The previous metropolis supervisor of Hopewell, Virginia, has filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit and is demanding her job again after accusing white metropolis council members of racism and wrongful termination.
Concetta Manker made historical past in 2023 when she turned town’s first girl and first Black metropolis supervisor.
“Two years later, nevertheless, the Metropolis made a special sort of historical past — a historic act of unlawful and illegal conduct,” based on a federal lawsuit Manker filed in opposition to town and 4 white council members. “On Might 1, 2025, utilizing maneuvers that had been blatantly unlawful underneath the governing procedural guidelines, the Metropolis, by way of its white councilors, unlawfully terminated Dr. Manker because the Metropolis Supervisor and did so primarily based on her race. Certainly, the 4-to-3 termination vote fell strictly alongside racial traces.”
Manker is suing for $6.85 million “over deliberate acts of racial discrimination and conflicts of curiosity by the White majority on council,” based on The Progress-Index.
The five-count lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Courtroom in Richmond. It names Councillors Ronnie Ellis and Susan Daye, and Mayor Johnny Partin Jr. and Vice Mayor Rita Joyner. The swimsuit accuses them of violation of “liberty pursuits,” defamation and battle of curiosity in terminating Manker on Might 1. It additionally contends Manker was denied due course of in difficult her firing.
Manker, who has a doctorate in utilized administration and resolution sciences, is demanding fast reinstatement on the grounds that the council violated Robert’s Guidelines of Order, which govern the council’s actions.
Town council initially tried to terminate Manker throughout a gathering in February “with out trigger,” based on her lawyer Richard Hawkins.
Hawkins pointed to a bit of Roberts Guidelines of Order, which “governs the Council’s actions,” and “have to be moved both on the identical day the unique vote was taken or on the subsequent succeeding day throughout the identical session on which a enterprise assembly is held,” he stated in a letter reported on by WRIC-TV.
Since Manker wasn’t technically fired till Might 1, there was an almost three-month hole, which violates Robert’s Guidelines of Order, Hawkins stated.
“No such reconsideration motions, nevertheless, had been made at both of these instances,” stated Hawkins, referencing the Feb. 12 council assembly when a vote to fireplace Manker failed in a 3-3 tie, and one other assembly on Feb. 19.
“As an alternative, the movement was made nearly three months later. This delay nullifies the Might 1 movement on its face, and it renders the Council’s subsequent termination vote wholly invalid.”
The council fired Manker after a 4-3 council vote alongside racial traces on Might 1, which Manker known as “racially motivated.”
Manker contends she’s had a constructive affect on town, however that its 4 white councilors moved to terminate her employment due to her race, and one in every of them allegedly stated she was “Blacking up” Hopewell throughout her tenure, based on WRIC-TV.
Manker is individually suing Joyner for defamation over an electronic mail she reportedly despatched to a constituent in August 2024, WRIC reported. In that electronic mail, she described Manker as “incompetent” and claimed she “thwarted [Joyner] at each twist and switch.”
“Joyner’s criticism didn’t come from a spot of excellent religion,” the lawsuit states. “As an alternative, it was half and parcel of her said beliefs that Dr. Manker didn’t ‘appear like’ a Metropolis Supervisor and ‘we don’t need somebody like her’ operating our Metropolis, statements that had been interpreted by the listener as racist in nature.”
The lawsuit additionally describes an interplay Black Metropolis Councilor Dominic Holloway stated he had with Joyner. Holloway accused Joyner in that dialog of claiming Manker was “Blacking up” town of Hopewell by hiring Black workers.
Manker’s lawyer, Hawkins, within the beforehand talked about letter, known as the Might 1 vote “an clearly improper movement” and “the sort of abusive circumstance that the timeliness requirement is required to guard.”
And different Hopewell residents agreed.
“I’ll let you know proper now, y’all are the 4 most disgusting people on this metropolis, and also you all must step down out of your positions,” one man stated after the council vote, WWBT-TV reported. He was referring to the white council members who all voted to terminate Manker. The outburst was met with resounding applause and standing ovations as council members regarded on.
Police additionally escorted folks out of the emotional assembly. The council upset some folks when it rejected a request by one other councilmember to place forth a movement to permit the neighborhood to voice its opinion on Manker’s future.
Hawkins additionally stated one of many council members, Metropolis Battalion Chief Ronnie Ellis, didn’t have “authorized standing to make the movement” to fireplace Manker.
Not solely did Ellis not forged a vote in February, however his vote in Might is taken into account a battle of curiosity as a result of he serves as each a metropolis councilor and a Hopewell hearth battalion chief. At one level he was each Manker’s superior and her subordinate, respectively. Manker contends in her lawsuit that he ought to have recused himself from the vote.
She can also be accusing Ellis of utilizing a racist canine whistle. A canine whistle is sort of a secret code that doesn’t appear racist however has one other that means, in his marketing campaign for Hopewell Metropolis Council, through which he allegedly focused Manker.
In an interview in 2023 earlier than Namker was appointed metropolis supervisor, Ellis stated Hopewell shouldn’t “micromanage” its metropolis managers and as a substitute “enable [them] to run town and oversee metropolis employees,” WRIC reported.
“However, for the 2024 election, when Dr. Manker was serving because the full-time Metropolis Supervisor for the Metropolis, Ellis made no such ‘arms off’ remarks in regards to the Metropolis Supervisor,” the lawsuit states. “As an alternative, he distributed a marketing campaign flyer that contained the racist dog-whistle phrase ‘we have to take our metropolis again.’”
Hopewell’s metropolis lawyer, Anthony Bessette, warned the council to not vote on terminating Manker on Might 1, however they ignored the recommendation.
“Whereas the Council majority’s use of tortured procedural gymnastics to terminate Dr. Manker was by itself unlawful, it additionally revealed the true motive for the vote: racism,” based on the lawsuit.
“The 4-3 vote alongside racial traces was no accident. It was the direct results of racial enmity in opposition to Dr. Manker that had been brewing because the very starting of her tenure (and even earlier than), and it was the inevitable end result given the racist attitudes of a number of of the white members of the Council majority.”
Neither Hawkins nor Manker is saying something extra in regards to the case at the moment. Bessette instructed The Progress-Index that town is conscious of the lawsuit however that nobody has been formally served.
“Town will reply in the end,” Bessette stated.
Earlier than she was formally employed as town’s supervisor in 2023, Manker served a yr as interim supervisor.
