The amount the city of Statesboro’s insurer is paying to settle former City Manager Frank Parker’s breach of contract and whistleblower lawsuit over his June 2014 firing is $120,000.

However, that amount includes his attorney’s fees and other legal expenses. What share of the money will go to Parker himself is not revealed in the settlement agreement, obtained Thursday under a Georgia Open Records Act request. In the agreement, Parker releases the city, the mayor and council members from other potential claims. He also acknowledges that he has no right to re-employment with the city.

“Mr. Parker never sought reinstatement with the City and did not expect the elected officials to admit their mistakes,” Daniel B. Snipes, Parker’s lead attorney, said Thursday in an emailed statement.

“He does feel that the validity of his case has been established and he is happy to be able to focus on his family and other interests,” Snipes wrote. “At the end of the day, the City of Statesboro, through its insurer, made an offer to settle the case that Mr. Parker found to be acceptable.”

The settlement is between Atlantic Specialty Insurance Company, a part of OneBeacon Insurance Group, and Parker. City officials had revealed the existence of the settlement Monday, and emphasized that it was the city’s insurer, and not the city government itself, that settled. A trial that had been scheduled for Wednesday in Bulloch County Superior Court was then cancelled.

A statement Mayor Jan Moore issued on behalf of the city, and brief comments from the three city council members who originally voted to fire Parker, were reported in a Tuesday story. The settlement terms prohibited Parker from even disclosing the existence of the settlement, unless others first made any statement about it. Then “he may make a limited disclosure regarding the Agreement’s terms to the extent reasonably necessary” to respond, it says.

At the beginning of his statement, Snipes cited the nondisclosure clause and wrote, “In light of the numerous statements made by the Mayor and members of Council, Mr. Parker has asked me to respond.”

Snipes would not reveal what portion of the $120,000 will go to Parker, which could also indicate roughly how much goes to Snipes and the Statesboro firm where he is a partner, Taulbee, Rushing, Snipes, Marsh & Hodgin.

“Mr. Parker employed my law firm to represent him in this matter and the nature of our employment agreement is private,” Snipes wrote.

His full statement on Parker’s behalf is being posted with the online version of this story at www.statesboroherald.com.

Clawback provision

The agreement also states that Parker would have to repay his part of the settlement, above attorney’s fees, if he is found guilty within one year, by conviction or a guilty plea, “for a felony offense relating directly to his employment with (the) city.”

This clawback requirement would apply if Parker were adjudicated guilty of either a federal or a state felony. However, he would not have to pay the money back if the guilty finding was entered under the Georgia First Offender Act, or if it were by a no-contest plea.

Parker has not been charged with any crime, as his attorney noted. He also said that the city had this language added to the agreement.

“Mr. Parker has not been accused of any crime and has never taken any action to benefit himself as part of his employment with the City of Statesboro,” Snipes wrote. “Mr. Parker has not committed any criminal act as part of his employment with the City and did not believe that the inclusion of this language at the request of the City presented any type of concession on his part. The request for this language came from the City and not from their insurer.”

Called Thursday, Moore said she was very limited in what she could say about the terms of the settlement. She did not deny that city officials wanted the clawback provision, but noted that the money would not go to the city.

“If circumstances were such that Mr. Parker were required to repay a portion of the settlement, that money would go to the insurance company and not the city,” Moore said.

Back in 2014

Parker served as city manager from Oct. 5, 2010, through June 24, 2014. At the conclusion of a meeting with city department heads on June 19, 2014, Moore reportedly commented that City Council discussions about a pay raise for city employees had been contentious but necessarily public. According to retellings of the incident filed with the court, Parker then said either that he sometimes met privately with a majority of council members and discussed city business, or that he had observed council members doing so.

Moore recounted this in a specially called City Council meeting five days later, where Parker gave a different explanation of what he had said. Before the meeting was over, council members voted 3-2 to fire Parker, on the stated grounds that he had either taken part in Georgia Open Meetings Act violations or maligned the council with a false allegation.

At the council’s request, an out-of-town attorney selected by Statesboro’s Municipal Court judge did an investigation and later concluded that most of the gatherings were exempt or that no business had been discussed.

But Parker filed suit alleging that he had acted as a whistleblower in reporting Open Meetings Act violations and that the city fired him in retaliation. Initially, he also alleged that council members and the mayor had slandered him and intentionally inflicted emotional distress.

Superior Court Judge John R. “Robbie” Turner rejected the slander and emotional distress claims in an Oct. 30, 2015, summary judgment, but had left the whistleblower and breach of contract claims for a jury to decide. Turner also eliminated the mayor and current and former council members as separate defendants, leaving only the city government itself potentially liable for damages.

Settled but not agreed

In his statement Thursday, Snipes noted that the Bulloch County Superior Court had found Statesboro City Council guilty of an open meetings violation in a separate case in 2010. He also noted that, in Parker’s case, the Georgia Court of Appeals had denied an appeal request by the city, allowing his claims of contract violation and whistleblower retaliation to proceed to trial.

“While the elected officials of the City continue to deny the validity of Mr. Parker’s case, two courts disagreed,” Snipes wrote. “The City’s independent counsel and insurer made the decision to settle the case based on the merits of the case.”

In contrast, Moore in her statement Monday had said, “The decision to settle was a business decision made by the insurer and was not based on any determination that the claims asserted against the City were in any way meritorious.”

On the phone Thursday, she noted that the insurance company, at its expense, provided legal representation for the city. R. Read Gignilliat of Elarbee, Thompson, Sapp & Wilson in Atlanta was lead attorney for the city, Moore and the three council members who voted to fire Parker.

The cost to the city for the suit’s defense and settlement, Moore said, was limited to paying the deductible amount required by the liability insurance policy.

“The city is out of pocket $5,000,” she said.

Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.