The Columbia Police Department is up to 22 of 25 officers and has a plan moving forward to become fully staffed, Police Chief Michael Kelly told aldermen Tuesday.
The board approved seven more personnel changes Tuesday.
“We have interviewed quality applicants, and we have hired quality applicants,” Kelly said.
Staffing at the Police Department have been a matter of great public debate since the board fired Assistant Chief Rita Pickering on Jan. 15 without publicly stating a reason and several other officers resigned for various reasons. Kelly has announced several hires and transfers since then.
On Tuesday, the board took the following actions based on Kelly’s recommendations:
• Brian Boyd, whom the city hired in November from McComb, resigned. Mayor Justin McKenzie said Boyd wanted to drive a police car home to McComb, but the city wasn’t going to allow that. Kelly said Boyd asked to be transferred to a school because the school resource officers have a take-home car that the school district pays the gas for. However, the chief said even then he wouldn’t have been allowed to go that far.
• Jonathan Harrison resigned to take a job with the Mississippi Department of Corrections that Kelly said was a considerable step up in pay and benefits. He said the department had been on notice for several months that the change might be coming.
• The board also accepted a resignation date of Sept. 21, 2018, for Marcus Ardis. Kelly said Ardis hadn’t worked since April but had stayed on reserve so he could hold his certificate. However, he said Ardis decided to pull out of the state retirement system and needed a termination date.
• Sgt. Jason Cook also moved from full-time to reserve. Kelly said he took a job with T.L. Wallace Construction climbing towers, saying he needed to do it for his family’s finances. Kelly said Cook will continue to work with the DARE program on his days off.
On new hires, the board approved hiring:
• Matthew Welch, a full-time certified officer currently working in Louisiana’s St. Tammany Parish. Kelly said Welch is recently married and his wife is the office administrator for Woodlawn.
• Aaron Blake Mobley, who was slated to graduate from the police academy Friday, Kelly said.
• Morgan Collins as an unpaid reserve officer. Kelly said he’s new to Columbia, marrying into one of the officer’s family and wants to get into law enforcement. Kelly said Collins will get some training and they may bring him on in the future if it works out.
Also, aldermen approved Fire Chief Jeff McKenzie’s request to move Firefighter James Givens from part-time to full-time. The fire chief said the city had trained him and sent him to the academy and he had previously been full-time. He takes the place of Roderick Frelix, who transferred to the Police Department in January.
Pictured Above: Columbia Police Chief Michael Kelly addresses the Board of Aldermen Tuesday while wearing the department’s new uniform. It includes a bulletproof vest that can be removed with a zipper and a bicentennial patch. | Photo by Charlie Smith
