Mike Jackson is alleged to have ignored the black applicants because he did not think the City of Villa Rica was ready for its first black city manager.
Fox 5 Atlanta had filed an open records request and obtained notes taken by the Villa Rica human resources director. Those notes revealed that Jackson gave the HR director instructions on how to screen candidates. Jackson was not in the running for the position.
Those notes revealed that Jackson directed that all black applicants be ignored because “Villa Rica was not ready for a black city manager and did not want to get their hopes up by interviewing them.”
Jackson told Fox 5 Atlanta that the instructions to ignore black candidates came from staff and not him. But Mayor Jeff Reese said Jackson told him that the instructions came from him. “I didn’t feel any pressure to hire an African-American,” Reese said. “But I did feel pressure to hire the properly qualified individual.”
The city hired a white male for the position. Although a black man made a list of four finalist, he took himself out of consideration after learning the city would not pay his travel expenses from Illinois. The city’s only black council member, Shirley Marchman, disagreed with Reese’s decision and said the city should have made an effort to bring in the black candidate for an interview. “If he was considered in the top four, then he should have been given a chance,” Marchman said.