Former Union County employee Conor Gleason has filed suit against Union County, County Judge Mike Loftin and eight members of the Quorum Court nearly one year after he resigned.
Gleason was the executive administrator of the Union County Tax Collector’s Office until January, when he resigned during an issue that stemmed from a new ordinance requiring background checks for county employees.
The summonses were issued to justices Cecil Polk, Greg Harrison, Justin Hendrix, Mike Dumas, Carolyn Jones, Ross Burton, Benny Vestel and Johnny Burson, “in their individual and official capacities as members of the Union County Quorum Court.”
Justices Cliff Preston, Dean Storey and Will Crowder did not receive summonses, which essentially require a person to appear at court in connection with a minor criminal charge.
Caleb Baumgardner, one of Gleason’s attorneys, said the lawsuit, which was filed Aug. 31 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, is brought under several laws and theories, including discrimination.
“We are alleging violations of the Arkansas Civil Rights Act, violations of the state and federal constitutions, specifically Mr. Gleason’s right to due process, violations of the fare and labor standards and the Arkansas Minimum Wage Act, as well as the torts of slander, liable, conversion and torts of interference of contract,” Baumgardner said
The issue began in September 2017, when the Quorum Court approved Ordinance 1457 requiring all county employees and officials to submit to a criminal background check and sign written consent forms. After it became clear that at least one employee had failed to comply, the court approved a new resolution to withhold pay from those who do not consent to the check.
Tax Collector Paula Beard and Gleason had objected to the original ordinance on the grounds that it was unconstitutional. They also objected to Loftin receiving all of the background checks.
Gleason failed to turn in his background check form by the specified date and was removed from the payroll in October 2017. He eventually filled out the required form and, at the end of November 2017, it was submitted to Loftin, who said a committee would review the checks and discuss the reports with elected officials in each office.
But in December, Quorum Court members were told that Gleason would not be covered by the county’s liability insurance because of a prior embezzlement charge. At the December meeting, members voted 6-4 not to issue back pay to Gleason at that time and also voted 8-2 to explore and take legal action to force Beard to remove Gleason from her office.
Gleason submitted his resignation on Jan. 8 during a special meeting with the Quorum Court, which unanimously approved a motion to issue Gleason back pay at the same meeting. At the time, Gleason issued a statement saying his reason for resigning was to “quell threats and contemptable legal actions” against the tax collector’s office and the office staff.
“The erroneous and defamatory statements made by and among our County Judge (Mike Loftin), a few of his sycophants on the Quorum Court and other morally corrupt Officials in the Union County Courthouse, are nothing more than elaborations and fabrications, twisted to appeal to an audience that is incapable of thinking objectively,” Gleason said in the January statement.
Before the Quorum Court meeting adjourned Thursday, Loftin announced that he and eight of the members were being summoned and that he believed politics were to blame.
“It’s obvious to me that the timing of it and the fact that Justice Crowder, Justice Preston and Justice Storey were not served that this is some more dirty politics aimed at my campaign,” Loftin said.
Loftin is running for re-election, with Preston opposing him for the county judge seat in the Nov. 6 election.
Preston said he assumes he wasn’t summoned because he cast the sole opposing vote on a resolution that was stated the county would not pay employees who didn’t consent to a background check.
“I didn’t do this,” Preston said of the lawsuit and summonses. “I didn’t file the lawsuit so there’s no way for me to control what happens and when it happens or how it happens. On my part, it doesn’t have anything to do with the election.”
Jones said she was confused as to why only certain members of the Quorum Court were summoned.
“It is my understanding that it was regarding the ordinance that had to do with background checks,” Jones said. “When that vote was taken on that particular ordinance, it was an unanimous vote. Why there is a (summons) only for certain JPs and not the entire Quorum Court — that is what I’m having difficulty understanding.”
Polk also said his problem was that only eight justices were summoned out of the 11 that make up the court.
“That was not right and I took offense to it,” Polk said. “I don’t think it was right for eight of the 11 JPs to be (summoned).”
Crowder said the way he understood everything, the summons had nothing to do with the background checks, “because during the process of them doing what they were doing against Gleason, as in not paying him for the time worked, me, Dean and Cliff were the only three that voted that we needed to pay him for the time he worked.”
Storey agreed, also citing the trio’s support for issuing back pay to Gleason as the reason they were not summoned.
“I think that’s why we were excused from it,” Storey said.
Harrison agreed with Loftin and also noted the timing of the summonses being issued.
“There is a motivation behind the timing and the people selected in this and the reason to why will eventually come out,” Harrison said. “Being that the vote was unanimous, it is hard to fathom why certain ones were singled out and I hope the voters of Union County will keep this under consideration when they go to the polls.”
Baumgardner said the federal rules of civil procedure give ample time to serve summons, “and we have fallen within that deadline.”
“There were certain preparations we had to make between filing the lawsuit and serving the summons on the defendants and that’s just the amount of time that it took,” Baumgardner said.
Gleason’s other attorney Lucien Gilliam is a civil rights attorney out of Benton. No court date has yet been set.
Kaitlyn Rigdon can be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected].