Employment Extension Denied

The city council had denied employment extensions for three of the city’s directors earlier on in the week, even though many of the council members admitted that the mayor, Tony Mack, would most likely reappoint those same directors the following day. After the votes were made, the appointments for two of the employees came to an end. Those two employees were Harold Hall and Carmen Melendez.  Two directors, Cleveland Thompson and Walter Denson were lucky, as they both received an extension, which is set to last for another 90 days.

There had been a lot of controversy, which included all types of arguments between council members. Eventually, the council members finally came to a vote, choosing to act on the appointments. As of right now, there are nine directors of the department and five of those directors are currently serving as acting directors instead of becoming permanent directors for the city and its department. Because of city rules, those acting directors are only supposed to serve within the position for approximately 90 days and do not receive an extension. However, while the rule is set in place, Mack’s administration has ignored it quite often. The former Mayor, Douglas Palmer, was also known to have ignored those particular rules.

Council members voted together last month, towards the end of May, scheduling a time to get together with the Mayor and discuss the positions of the directors. However, when meeting with the council, Mayor Mack claimed that he did not know anything about the reviews or the date that was set. In fact, he even asked when the date was for the meeting, in which councilwoman Phyllis Holly-Ward stated that the meeting was on that particular today.

In the meantime, some council members were not happy with Leona Baylor because at the time, she only had a draft of the resolution created, in which council members would have the opportunity to vote on. Holly-Ward pointed out that the council had already set the meeting for the purpose of voting with one another and also said that many council members were frustrated because the proceedings seemed to be moving at such snail’s pace. Most council members simply wanted to be able to move forward from it, believing that it was an urgent matter that should be voted on and resolved, not put off any longer. In fact, one councilman, Alex Bethea, believed that there was no need to wait on the discussion and felt as though it should happen right away. He was against postponing the whole ordeal because it had been something that all council members were discussing and working on with one another for several months and he, along with other council members, felt that there was no need to prolong the agony.