City Does Not Renew Manager’s Contract

The Monticello City Council voted not to reappoint City Manager Tim Sweezey in their first regular meeting of 2014 Tuesday night. The vote was taken after a lengthy “executive” (closed) session.

Councilman Cornell Williams made the motion for reappointment of Mr. Sweezey and Councilman Larry Thurman seconded. The vote was taken and the result was a 3-2 vote not to reappoint Mr. Sweezey with Councilpersons Katherine Alexander, and David Wease and Mayor Pro tem Bobby Jacobs all voting no.

The council did unanimously vote to extend the pay of Mr. Sweezey through the end of the month so that he could get his affairs in order.

All of the following annual reappointments were passed unanimously:

•E. Ray Lanier, Judge of the Municipal Court; Timothy Bumann, Judge Pro tem of the Municipal Court; M. Joseph Reitman, Jr,, City Attorney; Bobby Norris, Police Chief; Peggy Billerman, City Clerk and Robert Jordan, City Engineer.

Judge Lanier came before the council Tuesday and informed the council that its vote on the probation service contract termination and the appointing of a new service was unlawful. In the terms of the Georgia Legislature, according to Judge Lanier, the act was not in compliance and the original probation service, JAG probation should be used in moving forward.

“The formation and contract is that of the court and the court only,” said Judge Lanier. “Failure of communication on someone’s part is evident. I only knew of the probation service termination and the new service after reading about it in The Monticello News.”

The Judge continued, “whatever your view, the appointment and termination must be a cooperation and must be between this court and the council. And this was done without the knowledge or consent of the courts.”

{{more}}

Judge Lanier said that the original contract still stood currently, and offered to work together with Chief Norris and JAG to resolve any anomalies if possible. If he then finds that there can be no resolution, a new service could be sought.

During the meeting there was some question as to where the final decision was to be made. Mayor Bryan Standifer noted that there were several ambiguities with the role of the council in the formation and the implementation of the probation services contract. Mayor Standifer took responsibility saying, “This is a mess. I apologize to CSRA and to JAG.”

“Note that there has to be a separation of judicial and government….The initial contract has some ambiguity as to the council’s place in this. My understanding is that we go back and talk about the breech of services and moving forward with services brought before the council [CSRA] and voted on twice. …I take and hold all responsibility for the confusion, and it appears that there is a binding contract between the judge and probation service,” he said.

Mayor Standifer then recommended that the police chief, JAG representative and the judge all get together to resolve any issues and decide then to continue to do business with JAG or to find a new service.

Councilman Williams questioned, “we voted on this but it doesn’t mean anything now?” “We’re going back to JAG. We appoint the judge as a council, right, so we are the governing body for the city. When we voted on the service it doesn’t mean anything? So anything we vote on tonight doesn’t matter and all of our power is taken away? It’s not right.”

Judge Lanier responded with “I think that this is based on the law. It is clear beyond any doubt that the law states that the judge will negotiate the contract. I’m not making this up and it’s not my personal opinion, it’s Georgia Legislature. It’s not a question of stripping you of your power, I’m simply asking for compliance with the Legislature.”

The Mayor agreed with the judge and said that the contract with JAG was still binding and compliant. Mayor Pro tem Bobby Jacobs said that he was for the opportunity to work out the details at the judge’s request.

The Mayor then appointed the City Attorney to act as a liaison between the branches in order for information to be passed and for everyone to know what was going on moving forward.

Representatives from Keck and Wood came before the council Tuesday and informed them that the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) was ready to move forward with the relocation of gas lines in Jones County that the city owns and are responsible for. The original conversation about this project began in January 2009 and the city has known for some time that once the project began it would cost about $150,000.

The council was informed that the project was going to begin and that bids for the work needed to begin soon. The representative said that the city had applied for funding help on this project and the GDOT came back saying that they could not approve financing for the project.

Mayor Standifer told the council that to his knowledge they did not put this item into the budget for this year. He said that they would have to go back and make adjustments for this project to be possible. “It has to be done,” he said.

“We can approve the bid advertisement tonight and look into getting the funds over the next two months,” Mayor Standifer responded when asked about the tight timeline by Councilwoman Alexander. The motion to approve advertising for bids for the Jones County relocation of gas lines was approved unanimously.

The council also voted on the low bid of $12,500 for removal of the South Pond sludge bags that were ordered moved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) some time ago. The money for removing the bags will come out of SPLOST funds.

The council also voted to implement a pay increase freeze until June 30, 2014. Mayor Pro tem Jacobs said that “in order to get ourselves more prepared for the June 2014 budget we could control and prepare for the money that we are going to have to come up with in the next budget season.” He did say that if needed there could be a case by case review if needed.

“We have some budget constraints in the future and this is just a step toward that.”

Councilman Williams asked “what’s the purpose? Everybody just got their raises and it’s just six months. I just feel like it’s a formality. There were raises to all city employees in December and most don’t expect another, especially not before June.”

The vote was passed 3-2 with councilpersons Alexander, Wease and Jacobs for and Councilmen Williams and Thurman against.

The council also voted to have a punch out list made by someone internally on the third floor rental office issues in the city government building. Mayor Pro tem Jacobs said that if they are inspected and maintained then more tenants would want to use the space and rent from the city.

The council also discussed a city utility policy for money owed and limitations on services paid for but not received. This was brought up to the council because a resident in the city had been paying for sewer for the last five years and incurred a problem recently. He said that in trying to get the problem repaired, he discovered that he was not on city sewer and in fact, had a septic tank.

Mayor Pro tem Jacobs said, “if it breaks the city, so be it. I think that someone who pays their utility bill on time and has not been using the service should get all of their money back.” “It’s just the right thing to do and the city provided no service for this person.”

There was some discussion as to whether or not the resident should get some or all of his money back from the city. The city attorney was charged with investigating the policy and getting back with the council before February. The vote on the utility policy was 3-1-1 with Mayor Pro tem Jacobs and Councilwoman Alexander and Councilman Thurman for, Councilman Williams against and Councilman Wease abstaining as it was his property and services in question.