Clayton County Sheriff Argues He Was Allowed to Fire 27 Employees

By GREG BLUESTEIN Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA (AP) -- A few hours after the new sheriff came to town, he gathered 27 of his employees into a jail holding area where he collected their badges, picked up their weapons and promptly fired them.

Then Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill ordered that each be escorted out of the building, where their hasty departure was tracked by snipers perched on the roof.

On Monday in the Georgia Supreme Court, lawyers clashed over whether Hill had the right to fire employees at his will or whether they were protected by the county's civil service system.

The court's ruling promises to shake up the way public employees are hired throughout the state. But the decision could also polarize residents in the burgeoning south Atlanta county, which is home to a growing black population that is gradually unseating members of the white establishment.

The fired employees -- many of them white -- say they were let go because of their race, age or their support of the white sheriff Hill unseated. But Hill said he inherited a dysfunctional office that was millions of dollars over budget.

"Ultimately, the argument is whether a sheriff has to be stuck with his predecessor's administration or his own," Hill said. Hill's lawyers hope to convince the state's highest court to overturn a lower court's ruling that the sheriff had no right to fire the employees.

Lawyers representing the plaintiffs sided with a lower court's ruling that the employees were protected under the county's civil service system.

"For forty years, people understood that people in the sheriff's office were civil service employees," said attorney Harlan Miller. "Sheriff Hill didn't care. He wanted to show he could fire anybody."

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