Kevin Bannon intends to seek $5 million in damages against Mercer County.
TRENTON -- Kevin Bannon, the former executive director of the Mercer County Park Commission who was fired in June during an ongoing state investigation, filed notice Tuesday that he intends to sue Mercer County.
The claim, filed in the Mercer County Counsel's office, says Bannon intends to seek $5 million in damages.
In the filing, Bannon says the county disparaged his reputation, county employees defamed him and all of it occurred without any first-hand information as to any wrongdoing, criminal or otherwise.
Mercer County spokeswoman Julie Willmot said the county will vigorously defend the allegations.
Bannon had been on a two-month paid leave when the the Mercer County Park Commission voted 7-1 to terminate him in June. He was making $135,275 a year in a post he held since March 2004.
His termination came after Mercer County confirmed a state Attorney General's Office corruption investigation at the commission in April, following the execution of a search warrant at two commission facilities.
The focus of the investigation was the nonprofit Friends of Mercer County Parks, which Bannon helped found, according to the county. No charges have been announced by state authorities.
Bannon's attorney Jack Furlong filed the claim Monday, and was suspicious of it's surfacing Tuesday.
Parks director fired as corruption probe continues
"Why am I not surprised that I filed a document privately after business hours yesterday, only to find it in the hands of the media before close of business today?" Furlong asked.
Such notices are public documents.
In it, Furlong wrote that from the day the state investigation was announced until Bannon's firing, Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes repeatedly stressed that the park commission was an independent agency with it's own authority, but that county employees continually attacked Bannon's reputation.
The claim says the park commissioners who run the commission were then pressured by county officials to fire Bannon.
"That gravamen of the complaint is that the county has insisted that the park commission is an independent entity, but when push came to shove, the county interfered," and it led to Bannon's termination, Furlong said.
In June, when the commission fired Bannon, Hughes said the commission's action was a decision he supported and signaled a "change in direction."
The claim also says Bannon was subjected to a hostile work environment from all the pressure he had on the job to donate time and money to political candidates and committees.
"He was discharged from his position in part out of concern that his response to the criminal investigation might be to reveal this information," the claim says.
Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
