Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 11, 1993 TAG: 9311110220
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
During two days of testimony in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, former Chief Deputy Clerk Marsha Conner maintained she was let go because of her political ties to former Clerk Elizabeth Stokes. McGraw defeated Stokes in a 1991 election.
Judge Jackson Kiser delayed a ruling, which some say could have an impact on hiring decisions by newly elected constitutional officers.
"It think it could have some far-reaching implications," said McGraw, who insisted that politics had nothing to do with his decision.
Conner testified that McGraw told her "it's just one of those political things" the day he fired her, shortly after the election.
McGraw said he fired Conner for two reasons: concern with her management style as Stokes' top aide, and bookkeeping questions raised by an audit of the clerk's office before he took over.
But by raising the specter of politics, he said, the case could limit the discretion of elected officials to make changes that both they and the voters feel are needed.
"My whole campaign theme was that it was time for a change," McGraw said.
"If it is time for a change, a constitutional officer should have the right to make some changes. If not, why would the electorate be asked to put someone else in office?"
Similar lawsuits are pending against Roanoke County Sheriff Gerald Holt. Two sheriff's deputies who worked for Mike Kavanaugh, a Republican, are claiming that Holt, a Democrat, fired them for political reasons shortly after he ousted Kavanaugh in the 1991 election.
While politics is an accepted reason for hiring and firing in some positions - top aides to statewide elected officeholders, for example - state and federal courts have differed on the issue for constitutional officers.
"The law in this area is extremely murky," said Fain Rutherford, a Roanoke lawyer who represents McGraw.
"So any opinion is of note, so at least we'll have Judge Kiser's views."
In an earlier decision, Kiser ruled that the chief deputy clerk's position is not one in which politics can be used to justify an employment decision. The case will thus turn on whether or not politics was involved in McGraw's decision.
In her testimony, Conner said she supported Stokes' campaign, writing a supportive letter to the editor and putting up posters on Election Day.
After McGraw, a Democrat, narrowly defeated Republican Stokes, he began to meet with employees of the clerk's office to plan his transition.
Conner testified that McGraw asked her questions about problems uncovered by an audit of the clerk's office. She said she had no knowledge of most of the irregularities, which included undocumented income from marriage ceremonies and from keeping the record room open after hours for attorneys.
But in relieving her of a job she had held since 1986, McGraw told her "it has nothing to do with your job performance," Conner testified.
McGraw, however, said the audit was just one thing that raised questions about Conner's job performance. He testified that he was also concerned by statements she made during an interview about her subordinates in the clerk's office.
In explaining why she was late to an interview, Conner made a comment about how she had been "settling the hens in the henhouse," McGraw testified.
McGraw said Conner told him many of the workers in the clerk's office were "not adult women" and sometimes acted like 15-year-olds.
The comments reflected a "dictatorial" approach to running the clerk's office that McGraw said he had decided to change upon taking office.
Conner, who has since found work as a clerk in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Roanoke, is seeking at least $28,000 in back pay and other damages.
Stokes testified that Conner was reluctant to look for work after being fired, so she helped find the position in Bankruptcy Court and even drove Conner to her job interview.
"She was so humiliated and felt so badly," Stokes testified. "She could not believe she had been fired for no reason whatsoever."
by CNB