Photo provided by Reporter Newspapers

The Brookhaven Post has obtained a statement from the city’s former spokesperson about the events that led to the city firing her.

Rosemary Taylor was let go, “after she exhibited conduct unbecoming of a city employee” at the Brookhaven Cherry Blossom Festival, City Manager Marie Garrett told Reporter Newspapers. According to WSB-TV, According to WSB-TV, Taylor allegedly told a photographer at the festival about two models hired to help promote the event were not “the type of people the city of Brookhaven wants representing it.” Both of the models are minorities.

Taylor told The Post that racism wasn’t behind her actions during the festival. She said the story was a self-serving one invented by the photographer after she complained about his “lack of professionalism.”

“The photographer, Nelson Jones, was hired in advance of me coming to the city,” Taylor told The Post. “The tourism manager told me Mr. Jones was a ‘political hire’ and that he had been paid in advance for all three days of the festival plus a precluding kick-off party. I thought the advance payment was unusual and when I asked for specifics on the ‘political hire’ the tourism manager simply said that the mayor and council knew him.”

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