FRANKLIN
As reported, 25 members of the Franklin Police Department have filed individual lawsuits, which are being tried as one complaint, against the City of Franklin for breach of contract and actual fraud.

A previous story misreported information in saying, “The Tidewater News has made multiple attempts to contact, [Randy] Martin, Franklin City Manager, asking where the money would come from if the 25 police were to win the case, but they have all been unsuccessful.”

The accurate information is that two voicemails were left for City Manager Randy Martin on another topic in which he did respond to on Friday morning. The voicemails did not specifically ask Martin to respond on this law suit.

In a meeting on Friday morning, however, Martin was asked to comment on the lawsuit.

“I am not at liberty to discuss pending litigation and personnel matters as referenced in this lawsuit,” he said. “But, we will be responding to the lawsuit, formally, within the required time table of 21 days.”

Martin was also asked about policies of the City, not specifically pertaining to this individual case.

“It is City standard procedure for all City employees to have access to their personnel files upon request,” Martin said.

He also said that it is City standard operating procedure for all City employees to receive summaries of their paycheck every two weeks.

As also reported in the last article, the legal counselors for the officers are saying the City is allegedly withholding personnel documents from these plaintiffs.

When asked for a response on the allegation Martin replied, “I am not aware of any employees being denied access to any of their personnel files.”