Hearing rescheduled for April 7

The hearing on the town’s motion for summary judgment in the Richard McMillan/Wilce Martin vs. Town of Mooresville case has been rescheduled for April 7 in Superior Court, Statesville.

The hearing was originally scheduled for March 10 but was continued because McMillan and Martin’s lawyer, Jenny Sharpe, was sick.

The town is hoping that a judge will dismiss claims made by McMillan and Martin, who are suing for wrongful discharge in violation of state public policy.

Former Town Manager Jamie Justice fired McMillan (the town’s engineering director) and Martin (the utilities director) in February 2006 amid controversy over Morrison Plantation developers (on which I will elaborate in a later blog entry) and the town’s hiring of CH2M Hill to design our wastewater treatment plant expansion.

The town contends in its motion for summary judgment that McMillan and Martin "did not engage in any protected activity and there is no causal connection between any alleged protected activity and the termination of their employment from the Town of Mooresville."

In a phone conversation on Wednesday, Sharpe declined to provide details about the case but said, “We can directly refute all of that. We do think there’s a cause-and-effect relationship. Obviously, that’s something we’ll develop in our brief when we file it.”

That brief will be filed sometime before the April 7 hearing, she said.