Though the deadline to appeal a judge’s ruling to allow former McComb Chief Financial Officer Mary Adams unemployment compensation caught city board members by surprise at last week’s board meeting, the city’s request for an appeal before a review board will be granted.
Selectmen heard from City Administrator Quordiniah Lockley and Phil Smith, a representative of Baton Rouge-based Unemployment Compensation Control System at Tuesday’s work session. Both attempted to answer a number of questions surrounding Adams’ favorable ruling.
“(Board attorney Wayne) Dowdy submitted request for review of that claim,” Smith said Tuesday night. “It’s been accepted by the department of employment security. The board of review will review that.”
“This has been a unique case. How it’s come about, I can’t say.” Smith said. “I do know that we are officially on record with the board of review at this point.”
Lockley fired Adams for insubordination on Dec. 30, 2009. Insubordination can result in denial of a former employee’s unemployment benefits, and the Mississippi Employment Security Commission had denied Adams those benefits.
In a letter dated July 27, Nathan Nyberg — the commission’s administrative law judge pro tempore — reversed the earlier ruling and awarded unemployment benefits to Adams
Mayor Zach Patterson — the only city official to receive a copy of the letter — presented it to the board on Aug. 10, which coincided with the deadline to appeal Nyberg’s ruling. At the same meeting, the board voted 3-2 to appeal the ruling.
At the time, the mayor argued that UCCS should’ve furnished a copy of the letter to city officials, and the board should “just allow her to get unemployment compensation. Let her get paid. Don’t have her out here fighting a battle that we know nothing about.”
Lockley said Tuesday that copies of the ruling were sent to Adams and “the employer.” The city’s copy was mailed to a Baton Rouge P.O. box. UCCS was not listed on the address.
Smith said the letter was news to his company as well. He told selectmen that, between July 10 and Aug. 9, UCCS received eight records from the city, and none of them involved Adams. Smith also noted that most appeals are decided within 14 days, while Adams’ required more than three months.
“We have never seen a decision that has taken this long to get a determination,” Smith said. “I have not seen that in 20 years.”
Smith also said Adams’ unemployment compensation claim totals a minimum of $6,110 plus benefits. Pending the time frame of a decision by the review board, that number may increase.
“Today, we can’t go online and see the correspondence you’re speaking of, because it is not available,” Smith said. “I’m not saying it was not produced. We don’t have (it) and it’s not on record with (MESC).”
Lockley focused on answering other questions about the matter, including the board’s knowledge of and the city’s payments on unemployment claims, eligibility and other issues.
He said the board was not informed of past claims because they are considered part of the day-to-day activities of the city’s human resources department. He also said that unemployment benefits are only available to employees who are laid off or victims of a work force reduction. Most employees that resign or are terminated, Lockley said, do not qualify for unemployment.
Lockley also told the board that the city paid $33,489 in claims after Adams cancelled the city’s contract with UCCS in June 2008.
“So is it an expense? Every time a claim is filed, and you pay it, and it’s charged to you, we have to pay that claim,” Lockley said. “This board did not authorize the cancellation of that contract.”
The city renewed its contract with UCCS in March, and pays the company $2,000 quarterly to dispense unemployment compensation and appeal invalid claims.
Selectmen Melvin Joe Johnson and Robert Earl Smith, who opposed the board’s vote to appeal Adams’ ruling, did not have any questions or objections to Smith’s information.
Johnson did, however, ask Smith to alter the city’s contract with UCCS to read “selectmen” instead of “councilmen.”
