Board overrides mayor’s veto


Thursday, September 28, 2006
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Board overrides mayor’s veto

By SUE WATSON
Staff Writer

A growing schism between the Holly Springs Board of Aldermen and Mayor Andre’ DeBerry widened a bit more last week with a 5-0 vote to override the mayor’s veto of the board’s pick for police chief.

The board also voted unanimously to offer the general manager position at Holly Springs Utility Department to the last remaining candidate in the applicant pool after another candidate withdrew his application.

Following the override of DeBerry’s veto, the mayor asked to make a statement and launched into a lengthy talk on the three branches of government and duties of the executive and legislative branches. He said the mayor has authority by law to make recommendations for candidates for heads of departments and questioned whether the board has the authority to “screen” an applicant pool or to override his recommendation.

DeBerry said the board, by its override of his veto of a motion to offer the police chief job to an applicant, had “diminished” the position of mayor, but not him personally.

DeBerry questioned the authority of the board to review the resumes of an applicant pool or screen candidates. He asserted that screening of the applicant pool is the right of the mayor.

The department heads choose those whom they want to recommend from a pool of applicants, but he is not given the same privilege, the mayor alleged.

Back in June of this year, DeBerry vetoed board action when aldermen voted to require the mayor to submit all copies of job applications for department heads one day after the deadline listed in the job vacancy advertisement.

The board of aldermen and the mayor have been in adversarial positions a few times in recent years after the board overrode at least two vetoes by the mayor, only one which involved the hiring of a department head.

The other veto overridden by the board came in 2005 in the run up to the municipal elections. DeBerry vetoed a motion by the board to allow alderman Garrie Colhoun to rescind his vote for a financial study the mayor was pushing that involved a contract offer to International Forex Financial Group to do a study of the city’s bond rating.

At the meeting, Alfred Moore said the board of aldermen should speak since DeBerry had spoken on who has authority to recommend someone for a position.

Alderman Russell Johnson defended the board, saying he had researched the question and the law and felt the board was within the bounds of the law in overriding the mayor’s veto in the selection of a candidate for police chief and in becoming involved in the interviewing of candidates.

Aldermen Nancy Hutchens, Tim Liddy and Naylond Hayes made statements in agreement with Johnson.

In an interview after the meeting, Hutchens said if the mayor had authority to hire anyone he wanted without board approval, there would be no need to have a board of aldermen. She said the board has sole authority to hire any city employee, either a candidate recommended by the mayor or another applicant who may not be the mayor’s first choice.

Hutchens said the attorney general opinions she studied indicate that there is a gray area in the law regarding who has the authority to recommend candidates to the board of aldermen for hire.

Turnovers of the heads of departments in Holly Springs is infrequent, usually occurring at the time of retirement.

The last two departments that had new leaders in Holly Springs was the hiring of Information Technology Center director Ken Robinson, appointment of Belinda McDonald as city clerk last year and the hiring of Robert Burby as police chief. Burby spent about two years in Holly Springs before accepting a position in Texas.

In other business, the board:

heard a presentation from Mike Slaughter, with the urban planning firm Slaughter and Associates LLC in Oxford.
He explained the types of services his company offers municipalities and described the annexation process.

“We do not want it on the record the city is looking at annexation,” Slaughter said. “I was just invited by the mayor to speak.”
heard a complaint about treatment of family members by a police officer from Barry Thomas. He said the officer provokes situations with people and hassled his son, used language, and would not one of his relatives get the name of the other party in an accident.
“I want to go on record I have a major problem with this guy,” Thomas said. “We’ve had incident after incident with this gentleman.”

DeBerry said such acts are not acceptable to the city, but the city does not take disciplinary action over isolated incidents.

“Please take a look at it; I didn’t list them all,” Thomas said.

Chief Patricia Selman said Thomas had not come to her with the complaint after he alleged he had gone to the police department and nothing was done.
approved the advertising for a computer technician at the Information Technology Center but took no action on a request from director Ken Robinson for an administrative assistant.
Aldermen Johnson and Liddy asked for copies of the job description and a list of qualifications of applicants for the position.
approved a change order for the relocation fee on a transformer purchased earlier in the year. The board also took two resignations from public works.
heard a request to fill two entry level positions in the water and sewer department.
reviewed a municipal compliance questionnaire presented by city clerk Belinda McDonald.
discussed a request from the Chamber of Commerce to hold the Kudzu Festival in the downtown area next year and close off part of the square to traffic.
The Kudzu committee is considering arts and crafts, vendors, live music, carnival rides and a barbecue cookoff next year, according to Liddy. Beer sales are also under consideration, pending board approval.
heard a brief review of the process for applying for a Community Heritage Preservation grant from Liddy. Projects that the grant considers include preservation work on a school house, courthouse or other building listed as a Mississippi landmark.

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