Former Martinsville City Manager Aretha Ferrell-Benavides called her recent firing retaliation for having filed a civil rights-related complaint a month prior.
According to her statement, on July 2 Ferrell-Benavides’ attorney filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, citing several issues. The complaint alleges discrimination on the basis of gender, race and color.
On Thursday, councilors voted 4-1, with Mayor L.C. Jones dissenting, to terminate Ferrell-Benavides. In her official statement, she suggests the termination was a reaction to her July 2 filing.
“I am compelled to address the circumstances surrounding my recent termination, which I firmly assert was both unjustified and retaliatory in nature,” Ferrell-Benavides wrote in her statement. “Contrary to the narrative being circulated, I have maintained a consistent record of integrity, professionalism, and documented performance. The decision to terminate my employment did not stem from legitimate misconduct, but rather from my efforts to raise internal hiring standards, challenge outdated practices, and improve the quality of services provided to residents.”
EEOC procedure dictates they send notice to an employer 10 days after a complaint is made. Jones did not respond to a request to confirm receipt of an EEOC notice before this story was published Friday evening.
Ferrell-Benavides made her comments to Cardinal News on the morning of and the morning after Martinsville’s city council vote to terminate her as manager. The council’s decision came weeks after they voted to raise the manager’s annual salary to $215,000.
In the hours prior to council’s decision, Ferrell-Benavides spoke with Cardinal News to provide background about the myriad controversies facing the city, including spending concerns, and a March incident in which a sheriff’s deputy escorted out of the building council member Aaron Rawls prior to the meeting’s end.
Writing on the wall
It was around the March incident, Ferrell-Benavides said, that she knew her time as Martinsville city manager was winding down. Hired in September 2023 in a unanimous city council vote, Ferrell-Benavides began a new job search in January 2025, in the midst of pay adjustment negotiations with the city.
She said the reconfiguration of the city council following last year’s elections, in which newcomers Councilors Rayshaun Gravely and Julian Mei were elected, alongside incumbent Kathy Lawson, to serve, was the catalyst for her job search.
She paused that search, encouraged by the January public retreat in which she felt a consensus was established among officials. That changed, as the weeks passed, culminating in the March incident in which Rawls was escorted from a public meeting by a deputy. Rawls accused Ferrell-Benavides, in a civil rights suit, of signaling the deputy to have him removed.
She submitted her application for employment in the Texas city of Elgin on April 26.
Elgin announced, on July 25, Ferrell-Benavides was among a handful of candidates under consideration. The city has not announced who they plan to hire.
“Elgin was back in Texas, I looked at them and I had applied to other jobs along the way,” Ferrell-Benavides said.
“If you look at what was happening at that time … there was just so much happening, I did not feel that I was going to be able to continue,” Ferrell-Benavides said. “At the same time I have not been spending time at home with my grandmother and my mother.”
Ferrell-Benavides said her grandmother, mother, and much of her family lives in Texas which made the Elgin position attractive.
Both the administrative leave and the termination came as a surprise to Ferrell-Benavides. She said that when she first took the job, she had intended to stay a while.
“My excitement for the city grew and grew,” Ferrell-Benavides said. “That’s how I felt about the people of Martinsville from the moment I got there. I felt at home and that’s why I bought a home and decided to make it my home.”
Auditing training and travel
At their July closed session, city councilors approved the undertaking of a forensic audit of the city’s expenditures, particularly those pertaining to travel and training. Following the council’s decision to terminate, Mayor L.C. Jones said he’d voted against the termination because he preferred to wait until the results of the audit were made available.
“I would definitely be in favor of going along with the rest of the council, but at this particular time I wanted to see the full scope of the investigation,” Jones said.
The audit, to be performed by an outside accounting firm, will go over expenditure data provided by the city. Jones said the council has been briefed on some findings but the full report will be made available in the coming weeks.
Ferrell-Benavides welcomed the audit, adding that the conferences and training-related expenses were above board. She said they were necessary given how little experience city staff had when councilors first hired her in 2023.
“As far as staff and council is concerned, I think that’s a work in progress,” Ferrell-Benavides said.
In June, Rawls filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the city for access to a dataset of monthly expenses. Ferrell-Benavides said the dataset showed travel-related expenditures but didn’t paint a complete picture. She said that some expenses were paid for out of pocket while others were reimbursed, figures that wouldn’t show up in the dataset.
What’s next
Ferrell-Benavides’ termination likely won’t be the final chapter in the ongoing controversy.
Following the decision to terminate the city manager and a motion to adjourn which was then withdrawn, councilors also voted to give “authorization to provide pertinent facts of the investigation to the commonwealth’s attorney.” This move could be the precursor to legal proceedings or it could, according to Lawson, also serve as a mere precaution.
“We have to cover our bases,” Lawson said, adding that referring information to the commonwealth’s attorney doesn’t always precede legal action. “It could always just be a further investigation.”
As of now, it isn’t clear if the council’s information submission to the commonwealth’s attorney’s office will result in further action.
In June, Rawls filed a civil rights complaint against the former manager and a sheriff’s deputy stemming from the March incident in which Rawls, an elected official, was escorted from the building during a regular session.
Rawls alleges that the deputy who escorted him away from the meeting was signaled to do so by the former city manager. In her response to the suit, Ferrell-Benavides denies having signaled the deputy. In the deputy’s official statement, she said she received cues from both the city manager and the mayor to have Rawls removed.
The civil rights suit is ongoing.
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