A 40-year-old ordinance regarding the City Council's authority over the appointment of department heads got a closer look from the city of Blytheville's Personnel Committee during a meeting Monday afternoon.
The ordinance, which is more than 40 years old, according to committee chairman Stan Parks, states that the Council has to approve the hiring of the city's finance director -- Parks said the mayor requested the committee discuss it in light of recent events.
Upon further investigation by Missy Langston and city attorney Mike Bearden, however, it was discovered that the ordinance is not in compliance with state law, which says that a city council does not have the right of approval over a mayor's hiring and firing of any city department head, only the power to override a hire with a two-thirds vote. Langston pointed out that since state law trumps city code, the ordinance is invalid and the committee can take no action regarding it, and went on to question whether or not the city has a procedure in place to notify Council members when department heads are hired or fired.
"We're not ignoring an ordinance," she said. "There's just nothing we can do at this point. State law trumps this ordinance. We've had a series of department head hires that we didn't know about. I know the mayor has that authority, but I'm wondering if there is a procedure in place. The Municipal League attorney said that we could request one, so that we will at least know that resumes are being taken or anything like that."
R.L. Jones brought up the question of bonding for city Finance Director LaVera Kukyendall.
"I need to be brought up to speed on this," he said. "Why did the city have to go to a private company to have someone bonded. That's raising a lot of eyebrows in the community."
Bearden said when the city was notified that Kuykendall could not be bonded by the state, a private company was contacted and agreed to issue the bond, and the city paid the premium. He said he later noticed that no questions about "problems in the past" were part of the bond application, and so he brought the topic up with the company, receiving mixed answers about whether or not they would stand behind the bond should such an issue come up. He added that he has requested a confirmation in writing from the company that the bond would be good, but has not yet received it.
Gift card explanation sought
The next topic of discussion was Blytheville Waterworks director Gary Phillips and recent questions regarding his issuance of gift cards to his department's employees at Christmas. Langston said she felt the committee should request clarification from Phillips or the mayor regarding the three different comments which Phillips has given to explain the incident.
"I feel like we need to make sure that what happened is clear," she said. "We want to feel good about our department heads and dishonesty is dishonesty. The Personnel Department and the other city employees deserve the truth and to know what really happened."
Stan Parks questioned whether or not this was necessary, since a recent story in the Courier News showed that Phillips had produced a PayPal receipt for purchases in question.
"She's saying that he told three different stories and some feel that the Personnel Committee deserves to know which is true. He went from saying there were six vendors to one vendor to he paid for it himself," said Bearden.
"The whole thing is an integrity issue," said Tommy Abbott. "All the time we are fighting for people's perception of who we are and what we do, when we don't see to these type of things, our own integrity could eventually be questioned."
City Personnel Director Judy Andrews mentioned during discussion that while employees of the city were worried Water Department employees got a bonus through the gift cards, similar questions have been raised before. She said she didn't have direct knowledge of this, but she had heard that in 2011, Water Department employees received a Christmas bonus check, possibly from Blytheville Waterworks.
The end result of the discussion was an agreement by the committee to ask the mayor to request that Phillips submit a written clarification of the issue to them by March 15, which would give them time to review it and ask any needed questions before the next Council meeting on March 19.
sharris@blythevillecourier.com