Volume # 2, Edition # 11 May 8, 2002
May 8
Our meeting of the city council on Tuesday, April 30th to provide suspended Police Chief Ned Smiddy with the supposedly required hearing, turned out to be very involved and complex. It had been my intention to allow presentation of the charges again Chief Smiddy, to hear the answer to those charges and then to give the council the opportunity to make a decision as to whether or not to reinstate Smiddy to active duty.
However Dave Dunaway, Smiddy's attorney, requested an opportunity to address the council immediately after we convened and I asked the members as to whether or not they had any opposition to granting that request. No member of council expressed any opposition so I allowed Dunaway to speak. He made the statement that the hearing was not even required - and as I and at least part of the members understood what he said - the hearing may have actually been illegal since he contended that the city administrator had acted illegally in even making the termination of Smiddy's employment in the first place. Dunaway insisted that the city charter and personnel policies clearly exempt the position of police chief from the authority of the city administrator and that only the mayor and council could take such disciplinary action against him.
City attorney Jeff Hall contested Dunaway's contentions. He insisted that the hearing was a requirement under the charter although the city administrator had acted entirely alone in taking the disciplinary action against Smiddy. And he wanted the charges heard by the council. However after hearing Dunaway insist that a violation of Chief Smiddy's civil rights has occurred and with some council members fearing possible financial repercussions against the city of Jellico for failure to take corrective action, a motion was made, seconded and a vote taken to restore him to active duty and to remove all records of the termination from his personnel file.
The vote taken resulted in a 3-3 tie. Two new members stated that they had not seen or even heard a list of the charges against Smiddy and would not vote in favor of the motion due to that fact. (Although City Administrator Tom Barclay did make comments several times during the meeting, he did not present the charges.) The other two new members had obtained lists of the charges for themselves and they both stated that they did not feel that the charges merited the termination. And of course I and the two incumbent members of council had been given copies of the charges in earlier correspondence. (The question was raised as to why all of the new members of council had not been furnished a list of the charges in preparation for the meeting but no explanation was given.)
I was placed in the position of having to break the tie and I voted in favor of placing Chief Smiddy back to work due to several reasons: the contention that the suspension had not been carried out according to the provisions of the charter; the further contention that the city administrator did not have the authority to take such disciplinary action; the pending civil rights litigation in the case and any possible ruling that could result in financial loss to the city of Jellico; the contention that irreparable harm has been done to Smiddy's health and reputation brought about by the unresolved issue that has existed for such an extended period of time since the termination first occurred on Janaury 11th; and of course due to the fact that the city administrator had earlier restored Smiddy to full pay for at least a period of time although he was not working in any capacity for the city.
And weighing very heavy in my decision was the fact that Chief Smiddy had never before been brought before the council for any charges of misconduct or failure to satisfactorily perform his duty in well over twenty years of service to our town. But the overall determining factor was correspondence from CA Barclay himself to Chief Smiddy dated January 11, 2002 in which Barclay stated, "Upon receipt of your (Smiddy's) written appeal, I will schedule a meeting with you and if necessary, schedule a hearing before the mayor and alderman within ten days. The decision of the board and mayor shall be final". That written commitment placed the responsibility squarely upon the board's shoulders.
Elected officials are sworn to uphold the charter when the provisions of the charter are clear. But in my mind there were definite questions as to what was the correct action to take according to our charter. The key phrase that I kept coming back to in the charter indicated that the final say was left up to the Mayor/Council (as Barclay also stated in his letter) and that we were not only authorized to take action but had an obligation to do so.
The workshop on Thursday, May 2nd dealt with the budget and the proposed charter change. Members of council were hoping to have enough information compiled in order for City Attorney Jeff Hall to have a draft copy ready for a special call meeting this Thursday evening (May 9th) at 7:00 PM.. If an acceptable copy is ready by that time, the council will take a vote on the resolution necessary for forwarding the roposed charter to the Tennessee State Legislature.
The resignation of Barclay as CA has made it imperative that the change back to the mayor/council form of government be enacted at the earliest possible date. In the meantime, I want to remind everyone that members of council will oversee the various departments: vice-mayor and councilman Alvin Evans - parks/recreation/tourism; councilman Jim Dobson - public safety; councilman Jeff Brown -sanitation; councilman John Davenport - finance; councilman Dwight Osborn - economic development (pending further action); and councilman Clarence Gene Beck- streets.
(We will also work more this Thursday night on the city budget for 2002-2003. In accomplishing that task, we face the age old problem of having too much to be done and too little with which to do it!)
Downtown renovation and revitalization has become a regular topic of discussion at meetings of the Jellico Planning Commission as well as the city council. Both bodies have unanimously agreed to request downtown property owners that have not already done so, to renovate their buildings. An open letter will be published to that effect in the hopes that action will be taken voluntarily by the owners of the buildings needing renovation.
We have the summer before us and as was stated during the planning commission meeting, we need to
take maximum benefit of that fact and get as much accomplished as possible before the season ends. And
improving our downtown is just good business. Renovating a building not only increases its value but it also increases the value of surrounding buildings. Everybody benefits!
I certainly want to thank the volunteers from the Jellico Community Hospital for the work they did as part of our "Jelllico Clean-up, Paint-up, Fix-up Week". The group created flower boxes around the stage and planted a Bradford Pear tree, flowers and shrubs in Veterans Park Annex. (I had a call from a veteran wanting to know who had done the work around our Veterans Monument because he stated that he wanted to contact those individuals and to personally thank them for that work.)
And I want to thank all other individuals, businesses and organizations that got involved. And we need to keep the work going although the special week has ended. As mentioned above, if every resident and/or business owner improved their individual location, one can imagine how much better our entire town would look.
Jellico Community Hospital representatives have also informed me that they do intend to once again set up activities in Veterans Park Annex for the Fourth of July. That is good news for everybody and especially for the kids who really have a good time.
As of last Friday, seven or eight had reportedly picked up applications for the posted position of Director of Tourism for the City of Jellico (I did not know the identity of any at the time this article was written.)
I want to remind everyone of the May 24th deadline (close of business day) for submitting applications along with resumes' of training and experience.
The council will give careful consideration to all applications and then select three to five for interviews. And every effort will be made to select the most capable individual for the job.
Enter
your comments here
in the special forum that Interstate 2000, Inc. has created for response to
and discussion of these Mayor's Columns.