Recently, the Georgia Forestry Commission became aware of a serious situation in which one of our employees made an inappropriate and insensitive comment on a personal Facebook post. The comment reflected poorly on the agency and inquiries from the public received our immediate attention. Balancing the rights of individuals to express their thoughts with the agency’s interest in fostering an environment of respect for all employees and customers can be challenging. While personnel matters are confidential by law, we have acted upon the results of an internal investigation, taking steps we believe are appropriate given the facts and circumstances.

The GFC family stands firmly on a foundation of inclusiveness and respect for all people at all times. The suggestion or advocacy of violence in any form is contrary to our values and culture. Discrimination has absolutely no place in our agency, and its appearance on any platform, including the personal platforms of anyone affiliated with the GFC, is reprehensible.

GFC prides itself on serving all Georgia citizens in a manner that fosters confidence in our agency and our state. We are committed to ensuring that all of our employees share these same objectives.

9 thoughts on “GFC’s Stance on Respect and Discrimination

  1. As a strong leader of this community I demand the individual who displayed blant opressive racist behavior be fired from his job.

  2. His remarks we’re very inappropriate and an investigation really isn’t necessary. Please terminate him immediately. We don’t need people like him serving our community.

  3. Please terminate this employee. He was bold enough to post racist, violent, hate filled and threatening messages. You guys are supposed to serve the community and how can that community be served while letting this man continue to work for you? There has been numerous examples of employees making racist/violent remarks and the employer swiftly terminating the employee. You can do the same. There are plenty of people counting on you to make the right decision.

  4. Please terminate him immediately I was appalled to see the racist comments he put online it’s time for a change and if you guys support this guy that means you guys don’t won’t change.

  5. If you really mean it when you say “the GFC family stands firmly on a foundation of inclusiveness and respect for all people at all times”, your employee should be terminated. He displayed the exact opposite of everything stated in the above statement. Not much to investigate.

  6. To stand for inclusiveness and to allow an employee to make anyone feel excluded then immediate action is needed to make the excluded feel included again. The Georgia forestry commission is a staple in most Georgia communities in some capacity. If this is the type of person that is working there then people can’t feel safe or confident without action from the GFC.

  7. I am appalled, but not surprised to see that a Georgia Government employee that displays blatantly racist and inflammatory behavior is still employed.

    Your employees represent your agency and your agency is funded by taxpayers (me).

    Given budget cuts which will require personnel cuts, this should be a very easy decision.

    I will be reaching out to my elected officials to take a hard look at this situation.

    Do the right thing.

  8. Georgia Forestry Commission while the stance is appreciated, I am interested in
    the specific actions that your organization will take to make Georgia Forestry Commission more diverse.

    Specifically:

    What measures are in place to increase diversity?

    What training is available for employees around unconscious bias?

    Do you have goals in place for hiring, promoting and pay equity for people of color?

    How is leadership being held accountable?

    1. Thank you for your questions and interest in our agency. The questions you raised are relevant and timely. While we currently have outreach programs and diversity training, there is always room for improvement and we are committed to finding additional ways to reach a more diverse applicant pool and to deliver training that raises the awareness of our employees. We will include your questions in our discussions about how to make those changes and we look forward to sharing publicly our objectives and plans for ensuring that we reflect the values of our state.

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