Aldermen seek accountability from all city employees
A lengthy first meeting for the newly-elected Columbia Board of Aldermen let citizens and city employees know that the Board means business.
In a nearly three hour meeting Wednesday night, Mayor Justin McKenzie and the new Board, Wendell Hammond in Ward 1, Jason Stringer in Ward 2, Anna Evans in Ward 3, Mike Smith in Ward 4, and Edward Hough as Alderman-at-Large, set the tone for the next four years.
The meeting ran the gamut of discussions from routine reports to taking a “new direction” when it comes to city employees.
During the “New Business” portion of the meeting, McKenzie introduced a proposal to rehire city employees. Many of the employees concerned are contracted, like City Attorney Lawrence Hahn and City Engineer Sean Burns. However, the Board began discussing all of the city’s employees from top to bottom in regard to qualifications and even driving status.
“Each employee of the city works at the will and pleasure of the Board,” McKenzie said. “With justification, employees can be terminated. I would ask, however, that we rehire all employees and contracted employees at this time.”
Hammond asked if the Board could rehire on a 60-day stipulation. Evans went a step further in her proposal.
“I’d like to see them reapply for their jobs,” she said. “We can give them a new job application and do a background check, so we’ll know that nothing has happened in the last four years. They must also provide us with a valid driver’s license. Because as I read in the handbook, they are supposed to have a valid driver’s license whether they operate a city vehicle or not. With that being said, we would give them 30 days to get their information in. Within 60 days, we look at them and decide whether we are going to reappoint them to their positions or move them somewhere else. We may need to do some moving around to get the best value for our money. I’m asking that we re-look at everything within 90 days. We’ll have all the applications within 30 days and it will give us the next 60 to look at what we have and place employees where we see they will benefit us.”
Evans said she and City Clerk Donna McKenzie were looking up job descriptions.
“We need to know these things so that if we hire somebody for a certain position, we need to know exactly what they are going to be doing,” Evans said. “We also need the backgrounds. If you’re dealing with money and you have a shoplifting case, we need to know.”
Hough asked about which departments Evans was referring to for background checks. She said the police and fire departments conducted individual checks, but city hall, street department employees and other under the city hall umbrella would be part of the checks.
“So this would be for all city employees except the police department and fire department?” Hough asked.
Evans said the background checks wouldn’t necessarily be used to terminate people that were, for example, working on a street department crew.
“I’m just saying that whenever you’re employed, somebody asks you for a background check,” she said. “The fact is that we need to know a little something about you. It’s a standard protocol.”
Hahn addressed the issue and several questions raised by other Board members.
“The only thing that pops into my head is when you talk about changing job positions,” he said. “I’m not saying you can’t, I’m just saying it’s something you will want to look at. The Board hires and fires. I’d say it’s certainly something you’d want to look at. It falls within the executive department on the day-to-day job position and changes. Somebody may be doing taxes and the mayor may change them and have them doing taxes plus something else. The mayor cannot change their pay, but the mayor can redirect some activities. You, the Board, typically handle pay and the mayor handles what they are doing. This is the only gray area you may run into.”
Evans said that no one should be moved without discussions with their supervisor.
“But we may change the supervisor,” she said. “We may feel that the supervisor is not capable of handling the day-to-day operations and living up to what this Board may think it is. I’m not saying we’re trying to run the operations of every department, but this Board should feel that we have the most competent person doing the most competent thing in order to get where we want to go. It’s a new direction.”
Board members will reevaluate the idea and voted to table it until the July 19 meeting.
The Board also voted to name Hammond the voting representative for the Mississippi Municipal League convention and Hough as first alternate. Columbia Police Department Chief Mike Cooper will carry the city flag into the meetings.
Board members also voted to name Hough mayor pro tem and act in the place of the mayor when necessary.
Additionally, Board members signed their bond agreements and discussed procedural items with Hahn, including executive session.
The Board will next meet in regular session at 4 p.m. on July 19 at City Hall.
Pictured Above: Ward 3 Alderwoman Anna Evans shares a smile with a department head during the report section of the meeting as City Attorney Lawrence Hahn listens. | Photo by Mark Rogers
