Former Guilford County Manager Marty Lawing no doubt put Guilford County in his mental rear-view mirror when he took a job as the city manager of Fort Myers, Florida, earlier this year.
However, some in that city and in the surrounding Lee County are accusing Lawing of racially biased actions during his eight years managing Guilford County government.
According to a report from FOX4 News in Cape Coral, Florida, Lee County NAACP President James Muwakkil publicly asked city leaders: “How did y’all choose a racist to be our city manager?”
The Lee County NCAAP president told the news outlet that Lawing isn’t fit for the job after the NAACP learned that Lawing was named in several race-based lawsuits while working for Guilford County.
Other news outlets in the Fort Myer’s area have also covered the controversy that’s largely based on an old lawsuit that involved an African-American Information Technology worker in Guilford County government who claimed to have been unfairly terminated by the county.
What’s interesting is that the case – which dragged on for years – never even caused a blip on the news radar in Guilford County. However, after the fact – and after a federal judge has cleared Lawing – the old case is making headlines 795 miles to the south.
Many city leaders and others in Florida jumped to Lawing’s defense and spoke about what a fair and decent man Lawing is. One stated that, if there were any indication of racism in Lawing’s past, he wouldn’t have been hired for the job.
Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson said he doesn’t believe the allegation Lawing is racist. He said that, just by virtue of being county manager, Lawing was no doubt named on all sorts of lawsuits.
“What some people may not know is since being elected in November, I have been sued, not for anything I did individually – just by virtue that I hold this position,” Anderson told a local news outlet.
Guilford County Commissioner Justin Conrad, who worked with Lawing for seven years before Lawing resigned in December of 2020, said he’d never seen Lawing exhibit a racial bias. Conrad said Lawing was a good, fair and just manager.
Conrad also pointed out that Lawing hired African Americans for county director jobs.
Lawing hired an African American to be his deputy manager as well.
The Rhino Times also observed Lawing very closely for eight years and never saw any indication of racism.
While some Guilford County commissioners have made that accusation of Lawing from time to time over the years, it usually came in the context of the county not using enough minority-owned firms for major construction projects – and that’s been a nut that Guilford County hasn’t been able to crack under any manager this century.
The serious-minded Lawing was seen by many in Guilford County as one of the most “by the book” managers the county has ever had.
In July, US District Judge William Osteen Jr. dismissed the suit that was filed by the former Guilford County employee who was fired from the IT job in 2017.
Osteen’s decision stated there was not a single fact in the case to indicate Lawing terminated the employee on the basis of race. Lawing was listed on the lawsuit since he was the manager of Guilford County at the time – though the decision for termination appears to have come up the command chain after the employee read emails of top county officials without authorization.
In 2013, when Lawing was hired as Guilford County’s manager, Commissioner Carolyn Coleman expressed concerns that, while Lawing was manager of Brunswick County, a landfill was put near a predominantly black neighborhood.
Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston, who strongly encouraged Lawing to resign just before Christmas last year, said this week that he didn’t feel Lawing put forth the effort to engage the local black community and black vendors as he should have during his eight years with the county.
Billy Yow had the best policy when it came to negative comments from the local NAACP. I believe I still have the tee shirt tucked away as a memento.
Too bad we don’t have upvote buttons on here – you deserve an upvote!
I had forgotten all about Billy Yow’s famous t-shirts. They were hilarious!!
Guilford County needs Billy Yow, or a reasonable facsimile thereof. Come to think of it, this country needs quite few more Billy Yows.
Skip rules by Skip-the-hyp.
That’s a funny comment from skippy whenever I drive by his house all I ever see working for him are black or Hispanic people three questions skippy are the Hispanics documented and legal and why no minority White people also are these workers making $15-20 an hour. I know you read this forum so I’m sure the readers would like an answer. If not here maybe at the next council meeting
So the racists on the board, Alston and Coleman, accused Lawing of racism because he didn’t racial discriminate.
So who is the real racist there?
And the NAACP continues to serve as the lap dog for local politicians.
As for Skip, we’ll, he’s just showing his true bigotry.
What a pitiful waste of time for an article. I was able to work with Marty Lawing who I is a fine hardworking man. Very professional first one in the office and last to leave the whole time in his career at Guilford County. Not surprising that our Chairman is still trying to cause havoc with his professional career using the NAACP as a scapegoat. The true colors shine on Individuals mentioned in this article whom I consider as some of the biggest racist in our county leading this county. Always a Racist and continues to be.
Honestly, who cares what the the NAACP thinks? We will never be able to get past racial division when there are organizations like this, whose only purpose is to further divide us, creating more tension. There’s no need for that.
Marty Lawing absolutely is a racist and a sexist to boot. The city has had to settle in lawsuit after lawsuit since he took over due to the well documented federal violations that have ensued since he took over. This includes FLSA, ADA, and Title VII. I am having a hard time he willingly chose an minority for staff when it is well known down here how he refused to consider women and minorities for roles that were only ultimately hired due to pushback from staff. He took an already toxic work environment and made it worse.