Swainsboro City Council held a special-called meeting on Tuesday, January 24, at 6:00 p.m. with several items on the agenda for discussion. All council members were present.
Minutes from the January 10 meeting were presented and approved. DDA Chair Anna Gambrell presented the recommendation from the DDA Board to hire Melissa Kirby as the Downtown Development Authority Director. Councilperson John Parker questioned Gambrell regarding qualification changes for the position. Gambrell explained that the requirements for the position were changed in hopes of attracting more applicants. Parker then asked why a vote for Kirby was brought back up since Council had voted in the January 10 meeting not to hire her for the position. Mayor Bennett stated that they had interviewed all applicants and were making a recommendation. Councilperson Parker questioned the legality of voting on the nomination presented to them. City attorney Jon Levis addressed the question regarding the concerns the council had with the recommendation from the DDA board. Levis stated that at the last meeting it was brought to council and council had voiced concerns to the DDA Chair Gambrell that the council believed the DDA Board needed to interview all the applicants that had applied. The DDA Board, in an attempt to satisfy the councils’ requirement, went through that process and interviewed all the applicants. Levis explained that the board had gone through that process and made a new recommendation for the same candidate. A motion was made by Councilperson Johnny Ray Stafford to hire Kirby, seconded by Councilperson D.J. Davis. The vote was 4-2, with Parker and Councilperson Greg Quarterman voting against. The motion was approved. Council approved Shaye Davis and Bryant Lewis to serve on the DDA Board to fill two vacant seats. Davis made the motion for approval, with a second by Councilperson Julian Sconyers. The vote passed 4-2, with Parker and Quarterman voting against.
In the last order of business prior to executive session, Council considered rescinding the vote to hire Chu Lin Ooi as the Interim City Administrator. Levis explained that if council would be rescinding a previous vote, there had to be a motion to that effect. Accordingly, Davis made the motion. Councilperson Bobbie Collins then questioned the legalities of doing this. She stated they were told Kirby had quit. Mayor Bennett stated that they assumed that she had quit but in fact, she had not. Levis explained that the city is contracted with Kirby until she resigns, or council fires her. He further explained that as far as he was aware, there was no formal resignation. He sent a formal letter to the mayor and council with his opinion, saying there was an ambiguity as to what happened and the ambiguity was whether there was a vacant position or not at the time it was filled. Levis stated that was clarified the next day in an email of non-resignation and he indicated in his letter that you cannot have two people holding the same position. Levis told the council they needed to formally remove Kirby or formally remove Ooi. Parker questioned how Kirby returned to work the next day when they voted 5-0 to hire an interim city administrator. “How can you have two people doing the same job?,’ asked Parker. At the December 5 meeting, council voted unanimously to extend Kirby as the interim clerk until the position is filled. “Do you see how this looks to the public?” asked Quarterman. I’m just wondering if she was another race would we be going through this?” With the motion from Davis to rescind Ooi, then receiving a second from Sconyers, the action was approved with a vote of 4-2, with Parker and Quarterman voting against.
At that point, a motion to enter executive session was made and passed with a 4 - 1 vote. Quarterman was the sole vote in opposition with John Parker abstaining from the vote. In the executive session, candidates for the city administrator position were interviewed. After returning to open session, three applicants were approved for advertisement of the position. They are Chu Lin Ooi, Herman Middlebrooks and Brad Hooks.
The next council meeting, originally scheduled for February 6, will be held on Monday, February 13, to allow for the advertisement of the three candidates for the city administrator position.
