Commissioners Fire County Manager; Animal Control Officer Also Ousted
The Jasper County Commission voted unanimously Tuesday evening to immediately terminate County Manager Greg Wood under terms of his contract, citing section 9.06.
The action came after a closed session lasting nearly an hour, and was applauded by many in the audience. The commissioners then agreed for Assistant County Manager/Chief Financial Officer Lorri Smith to serve as interim county manager. They also agreed to compensate Mrs. Smith $10,000 annually for the additional duties.
The meeting was called Tuesday primarily to deal with animal control issues, and the evaluation of the county manager was added as a topic last week.
The meeting had to be moved from the regular commission meeting room on the ground floor of the Courthouse upstairs to the small courtroom because of the number of people attending.
Citizen comments, which are limited to three minutes per person and a total of 30 minutes took up the allotted time. Most of the people spoke on the animal control issue.
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However, most of the issues stemmed from actions of Animal Control Director Kelley Bowen, and she was terminated last Friday. After the commission heard from the animal control committee at its regular meeting last Monday, it asked assistant County Manager Lorri Smith to look into the allegations.
When Mrs. Smith spoke to the commissioners she outlined the reasons why Ms. Bowen was fired.
One of the people who spoke at the meeting was Dianne Jones who operates Hometown Animal Rescue in Rockdale County. She said that she had previous dealings with Ms. Bowen and they were not good. She said, “I’m here tonight to offer my help, my rescue, my volunteers—we want to help.” She mentioned how they raise money to purchase items that are not typically in an animal control budget.
In Mrs. Smith’s report to the board, besides telling them that Ms. Bowen was fired, she recommended that the commission make it clear that the newly adopted Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) supersede the previous ones. She also said the animal control committee was to meet again on Thursday and was planning to develop checklists, and continue making recommendations for improvements at animal control. She said that the county basically must decide if it wants a shelter or a humane society.
Mrs. Smith suggested that Recreation Director Wes Chester, who has been supervising animal control the last few weeks while Ms. Bowen was out sick and since her departure, continue to have supervisory control over the shelter. In addition, she recommends that a senior officer/kennel attendant be employed for 40 hours a week at $11 per hour. In addition, she recommended two part-time people, 30 hours each, with the more experience one making $9.50 per hour, and the other making $8 per hour. She said that the phone rings off the hook at animal control, and under the re-structuring, there would be two people at the kennel almost whenever it is open. Therefore, phones can be answered, cages can be cleaned, and the work can get done.
The commissioners voted to accept Mrs. Smith’s recommendation.
