The fired Executive Director of the Landers Center has filed suit against the DeSoto County Board of Supervisors and the county Convention and Visitors Bureau commission, or CVB, the body that owns the facility.
The DeSoto County Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) Commission is made up of seven members, five appointed by the DeSoto County Board of Supervisors, with each supervisor from Districts 1 through 5 appointing one member. The remaining two at-large members are appointed as members of the DeSoto County Economic Development Council. All commission board members serve four-year terms.
Todd Mastry, who had been executive director of the building before his termination on Jan. 6, states in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court at Oxford that his dismissal was a violation of the Civil Rights Act.
In the lawsuit, Mastry claims that Supervisor Mark Gardner has repeatedly said for over a decade that Gardner “did not want ‘Black acts’ performing at the Landers Center,” making it clear he did not want “those people,” as the lawsuit claims, performing and “those people coming down to see the performances in DeSoto County.”
Mastry’s suit states the same views were shared and advocated by fellow Supervisor Lee Caldwell and other members of the Board and the CVB.
According to the lawsuit, Mastry had repeatedly told Gardner and Caldwell he could not and would discriminate based on race in contracting with artists at the center.
Mastry said he was terminated in January once Gardner was able to have two new CVB board members put on the seven-member board who would vote to fire Mastry, who had been Executive Director since 2011. He was originally hired as assistant general manager in 2008.
The center’s Chief Financial Officer, Jason Morgan, was also terminated at the same Jan. 6 meeting as Mastry, but Morgan is not mentioned in this legal action.
Gardner reportedly had concerns in 2016 when Lil Wayne was booked to perform at the Landers Center. He approached Mastry and several CVB board members to express those concerns about the booking, saying several community members had complained to him about the performance. Gardner allegedly also had a meeting with the CVB President Charles Tackett to speak against Black artists coming to perform.
However, Mastry said it would be a First Amendment violation to discriminate and a civil rights violation if the discrimination was based on race.
The suit also charges that a CVB board member was appointed but later removed because of her support of Mastry, that Supervisors openly advocated for the end of acts with Black artists, and that Gardner and Caldwell tried to persuade CVB board members to fire Mastry, and in the end were able to appoint those who then fired Mastry.
Mastry wants a jury trial, wants the court to declare the actions of Gardner, the Board of Supervisors and the CVB board to be in violation of the Civil Rights Act, and that Mastry should receive financial damages for back pay, benefits, and interest.
When asked about the lawsuit, Gardner offered no comment, except to say the Board attorney was formulating a response. Caldwell denied the allegations.
“The allegations are not factual, they’re incorrect, but we’ll have our attorneys follow up on a later date,” Caldwell told DeSoto County News.
