KENNESAW — Four city of Kennesaw employees have filed suit in federal court alleging they were part of a “witch hunt,” in which city officials targeted the white plaintiffs because of their race to show that the city would not tolerate offensive e-mails.

The suit is in relation to a March 2009-filed lawsuit, in which two black workers in the city’s Public Works Department and one former worker from Korea alleged racial discrimination amid a hostile work environment. Plaintiffs alleged they were subjected to racial slurs and racially charged jokes, and claimed that offensive e-mails were circulated by city employees. That suit was settled. Five city employees were let go after the city investigated and former Councilman John Dowdy resigned his seat after the lawsuit was filed. Plaintiffs Willie Smith, Stanley Mitchell, Gary Redd and the law firm representing them were paid $1.8 million.

“There were at least 20 white employees who were selected for their race to make a point in response to the Smith case,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney David Cox, of Pekor and Associates in Atlanta.

The most recent suit, which is against the city, Mayor Mark Mathews, City Manager Steve Kennedy and Human Resources Director Richard Klein, was filed on Feb. 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia by police Officers Scott Lewis and Scott Luther, and Department of Public Safety workers Linda Johnson and Susan Power — who claim they were deprived of their civil rights.

Mathews said he had not yet been served and did not want to speak directly about the lawsuit. However, he said the city did not single anyone out in its investigation and, “We did everything we could to make a work environment that is non-discriminatory.”

According to the lawsuit, one week after the Smith plaintiffs filed suit, Kennedy and Klein directed the city’s Information Technology Director Teri Chambers to search e-mail archives for offensive content that possibly violated the city’s Internet and Email Usage policy.

E-mails were found to be in violation. However, the suit claims only white employees, including the four plaintiffs, were disciplined for violating the e-mail policy — even though non-white employees had the same e-mails in their archives.

“We’re not saying city of Kennesaw hates white employees, that’s not the basis of this suit,” Cox said. “But in this case, they chose white employees to discipline. They chose them because of race. Higher ups were also not disciplined. The reasoning in that is, it would not have helped them at all in the Smith case.”

He said city officials needed to show that they were disciplining white employees. There were complaints that the city had ignored Smith, Mitchell and Redd’s allegations of racial slurs, jokes and e-mails, Cox said.

According to the lawsuit, “These e-mails included depictions of a ‘ghetto wedding’ and a link to an interactive online video game called ‘Border Patrol,’ involving the shooting and killing of ‘wetbacks.’ City officials took no action in response to the Smith plaintiffs’ complaints.

“Upon information and belief, in response to the Smith plaintiffs’ allegations in their (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) charges and their subsequent lawsuit, city officials took steps to show that they had or, in fact, would discipline employees, but as it turned out, only white employees, for e-mails that contained racially offensive content.”

Additionally, Cox said several of the e-mails “had not been sent, just received” by white employees who were disciplined.

Moreover, in response to an open records request, which “was initiated by the Smith plaintiffs or was in some way associated with their EEOC allegations,” according to the lawsuit, the city revised its e-mail and Internet usage policy and Kennedy sent a memorandum regarding the changes to employees. In his Dec. 17, 2008, memo, Kennedy stated that future violations would result in disciplinary action, according to the suit.

“None of the e-mail content upon which Plaintiffs’ disciplinary action was based occurred after the December 17, 2008, memorandum and policy revision stating that employees would be disciplined for future infractions,” the lawsuit states. “Moreover, the e-mail content upon which Plaintiffs’ discipline was based was also contained within the e-mail archives of non-white employees (and, indeed, several City officials) who were not disciplined.”

The two police officers and two public safety workers were suspended for three to 10 days, Cox said.

The plaintiffs are seeking recovery of back pay and benefits, unspecified monetary damages and attorneys’ fees, among others.