An employee of the Greenwood Convention and Visitors Bureau has filed documents that she argues proves she was not hired as executive director of the bureau because she is white.
Ashley Farmer, the bureau’s current interim director, filed her discrimination lawsuit against the CVB and the city of Greenwood a year ago.
Farmer has argued that she was more than qualified for the position of executive director but that the Greenwood Tourism Commission — which governs the bureau — denied her the position based on race.
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Following the departure of executive director Danielle Morgan in the summer of 2021, Farmer operated the office of the CVB and interviewed for the position of executive director in the fall.
In October 2021, the commission voted 7-4 along racial lines to hire Patrick Ervin of Greenville to fill the executive director position. Ervin, who is Black, resigned in April to become publisher of The Enterprise-Tocsin in Indianola, which is owned by the same company that owns the Commonwealth.
The CVB has previously argued that Ervin was hired because he was the best candidate and that race was not a factor in his selection. Last month, the CVB filed numerous pages of deposition transcripts in support of its position. It has called for the court to declare summary judgment in its favor.
The city has argued it should not be a party to the lawsuit as it does not govern employees of the CVB.
As first reported by The Taxpayers Channel, Farmer’s response filed on Friday rejects the claim that race was not a factor, instead claiming, “Most employment decisions have been made along racial lines.”
Farmer also includes several transcripts from the same depositions in support of her case.
In excerpts from her own deposition, Farmer said she felt questions from three commission members — Dorothy Randle, Edward Cates and Betty Sanders — were “racially motivated.”
The response also states, “After the interviews, several CVB board members contacted Ervin about taking the job. ... Ervin later told Cyndi Long this, and also told her that members of the Board begged him to take the job, and he wished he had never done so.”
In deposition excerpts from Ashley Farmer’s husband, Stephen Farmer, he alleges that Ervin told him he turned down the job but was approached twice at his home to convince him to take it.
However, Ervin rejects these allegations, according to excerpts from his deposition. He said no one from the commission ever called him about taking the job and no one ever visited him at his home in Greenville. He also said he did not have second thoughts about taking the job.
The commission is scheduled to interview four candidates for the position of executive director next Monday. These candidates were assembled at the recommendation of a search firm hired by the commission. That detail is included as another allegation that Farmer’s selection as executive director is being denied to her.
The response also includes details of an argument at the Dec. 20 meeting of the Greenwood City Council between Ward 5’s Andrew Powell and Ward 6’s Dorothy Glenn.
Powell nominated Cyndi Long, who is white, to continue to represent Ward 5 on the board. Glenn voted against that nomination and asked Powell, “Why don’t you select some other people that look like us?” Both Glenn and Powell are Black.
“Powell found out that in Greenwood local government, your vote must be for your own race, or there will be consequences,” Farmer’s response said.
- Contact Kevin Edwards at 662-581-7233 or kedwards@gwcommonwealth.com.
