled out in the letter of termination.