County E911 Board Still Faces Two Lawsuits

There is slow progress on two federal lawsuits against a Mississippi E911 board for sex, age and race discrimination filed by former employees of the center. Columbus-Lowndes County E-911 Telecommunications is operated by the two counties to provide emergency communications, and is governed by a seven-member board that is the subject of both lawsuits. Former dispatcher Julia Burgin was fired in Jan. 2009, allegedly for comments she made during a phone call to a police officer that was responding to her home. Burgin’s son and a neighbor were having a dispute over a trash can during which the neighbor said the N-word—Burgin’s son is African-American. During the call, Burgin said in court documents that she told the officer, “(the neighbor) should be thankful that he was not speaking to my oldest son, because he would not have let Mr. Kidder speak to him in such a manner.” Burgin was fired a week later. Jessie Colvin was the first African-American and female director of the center when issues of staffing shortages and non-compliance with state-required training came up. During a meeting with the board about the issues, Colvin explained she had been called up to the Army Reserve for one year and was totally absent for that period. Days after the meeting, she was asked to resign, and when she refused, she was fired. She claims her termination was for sex, age and race discrimination. In her lawsuit she provided several examples of the E911 board’s prejudices, including board member statements that “males make better managers than females,” and that the position was temporarily filled by a white male who was “the subject of a sexual harassment lawsuit,” and finally by “a white male with no prior experience.” Both lawsuits were filed in 2009 and are still unresolved. Download (pdf) the Burgin lawsuit summary, and the Colvin lawsuit, including complete depositions. Update: In Dec. 2010 a federal jury found for the defendants, ruling Burgin had not been fired because of her race, but rather for job performance.