Atlanta Housing Authority Beats Whistleblower’s Retaliation Suit

The Atlanta Housing Authority defeated a former attorney’s retaliation suit because she didn’t show a reasonable belief that she was fired for calling attention to gross mismanagement by the authority’s chief executive officer, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed Wednesday.

Karen Fuerst asserted that she was fired in violation of the National Defense Authorization Act’s whistleblower provisions for challenging the CEO’s negotiating tactics with a local property developer related to efforts to build affordable housing.

Fuerst said the CEO planned to force the developer to renegotiate an agreement would that threaten the authority’s ability to qualify for tax credits, which would in ...