McComb’s city board voted in executive session to terminate City Administrator Jim Storer Tuesday, according to Selectman Melvin Joe Johnson, acting as Mayor Pro-tem after the closed session.
Storer said afterward he had resigned.
Johnson said the decision came by a 3-2 vote, with Selectmen Wade Lamb, Bobby Maddox and E.C. Nobles in favor of Storer’s firing and Selectmen Johnson and Robert Earl Smith dissenting.
Selectmen in favor of Storer’s removal said after the meeting they felt Storer had failed to keep them in the loop regarding city business.
Mayor Zach Patterson, who returned to the city board room a few moments after Johnson’s announcement and adjournment to attempt to close the meeting himself, called the vote “sad,” predicting: “What happened here tonight will go down as truly the darkest day in the history of the city of McComb.”
Selectmen Lamb, Maddox and Smith had left when Patterson returned, and Nobles, who was partway down the stairs at city hall before returning, left again after returning to the board room to see a lack of a quorum.
Storer said he regretted having to leave with several projects unfinished, but praised Patterson as well as several department heads for their leadership — saying the city’s push under Patterson to expand sales tax income was vital to its success.
“I’d like to thank you for the opportunity to get to know many of you,” he told the crowd that remained at City Hall. “I’ll be glad to help you any time that I can in the future. And I wanted to tell you good-bye.”
