City Responds to Recent Firing of Public Records Coordinator

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - A city appointee is fired the same day she files a request for information on the city's legal department. She was the head of the legal department that made the decision and now the city is backing up the dismissal.

The employee is Bridgette Handy-Clay. She worked in the legal department, in charge of complying with all "Freedom of Information Act" requests. After filing her own request, she found herself out of a job.

In a news conference Monday, the City of Memphis' Chief Executive Officer, George Little, defended the firing of appointee Bridgette Handy-Clay.

"There was no retaliation, there was no retaliation," said Little.

Handy-Clay was let go Friday by Herman Morris, the head of Legal Department. The disappointment happened the same day Handy-Clay filed a freedom of information act, asking for salary information for legal department employees.

Little said Handy-Clay had a history of attendance problems and policy violations.

"The disappointment was based on the performance issue. It wasn't any one issue and I would say for the record it had nothing to do with the information request that came out," said Little.

Reportedly, Handy-Clay had concerns over nepotism in the legal department.

"I think this may have been suggested in some other situation that there's favoritism. And at this point there's nothing to suggest that but were looking to make sure were not having anyone supervising a family member."

Little said the current administration has inherited a situation where there are family members working together in the same department. This is an issue that will be investigated.

"If we have to move people around where there may be a conflict, real or perceived, then we'll do that," said Little.