The Progress-Index
PETERSBURG – A case between former city attorney Joseph Preston and Petersburg City Council is progressing to a jury trial after a federal judge ruled that there are valid questions over the “cause” used to terminate him.
If the jury sides with Preston, he will be entitled to six-months severance equal to $77,500. Trial was set this week for Oct. 18 and 19 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
On March 26, the court said that Preston could continue his case for Breach of Contract, and could bring his case for severance before a jury. The court also issued three summary judgements that ended two other claims against Petersburg, and one defamation claim against WTVR for its report on the meeting where he was fired in Sept. 2018.
Turille’s first lead government job was as the Town Administrator for St. Pauls, N.C. where he served from 2007 until 2013. He then became the Town Manager for North Topsail Beach N.C. until 2018 when he moved to Essex County as the Deputy County Administrator. Before achieving a leadership role, he had a number of Analyst positions at places like The World Bank, Norrell Financial, Interim Accounting and Strategic Reconnaissance.
An accomplishments section on his resume says that he helped obtain funding for the St. Pauls Industrial Park, resulting in a $100,000,000 investment which created 1,100 jobs in the lowest-income county of North Carolina. It also says he wrote $5,000,000 in grants which helped rehabilitate an aging water-sewer infrastructure and helped create stricter enforcement of housing code.