Former Montgomery director of Emergency Communications Carl Fortner filed a report with the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division on Friday for alleged workplace discrimination.
Fortner was hired by the City of Montgomery's Emergency Communications 911 in November 2023, but was placed on administrative leave in September 2024 and eventually fired. He is appealing his termination.
Fortner told 1819 News on Friday that he filed a "criminal complaint against Mayor Steven Reed and his staff for violating 18 USC 241 Conspiracy Against Rights."
According to a copy of the report he filed with the DOJ Civil Rights Division, Fortner states, "I am a white male. I became the 911 Center Director for the City of Montgomery, AL in November of 2023, having scored number 1 on the roster and after two interviews. As it turned out, the second person on the roster was a black female with far fewer qualifications and less experience. Over the next several months, that black female encouraged employees to complain to the Inspector General about policies that were being implemented. The black female herself also complained."
"My boss at the time (a white male Chief of Staff, and a white male Inspector General) found me innocent of any wrongdoing. Several months later, after I made a social media post in defense of my Center and staff that the black Mayor didn't like (but a valid exercise of my First Amendment right to free speech) a new black Chief of Staff and a new black Inspector General reopened the investigation and later found me guilty of all the charges against me. I was placed on paid administrative leave on September 30, 2024. The black Mayor, and his black Chief of Staff promoted the previously passed over black female to Interim Director within 18 hours," Fortner said in the report. "In late July of 2025 the Mayor's black representative, a retired County court judge, also found me guilty of all the alleged policy violations and my employment was terminated. I immediately filed an appeal with the Montgomery Personnel Board, but the City delayed the hearing around October because the black Mayor's black Chief of Staff resigned the week before my appeal was to be heard. My hearing date is now set for Monday, January 12, 2026. Regardless of the outcome of that hearing, I believe that Montgomery's Mayor, his black Chief of Staff, his black Inspector General, his black Chief Administrative Officer and his white female City Attorney conspired to violate my First Amendment right to free speech, my Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection, and my Civil Rights related to discrimination and employment discrimination. While I'm not an attorney, I also believe that 18 USC 241 was violated by the above-mentioned co-conspirators."
He continued, "For the last 15 months I've felt like I was being politically and administratively lynched by a majority-black (but all DEI) mob trying to settle scores against the white community in the city made famous by Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. Racial problems need to be solved in Montgomery, Alabama once and for all!"
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