A former city of Fulton employee whose position was eliminated after Mayor LeRoy Benton announced plans to scale back enforcement of downtown parking said she has filed a discrimination complaint with the state Commission on Human Rights.
Toni Michelle, who until last week served as Fulton's parking enforcement officer, said losing her job is a direct consequence of the city's unwillingness to accommodate her health restrictions - Michelle has Multiple Sclerosis.
According to Michelle, the city denied several "reasonable requests" to change her work schedule from five eight-hour days a week to four 10-hour days. She said that after verbal and then written requests from her doctor, the city finally conceded she cut her work week to four days, but she could only work eight hours on those days, dropping her from 40 hours per week to 32.
Michelle said the reason she was given for the dictated working hours was because meter enforcement was effective from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, "even though they repeatedly pulled me off that job to work the desk answering phones, and didn't have anyone else do it while I was at the desk."
During a recent council meeting, Benton cited complaints from the community as the reason for no longer actively enforcing the three-hour parking limits in downtown parking zones - the ordinance will now be enforced by the police department based on complaints - thus the elimination of Michelle's job.
Michelle has a different viewpoint.
"They eliminated the position because they couldn't force me to quit. Because I filed paperwork on Aug. 25 that I had some minor injuries on the job that I wasn't seeking treatment for, and on the 26th at the council meeting the mayor announced he wanted to eliminate my job," Michelle said. "They didn't tell me until two days later when a private citizen told me - I had to call the city and find out if it was true and they said the didn't know what they were going to do.
"The chief received my investigation notice and two hours later I was informed my position had been eliminated."
Michelle said she filed the discrimination complaint with the Department of Labor's Commission on Human Rights "because they refuse to accommodate reasonable requests in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act."
"I could do the job with reasonable accommodations," Michelle said.
Benton said he could not comment on the discrimination complaint.
"We'll have to let that process go through and do what it's supposed to do," he said.
He repeated that the reasoning behind the decision on the parking ordinance enforcement was based solely on constant negative feedback from area residents.
"I'd had enough, and it was obvious we weren't encouraging folks to come downtown to the business district - it was becoming a deterrent," Benton said.
Director of Administration Bill Johnson echoed Benton's assessment, adding that the concept of three-hour zone parking "has been a disaster since its implementation."
"It was so difficult to communicate (to residents) what zone parking was," Johnson said. "People didn't feel they deserved tickets."
Johnson also said the city did not have a comment on Michelle's complaint.
Both Johnson and Benton said the complaint-driven enforcement of the parking ordinance will be re-evaluated at a later date.
The Department of Labor could not confirm nor deny whether a complaint was filed against the city of Fulton or if there was an open investigation.