The City of Demorest is refusing to bow to pressure from Piedmont College to oust Mayor Rick Austin.
In an official, three-sentence response to a nine-page demand letter sent by the college on August 7, attorney Dana Maine challenged the premise of Piedmont’s demands. She wrote, “After consideration of the allegations set forth therein, we have found no merit to your claims.”
Maine went on to inform the college that Demorest “declines to engage in any proposed resolution at this time.”
Two remedies
Piedmont attorney Patrick McKee leveled a series of claims against the city and potential defendants claiming they had engaged in extortion, fraud, and that their actions had financially damaged the college. Despite those serious accusations, the college only asked for two remedies: That Austin be removed as mayor and that his employment at Piedmont College be terminated.
“The demand does seem to be disconnected from the claims asserted in the letter,” says Maine. “And, employment termination isn’t something that the court would consider as a remedy related to the claims against the city in the letter.”
No stranger to Demorest
A founding member of Freeman, Mathis, and Gary in Atlanta, Maine is no stranger to Demorest. She previously served as City Attorney. The city’s insurance carrier hired her to represent Demorest in this matter because current City Attorney Joey Homans is among the officials Piedmont College threatened to sue.
Now that Demorest has responded, it’s unclear what Piedmont will do. Prior to publishing this article, Now Habersham reached out to McKee and Piedmont College President Dr. James Mellichamp to get their reaction to Demorest’s response and ask if they will be taking further action. On September 9, Mellichamp replied, “As stated previously, the college has no comment.”
Sources tell Now Habersham that the Piedmont College Board of Trustees’ Executive Committee was aware the demand letter was being sent, but it remains unclear whether the 27 other board members knew about the threatened legal action. The board includes many notable local figures including former first lady of Georgia Sandra Deal and State Appellate Court Judge Brian Rickman.
In addition to Austin and Homans, the college threatened to sue Demorest city councilmen Sean Moore, Nathan Davis, and John Hendrix, as well as Demorest City Manager Kim Simonds, and City Treasurer Joely Mixon. Several of them have secured private attorneys and are now considering filing defamation lawsuits against the college.
Meanwhile, Demorest Police Chief Robin Krockum has taken to publicly defending himself against accusations that Piedmont made against him.
The college claims that in 2018 Krockum “harassed and threatened” Piedmont College police officers in a supposed attempt to force Piedmont to disband its campus police “in favor of contracting with the City Police for its security needs.” McKee’s letter claims it was attempted “extortion” to gain “property rights of the college in the forms of tickets, fines, and contractual fees.”
“We began having several issues with the Campus Police in 2018 that I felt would cause the college a huge amount of liability. We did speak to them about these issues but absolutely never harassed or threatened anyone,” Krockum insists.
Krockum was not among the potential defendants named in the demand letter, however, he did lose his job earlier this year when City Manager Kim Simonds abruptly fired him. Soon after, he was reinstated. Simonds also worked behind the scenes with councilmen Davis and Hendrix to get rid of the mayor and city attorney. When their efforts failed and the city council refused to pay the bills of outside attorneys Simonds contracted with, she told the council that a “benefactor” would pay, leaving many to wonder who else might be involved.
Now, with the possibility of lawsuits on both sides, Demorest residents may get some answers as to what’s really behind the upheaval and turmoil that continue to plague this small Northeast Georgia town.
This article has been updated to include the response from Dr. James Mellichamp
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