A former City

of Fayetteville employee and a current employee have filed a sexual harassment

lawsuit against the city, former city manager Michael Bryant and current

city manager Joe Morton.

The suit, which

was filed in federal court in Newnan Tuesday, claims that Bryant made

sexual advances towards former Main Street program director Sherri Anderson

and current accounting clerk Amanda Jones.

The suit alleges

that both Anderson and Jones were harassed by Bryant and other city employees

for making their claims of sexual harassment against Bryant.

Bryant "would

initiate conversations of a sexual and personal nature" with Anderson

"on virtually a daily basis," the lawsuit claims.

Anderson reported

the incidents of sexual harassment against herself and Jones to Fayetteville

councilman Al Hovey-King, though the city took no timely action on the

allegations, the suit alleges. Hovey-King is not named individually in

the suit.

"Even

after the city became aware of Bryant's sexual harassment of Anderson

and others, it took no remedial action to stop Bryant's unlawful conduct

and permitted Bryant to remain on the job," the suit states. "By

failing to take prompt remedial action, the city permitted Bryant to retaliate

against plaintiffs for their complaints of sexual harassment."

Bryant resigned

in February of this year while the city council began to investigate the

claims against him. Morton eventually was hired to replace him as city

manager.

Anderson and

Jones both claim they were retaliated against for reporting the sexual

harassment claims, the suit states. They received unfair criticism of

their work as part of that retaliation, the suit alleges.

The retaliation

continued even after Morton had taken over as city manager, the suit contends.

Anderson resigned

in August, although the suit alleges that the resignation constitutes

"constructive termination."

In the suit,

Jones contends that at one time she became so afraid of Bryant that she

stayed at the fire station with her husband, fire chief Alan Jones. Several

days later, Bryant was put on administrative leave.

Other city

employees have unfairly criticized her work as part of the retribution

against her sexual harassment claims, the suit alleges.

Both Anderson

and Jones suffered severe emotional distress, humiliation and sadness

due to the harassment they received, the suit states.