The Sordid Truth: Former Roswell Transportation Chief Quit Amid Harassment Scandal

publication date: Jul 7, 2008

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author/source: Tim Altork, Jonathan Copsey, John Breech, Jamie Woodhead and John Fredericks / STAFF

By Tim Altork, Jonathan Copsey, John Breech, Jamie Woodhead and John Fredericks / STAFF

Vasilios Andreou

The City of Roswell lost another transportation director, their sixth resignation in 12 years. Only this time the reasons behind the departure were not exactly what city executives wanted you to believe.

Vasilios Andreou’s official grounds for resigning his post as Roswell’s top transportation official was for “personal reasons.” There’s a lot of wiggle room behind that explanation and rightfully so. In his case the real reason was because he was a little too personal with one of his female subordinates.

Andreou left after an investigation was launched by City Administrator Kay Love and Director of Human Resources Diane Whitfield and ultimately handled by Roswell Police Lieutenant J.H. McGee.

McGee, called in by Love to assist with the investigation, found that Andreou had sexually harassed his administrative assistant, Kim Weber.

Weber reported persistent advances by Andreou, who is married, one of which led Andreou to kiss her at her home. Her attempts to rebuff his advances were apparently ignored until Weber reported the matter to her superiors, setting off a harried chain of events that culminated in a report obtained by the Beacon under the Freedom of Information Act.

The investigation began on June 5 and was completed on June 16. The findings couldn’t have been more conclusive. The next to last sentence in a memo from McGee to Love and Whitfield stated, “The investigation disclosed evidence to clearly prove the allegations made in the complaint” that Weber filed charging Andreou with sexual harassment, inappropriate conduct and creating a hostile work place.

Roswell police chief Ed Williams addressed the involvement of one of his troops in the investigation. “It’s normal protocol to send in an experienced individual to help the city.” Williams emphasized that it was not an RPD investigation as no charges were going to be filed by his department.

With the writing on the wall, Andreou had no choice. He tendered his resignation on June 10, six days prior to the report’s completion. It took effect immediately. The alternative was outright dismissal.

More Questions Than Answers
Many questions surrounding the investigation and resignation of Andreou remain unanswered.

How did this environment of harassment persist for nearly four months? Was a covert gag order placed on all concerned by Love? Was there a concerted effort by Love to try to shield both herself and the city from the embarrassment of a sordid sexual harassment case by her most high profile hire? Was Andreou properly vetted? Are Love’s hiring practices effective? Does this bring the city’s leadership into question? What impact will this have on the city’s burgeoning transportation woes? What is the city doing to replace him?

Councilwoman Lori Henry said, “We have entrusted Kay with all hiring and firing decisions. She has total authority. She is as autonomous as she is accountable. It’s her show.”

Henry added, “There is undoubtedly a huge negative impact on the city. We have transportation construction projects now sitting in limbo, and we have contractors who are chomping at the bit to get started. We are sitting, poised and waiting to move forward on many different fronts. No one has full authority right now to pull these projects together. We have a void in leadership in the department and it’s tough. We need to get these projects moving, not only for our roads but to help the local economy.”

Councilwoman Becky Wynn, transportation liaison, refused comment on the transportation situation.

Love Battens Down The Hatches
Neither Andreou nor Weber chose to comment for this story. (Weber’s refusal was based on the fact that she claimed to have signed a confidentiality agreement with the city regarding the situation.) And everyone involved in the investigation has either denied comment or been made unavailable to the media.

Love denied that a gag order ever existed, as did city communications director Julie Brechbill.

Kay Love

“I don’t know anything about a gag order,” Love said. “I know it’s certainly not appropriate to speak about personnel matters in the media. There really couldn’t have been a gag order or anything like that or else you wouldn’t have been able to get the information that you have from the open records act. All of that is a matter of public information. I just choose not to talk about it because I don’t think it’s appropriate.”

“I really don’t know where that came from,” Brechbill said. “That’s not the case. There was no gag order at the city. That is not the case at all.”

However, information was difficult to come by in the days following Andreou’s resignation and the conclusion of the investigation. Repeated attempts by this newspaper to get the full facts were repeatedly thwarted. It was only after an Open Records Request made by the Beacon for all emails between Love and Andreou that enough evidence was brought to light to confirm that an investigation was conducted. When first asked about the investigation the day following Andreou’s sudden departure, Brechbill questioned the validity of its very existence.

The truth of this case only came out after a stream of legal paperwork was filed by this newspaper to get at the facts.
 
Perdue Administration Comes Clean Quickly
Roswell is not unique in having to deal with a scandal of this sort. The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) recently settled a similar case of sexual harassment to the tune of almost $150,000.

Two secretaries brought very visible cases of sexual harassment against former GDOT vice chairman Garland Pinholster. Pinholster was accused of making several sexual remarks aimed at his accusers and another woman who did not file a suit, over several years. The women decided enough was enough when Pinholster invited them out for lunch and made several inappropriate remarks toward them.

While Pinholster tried to assert that the atmosphere of the office was one of banter and innuendo, other board members were not so sure, claiming there was no such thing.

The primary difference between the state case and Roswell’s case is the Perdue Administration was immediately forthcoming with the information, managing the flow of facts instead of bottling it up and forcing legal papers to be filed to obtain it.

Roswell Residents React
Former Roswell councilman and 2007 candidate for Council Steve Dorvee weighed in. “Why were the police brought in to investigate an internal human resources matter? It seems like this should have been handled much earlier in the process. I don’t believe there was a cover up. I do believe this has to be reviewed so these kinds of mistakes are not repeated. A lot of taxpayer dollars, quite a chunk of change, was wasted as a result of this episode over the last three months. It is very sad. We need to get a top-notch transportation administrator in that position.”

Community activist and local businessman Phil Barnet, also a 2007 candidate for Council, echoed Dorvee and said, “This is a terrible situation. His [Andreou’s] reputation is ruined. Does the public have a right to the facts? Yes. Just report the facts, and leave it at that.”

However, Roswell Design and Review board member Betty Price said, “This is hurtful and has no place in the media. The damage has already been done to both parties involved. My sense is things are improving in Roswell government as [their executives] mature.”

Where Does Roswell Go From Here?
Andreou was the city’s top transportation administrator, a position that oversees one of the most pressing issues that Roswellians tussle with each day. He was chosen for that position following an exhaustive search after it had been vacant for over a year.

The explanation for that vacancy is multi-faceted.

“We had some things going on within that time period,” Brechbill said. “Our city administrator resigned and moved back to Texas, so things were going on within that year that kind of disrupted that process.”

Love, who held the position of assistant city administrator under her predecessor, was given the reigns as chief executive in early 2007. She hired Andreou based partly on his experience in a similar position in Virginia Beach, Va. Now that her decision has backfired, Love is once again in the beginning stages of conducting a search.

“I would suspect that the citizens, their main goal is ‘How are we managing traffic and how are we managing the transportation problems in the city of Roswell?’” she said.

The job has been publicly advertised and is being posted in a broad number of publications to spread the blanket of potential candidates as wide as possible. Love does not expect that the search will be as laborious as it was the last time.

“One thing is, certainly the market was tighter then than it is now. With the economy like it is there have been a number of companies who have laid off people, certain types of technical positions in the consulting world,” Love said. “Certainly engineers are one of the first places they cut when the economy slows and projects slow for development and construction and all those things. So it gets some good folks out on the market. So certainly we know that the pool of candidates will be larger than it was last time.”

Love received over 100 applications for a recent opening for an IT Director and she expects a similar response for this job.

In the meantime deputy transportation director David Low is functioning in director’s stead until a permanent replacement is named. Low came to Roswell from a position at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport and has been on the Roswell transportation staff for about four months.

“He has a lot of background,” Love said, “and has certainly been here long enough to know what projects are on the books and be able to manage those.”

For a city whose number one issue is transportation, the timeline for finding a qualified replacement can’t be too short. Based on Roswell’s history of late, the stay of the new hire better be longer than the last.