MOULTRIE, Ga. (WALB) — Colquitt County taxpayers have been left with a staggering $576,408.69 bill following a six-year legal battle over a retired employee’s pension. Newly obtained public records, internal emails, and check ledgers by WALB News 10 Investigates show that the county commission rejected a 2023 settlement that would have ended the case for just $40,000. Instead, the county chose to litigate, culminating in a losing decision from the Georgia Court of Appeals that required a massive payout from the county’s Capital Projects Fund.

The Backstory: A Promised Benefit

In 1983, local attorney William “Bill” McCalley was appointed by the Colquitt County Board of Commissioners as the county attorney. For 24 years, McCalley was reappointed on an annual basis, serving as the county’s primary legal counsel until his retirement in 2006.

During his tenure, McCalley was paid a salary for attending bi-monthly meetings and billed the county hourly for other services, receiving a Form 1099 for taxes.

In July 2000, the Colquitt County Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution to amend the county’s retirement pension plan to include the county attorney as an eligible participant. In 2005, the county executed an updated adoption agreement with the Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG), the plan administrator, formally revising the definition of an eligible employee to explicitly name the county attorney position.

McCalley started receiving annual benefit statements in 2001 from the plan administrator indicating he was fully vested. Upon retiring, McCalley began drawing his promised pension of $837.00 per month starting in December 2017.

The Shut-Off and the Lawsuit

The battle began in Sept. 2019, after McCalley had drawn just $19,027.02 in total retirement payments. The county abruptly halted his monthly checks, claiming McCalley had been mistakenly included in the plan because he was technically an independent “1099 contractor” and not a W-2 employee.

According to Robert Howell of the Howell Law Firm in Thomasville, who represented McCalley, his client desperately wanted to avoid a legal battle with his former client.

“When I got hired to represent Bill McCalley in this case, the very first thing that we did was go to meet with the county administrator with hopes of resolving this dispute without ever even having to file a lawsuit, that was our desire,” Howell said. “We felt strongly, certainly my client did and I did on his behalf as well that he was entitled to receive the retirement benefits that had been promised to him many, many years ago ...and that he worked for. And that it was inherently unfair that the county had essentially changed it’s mind on paying those to him after he retired.”

McCalley filed a breach of contract and civil rights lawsuit in 2020 to recover his remaining lifetime benefits. The county countersued, demanding McCalley return the $19,000 they had already paid him.

The Rejected $40,000 Settlement

After years of delays, depositions, and a failed first mediation, a breakthrough seemed possible in 2023 during a second mediation.

According to Howell, the county’s outside legal counsel offered a firm, written settlement of $40,000 to resolve all claims against the county. McCalley accepted the compromise to end the litigation. However, because it involved a county government, the settlement still required a formal ratification vote by the Colquitt County Board of Commissioners.

“I got a phone call from the county’s lawyer about a week after that, saying that he was very sorry to inform me that when he went to the meeting to have the county ratify and approve the $40,000 settlement, they would not do so,” Howell said. “I was shocked that they didn’t take that deal...Mr. McCalley was compromising substantially to try and get this done.”

The Taxpayer Cost Breakdown

After a rejection on the settlement cost, in July 2025, Senior Judge C. Dane Perkins ruled in favor of McCalley, entering a verdict for past-due pension payments, future benefits, damages, and McCalley’s attorney fees.

The county appealed to the Georgia Court of Appeals, which affirmed the verdict on June 30, ruling that a “unilateral mistake” regarding plan eligibility did not absolve the county of its contractual obligation.

Because of the delay, interest accumulated at a rate of $85.01 per day, according to records from the county.

On July 23, Colquitt County issued a check to satisfy the judgment.

Here is the final audited cost to county taxpayers:

• The Judgment & Interest Payout: $481,887.46(Composed of the $436,278.37 base court judgment, $45,584.09 in accrued delay interest, and a $25.00 court filing fee).
• The County’s Outside Defense Legal Fees: $94,521.23(Paid to Cumming-based law firm Jarrard & Davis, LLP, who billed taxpayers $250.00/hour for attorneys and $175.00/hour for paralegals).
• TOTAL TAXPAYER COST: $576,408.69

Howell said, “This cost the taxpayers of Colquitt County a lot of money that could have been avoided. Certainly, $40,000, even with some attorney’s fees paid up to that point, maybe $10 to 15,000, for something that could have gone away for $40 to 50,000 dollars, they ended up spending almost $600,000 and that’s a shame.”

Capital Projects Fund Used for Settlement

Open records show the county paid the $481,887.46 check from its Capital Projects Fund, an account typically reserved for brick-and-mortar infrastructure, roads, and county building projects rather than litigation payouts or personnel settlements.

Colquitt County Board of Commissioners Chairman Denver Braswell provided WALB News 10 with the following full statement explaining the board’s decision to discontinue the payments, fight the lawsuit, and use the Capital Projects Fund:

“We had to discontinue his retirement payment because there was no doubt it violated IRS rules and law, not to mention the plan document itself that governs the county’s retirement plan. And since the county attorney advising the board at the time was also the beneficiary of the agreement, we felt it appropriate to make our case and let the court decide if we were still contractually obligated to pay or not. Colquitt County taxpayers should not be obligated to pay employee benefits to independent contractors and the board has since corrected that possibility.

Where the settlement funds came from was an administrative decision and Mr. Cannon was well within his purview to pay from any of our unrestricted accounts, including the capital projects fund, as these accounts are separate for internal purposes only but can be used at any time as an extension of the general fund."

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