Fired Hopewell city manager files over $6.8 million racial discrimination lawsuit

HOPEWELL, Va. (WRIC) -- A former Hopewell city employee is seeking over $6.8 million in damages following her and another woman's controversial firings. She claims that, despite her positive impact on the city, its four white councilors chose to fire her due to her race — with one of them allegedly saying she was “Blacking up” Hopewell during her tenure.

In early May, Hopewell City Council voted 4-3 to terminate city manager Concetta Manker -- as well as city clerk Brittani Williams -- from their positions "without cause."

Both firings have proven extremely controversial, with city residents speaking out alongside the former employees, saying they believed their firings to be racially motivated.

“I’ll tell you right now -- y’all are the four most disgusting individuals in this city," a constituent shouted during the May meeting, referring to the four councilors who voted in favor of the terminations.

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The day after this meeting, the city announced that Michael C. Rogers would assume the role of city manager immediately.

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Per online court records, on Thursday, July 3, Manker filed a federal lawsuit in which she accuses the city of racial discrimination.

Manker was hired as Hopewell's city manager in July 2023. Her appointment was historical in that she became both the first woman and the first Black woman to hold the role, per the new lawsuit.

"Two years later, however, the City made a different kind of history -- a historical act of illegal and unlawful behavior," the lawsuit reads. "On May 1, 2025, using maneuvers that were blatantly illegal under the governing procedural rules, the City, through its white councilors, unlawfully terminated Dr. Manker as the City Manager and did so based on her race. Indeed, the 4-to-3 termination vote fell strictly along racial lines."

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The lawsuit names the city of Hopewell and the four members of its city council who voted in favor of her termination: Mayor Johnny Partin, Vice-Mayor Rita Joyner and councilors Eonnie Ellis and Susan Daye. All four of these individual defendants are white.

The city's three Black councilors -- Yolanda Stokes, Dominic Holloway and Michael Harris -- voted against Manker and Williams' terminations. They are not being sued.

During the May meeting, Stokes said that she and the other two Black councilors were excluded from any discussions surrounding Manker and Williams' firings. They were also not included in talks on the choice to hire Rogers.

“This is one of the saddest days in the city of Hopewell that I have seen since I’ve been born, and I am born and raised in Hopewell, and I am 63 years old,” Stokes said at the time. “We have just stepped back. We have just stepped back at least 40 years.”

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Separately from the other three named councilors, Joyner is also being sued for defamation in connection with an email she reportedly sent to a constituent in August 2024. In that email, she describes Manker as "incompetent" and claims she "thwarted [Joyner] at every twist and turn."

"Joyner’s criticism did not come from a place of good faith," the lawsuit reads. "Instead, it was part and parcel of her stated beliefs that Dr. Manker did not 'look like' a City Manager and 'we do not want someone like her' running our City, statements that were interpreted by the listener as racist in nature."

Joyner reportedly made such statements about Manker's "look" during a conversation with an unidentified colleague while Manker was still being considered for the role.

The lawsuit also describes an interaction Holloway said he had with Joyner, during which he accuses her of saying Manker was "Blacking up" the city of Hopewell by hiring Black employees.

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Similar thoughts were reportedly expressed by Daye in 2023.

"[Daye] claimed that the hiring of the new police chief, an African-American male, was rigged," the lawsuit reads. "According to Daye, she 'knew' the next police chief was going to be Black because the company that Dr. Manker was also ‘Black.'”

Per the lawsuit, Daye also ran a Facebook group prior to her city council appointment where she "repeatedly attacked Dr. Manaker and her character."

"In doing so, Daye frequently misrepresented facts, promoted hate and fear and sowed confusion about Dr. Manker within the community," the lawsuit reads.

Ellis is accused of using a racist dog-whistle -- or a phrase that does not appear racist on the surface, but has a secondary meaning associated with such beliefs -- in his campaign for Hopewell City Council, which was reportedly targeted at Manker.

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In an interview with a media outlet prior to Manker's appointment, Ellis reportedly said Hopewell shouldn't "micromanage" its city managers and instead "allow [them] to run the city and oversee city staff."

"On the other hand, for the 2024 election, when Dr. Manker was serving as the full-time City Manager for the City, Ellis made no such 'hands off' remarks about the City Manager," the lawsuit reads. "Instead, he distributed a campaign flyer that contained the racist dog-whistle phrase 'we need to take our city back.'"

Claims that termination violated the law: 'Tortured procedural gymnastics'

Additionally, Manker claims that her termination was illegal on three other fronts due to how it was carried out, summarized as follows:

• One of the councilors voted despite a conflict of interest. Ellis, who dually serves as a city councilor and a battalion chief with Hopewell Fire & EMS, was both Manker's superior and her subordinate, respectively. The lawsuit claims that he should have recused himself from the vote because of this.
• The vote should not have been able to happen at all. The lawsuit asserts that the vote was "untimely." Robert's Rules of Order, which govern city council meetings, state that a vote can only be reconsidered at the same meeting or the next one. These terminations were initially voted on during a February meeting, during which Ellis abstained from voting and the result was 3-3. The vote was then reconsidered months later in May.
• Ellis should not have been able to vote in this second round. The lawsuit claims that the vote was "improper." Robert's Rules of Order state that, when a vote is reconsidered, only those who participated in the initial vote can vote again. As Ellis did not participate in the February vote, he should not have been able to vote in May.

Richard Newman, Hopewell's Commonwealth's Attorney, emailed Hopewell City Council prior to the May meeting, asking them to delay the termination votes. Within this email -- which is included in the lawsuit -- he warns that Ellis acting in violation of the conflict of interest statutes would be a class 1 misdemeanor charge and could result in Ellis being removed from office.

"Violating the Conflict of Interest statutes has severe consequences and I don't want anyone to run afoul of the law," Newman wrote.

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Despite this, the city council moved forward with the votes to terminate Manker and Williams.

"While the Council majority’s use of tortured procedural gymnastics to terminate Dr. Manker was by itself illegal, it also revealed the true motive for the vote: racism," the lawsuit reads. "The 4-3 vote along racial lines was no accident. It was the direct result of racial enmity against Dr. Manker that had been brewing since the very beginning of her tenure (and even before), and it was the inevitable outcome given the racist attitudes of one or more of the white members of the Council majority."

Manker is asking for $6,850,000 in damages, as well as a declaratory judgment that her termination was "invalid, null and void" and that "she is still, and remains, the City Manager for the City of Hopewell."