Council Votes To Return Employee Oversight To Morrison

Algood City Council reversed course Tuesday night, approving an ordinance allowing the city administrator to hire department heads without the council’s approval.

City Administrator Keith Morrison previously hired department heads, but the council voted to give itself final approval last year. Mayor Lisa Chapman-Fowler said the Council changed the policy last year against the advice of the city’s legal counsel.

“It streamlines everything, it put everything under the city manager, and he’s the one dealing with them on a day-to-day basis,” Chapman-Fowler said. “And really the council needs to stay out of employment issues. That’s strictly a city manager function I think.”

The ordinance passed three to two, with Council Members Bill Bilbrey and Ruby Hawkins opposed. Bilbrey and Hawkins supported giving city council more authority last year alongside Former Council Member Ron Graves, but Graves was replaced by Council Member Roger Williams in the last election.

The ordinance will be considered for its second reading and a public hearing on the item will be held at the council’s April meeting.

“We had several people in the community that said that this is not a reflection at all on Mr. Morrison,” Chapman-Fowler said. “It’s just some of the council just got it in their heads that they wanted to be more involved. And so I think with the change the prevailing thought was that we need to just go back to the way it was.”

Chapman-Fowler said she requested the item be put on the agenda in order to better consolidate the city’s operations. Chapman-Fowler said she does not know exactly why the city changed the rule in the first place as she voted against it at the time.

“I don’t know if there were some on the council that just felt like they wanted to have more input or be involved in the interview process or if they had someone in mind for a job,” Chapman-Fowler said. “I don’t know. It could be any of those or none of those.”

In other business, the council passed a budget amendment totaling some $92,000 from the city’s general fund. Morrison said the money pays for an increase in the city’s retirement expenses and adds $25,000 for both of the repair accounts for the city’s residential and commercial trucks.

Morrison said there was also a $7,200 amendment to the water and sewer budget and a $7,000 amendment making sure the bookkeeping is accurate for a fire department grant.

Council members also approved the first reading of an ordinance amending the city’s public records policy. Morrison said nothing about the policy is actually changing as the ordinance only removes an old email listed in the policy that is no longer in use.