by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor 
  Five members of the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors, five members of the Buchanan County Department of Social Services Board and Buchanan County have been sued in federal court for allegedly letting politics dictate a recent decision to name a new director for the department of social services.
  Further, the lawsuit alleges the named defendants failed to follow an interview panel’s evaluation recommendations for the director’s post.
  Earlier this year, the newly appointed DSS Administrative Board named Judy Holland to the DSS director’s post, in a move the lawsuit filed last Thursday by Tammy Fields alleged was due to political reasons. Fields, a DSS employee since 1995, was one of the candidates seeking the director’s post after it was vacated last year due to the retirement of Harold McClanahan.
  Holland, whose husband Tom, was a former director of the agency, also applied for the post and was ultimately chosen to fill the position.
  The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Abingdon.
  No monetary amounts are defined in the suit which asks the court to find the named defendant’s actions were “in violation of Fields’ constitutional rights” and to enter such orders, in law and equity, as are necessary to remedy the wrongs which the lawsuit alleges have been committed. It also asks for undefined compensatory and punitive damages to be awarded as determined by the court, along with reasonable attorney fees.
  Named in the lawsuit are board of supervisors members including North Grundy Chairman Carroll Branham; Knox Supervisor Pat Justus; Prater Supervisor Eddie Lindsay; Rocklick Supervisor David Ratliff; and Hurricane Supervisor William P. Harris. The lawsuit notes each of those defendants are being sued in their individual capacities.
  Members of the DSS Administrative Board named in the suit include Chairman Tolbert Prater, Laura Elkins, Emogene Elswick, Ruby Ratliff Hale and Harold Thornsbury. All of those defendants are being sued in their individual capacities, according to the lawsuit which also names Buchanan County as a defendant.
  “All of the defendants were involved and participated in the selection and hiring of the Buchanan County DSS directors and that participation was discriminatory based upon political affiliations of the applicants,” the lawsuit alleges.
  Holland is also named in the suit, although she is defined as a “necessary party” to the suit only to the extent that it pertains to the remedies being sought by Fields.
  “The plaintiff is making no allegations of misconduct directed at Judy Holland, only that she was the beneficiary of unconstitutional and unlawful actions of the remaining defendants,” the lawsuit alleges.
  It goes on to allege that Buchanan County is responsible for the hiring and employment of county employees, including the directors of the department of social services and further that the county is liable for acts committed that occur “pursuant to custom, policy and practice.”
  It goes on to allege that the actions of the named defendants, not including Holland, are in violation of federal law “because the decision not to hire Fields was substantially motivated by Fields’ exercise of her protected First Amendment Rights, or in the alternative, because the decision not to hire Fields was substantially motivated by a combination of Fields’ exercise of her protected First Amendment Rights and the exercise of her husband’s First Amendment Rights which the above cited defendants attributed to her.”

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