Cairo mayor hit by lawsuits over firings, retirement

CAIRO, Ill. -- The newly elected mayor of this Southern Illinois city has been hit by two lawsuits from six former employees he abruptly fired after taking office, and a third lawsuit over a retirement deal.

The lawsuits filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Benton, Ill., accuse Paul Farris of denying the former workers due process and demand jury trials, unspecified damages and, in most cases, reinstatement.

Farris "came in and said he was going to 'clean house,' but he did not have the authority or power to unilaterally make that decision," said attorney Shari Rhode, who represents the defendants in each of the lawsuits.

Farris did not immediately return a telephone message left Friday by The Associated Press.

He has been the focus of criticism since taking office May 1 and, minutes later, firing most department heads and installing replacements in the impoverished city.

The previous administration had had enough time to clean up the city, he said at the time, and had obviously failed.

The city of 3,600 has long been in economic decline. Its population shrunk by 25 percent over the last decade, most residents are on welfare, there are few businesses and streets are lined with crumbling buildings.

The lawsuit filed by former city clerk Lorrie Hesselrode, former fire chief Harvey Clark, former street superintendent Ronald Harris and former police chief Calvin Box claims the mayor accused them of "official and reprehensible misconduct." According to the lawsuit, those accusations "have seriously impugned, harmed and maligned" the former employees' reputations.

Two other former employees, former grant writer Monica Smith and Judson Childs, who was a "consulting liaison" in "community relations services," also sued over their abrupt firings, demanding damages and reinstatement.

Another lawsuit, brought by former police chief James Wright, accuses Farris of trying to get out of a binding retirement plan for Wright and demands $20,000 in compensatory damages and unspecified punitive damages.

No hearings have yet been scheduled in the cases.