Franklin, Tenn., city engineer David Parker has received a 9 percent pay raise after he dropped his lawsuit against the city. Last month he was facing a five-day suspension and a year's probation. He served the five-day suspension and was in the middle of his probationary period when he filed suit.
The fracas started when city officials discovered "hundreds" of adult images on Parker's computer. In response to the punishment, Parker said that all of the images were emailed to him from other people, and that he thought he had deleted them.
This week saw Parker drop the lawsuit at roughly the same time his pay jump from $108,285 to $119,923. He has also seen an increase in the stature of his job title and the scope of his responsibilities.
"I'm very confident that David Parker can do the job he's been assigned," said Franklin Mayor John Schroer, who conceded that Parker had committed the acts for which he was punished.
"Should [the adult content] have been taken off his computer?" Schroer said. "Yes. Did he have bad judgment? Yes. It's not a habit. He took five days suspension and he's on probation for a year — that was the punishment."