The Covington County Commission upheld the firings of two men involved in the recent county employee theft ring.

The announcement came Tuesday during a continuation of Monday’s regular commission meeting after Donnie Maughon and Marcus Maughon appealed their terminations to the county’s personnel review board.

In November, two other men – William Mayhall and Gary Musgrove – were jailed on theft charges for allegedly stealing county-owned property and their employment was terminated.

Other employees were suspended and eventually terminated; however, their identities were never made public.

The Maughon brothers, who worked for the county road department, were among the group and appealed County Engineer Darren Capps’ decision to terminate them.

The personnel board met Thurs., Dec. 9, to hear the complaint and recommended that the two be suspended 90 days without pay, be given three years probation and be reinstated to their previous employment position and benefits once they had paid back all sick and vacation time paid to them so the balances could be reinstated.

However, commissioners voted unanimously to reject the board’s recommendation.

“It was the commissioners’ decision to back the engineer’s decision to terminate them,” Chairman Lynn Sasser said. “It’s that simple.”