By JIM BUTLER

Confidential response to an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint includes admission of liaisons with a female employee by Pineville Mayor Rich Dupree and his former Chief of Staff Doug Gann.

Britanny Poston claims she left city employment in March because of a hostile work involvement following liaisons with both men. 

She was employed in February last year as a utility billing clerk and was director of operations and special events when she resigned. She filed the EEOC complaint on May 29.  

The revelations came to public light Sunday on a silent Facebook site, silent meaning there is no attribution of ownership of it. The material leaked to media and others a few days earlier. 

Dupree, as would be expected considering pending litigation, Monday afternoon referred questions and request for comment to City Attorney Mark Vilar. 

“I’m remaining focused on taking care of my family and serving this city, where we have so many good things going on,” Dupree added. 

In his response to Poston’s claims (August 16), attorney Jonathan Cobb says essentially that no retribution occurred after the indiscretions ended.

He notes Dupree for a time allowed Poston to use a condo he owns as refuge from an allegedly abusive ex-husband. 

Both the mayor and Gann, through Cobb’s response, said the encounters were the result of “aggression and predatory activity” by Poston.

That included hundreds of unsolicited explicit and obscene photos and videos, Cobb asserts.

Beyond the prurient aspects of the complaint, Cobb asserts the plaintiff never took advantage of harassment policy complaint procedures. 

He also contends the complaint, even if justified, was filed beyond prescription, making it invalid, and that Dupree and Gann are not proper targets because the city hired Poston, not them, Cobb asserts. 

Political fallout from the revelations has begun. The Recall Dupree site that posted the documents noted Monday that petitions would be available soon. 

Whether Pineville residents view the incidents as peccadilloes or moral turpitude will play out as time goes by.