Former city administrator Sam Mims and current city officials have different versions of how McComb Fire Chief Jean Frye was hired last year, and the discrepancy is receiving renewed focus after the city’s civil service commission declared Frye an irregular hire earlier this month.
The commission, which has been involved in a separate argument concerning what authority it should have to review qualifications of employees post-hire, declared with a unanimous vote on May 7 that it could not certify Frye’s qualifications because no documentation had been provided.
Mayor Zach Patterson, at a subsequent city board meeting, said that as city administrator, Mims was responsible for submitting candidates’ qualifications to the commission, and that if that hadn’t happened, he was to be held responsible.
Mims told the Enterprise-Journal that he was in the process of retiring and that then-interim city administrator Jacqueline Martin, who has since retired as well, gave the recommendation to hire Frye.
But that explanation doesn’t track with all of the individuals on a panel that interviewed candidates before Frye was recommended.
“Sam (Mims) was still legally the city administrator,” said Selectman Robert Earl Smith. “He was in the process of retiring, but he had not resigned.”
Mims told the Enterprise-Journal last week that he had been present for the start of the fire chief’s hiring process, but not its conclusion.
Mims said he had convened a four-person committee consisting of Martin, Smith, zoning and inspections head Walter Temple and himself to conduct interviews.
“It was always my philosophy to get other people involved,” Mims said. “I thought it was good to have a selectman on there and to have Walter Temple, who had nothing to do with the fire department.”
Mims said that after the panel conducted interviews, he decided that since he was going to be taking earned leave and then retiring, he would not get involved in the final selection.
“What I’m telling you is that when we formed the committee, when we did the interviews, it was not my intent to retire at that time,” Mims said. “When I realized in the latter part of September that it was in my best interests to announce my retirement, the interviews had already been conducted. … Since I was departing I felt it would not be appropriate for me to make a recommendation.”
But Smith said the premise of the interviewing committee, in his understanding, was that Mims had properly whittled down a list of candidates.
“I was under the impression that these were the people that were qualified,” Smith said. “If not, we wouldn’t be interviewing them, you see?”
Mims said he never looked at Frye’s resume, record or qualifications.
Rule 6, Section 1.1 of the city’s civil service manual states that “The City Administration shall not appoint, engage or employ any person in the classified service, except in accordance with these Rules.”
But Mims said a civil service review had been done after hires in the past, an assertion commission chairman Don Lazarus did not dispute.
“We have no input into a hire,” Lazarus said today. “They may hire whoever they please. … I think the purpose of our committee as a check-and-balance function would be to make sure that the hire that they made, that we have nothing to do with and we have no say in, be a qualified person who meets the civil service standards.”
Mims said rather than verifying training, the interviews were a personal review using a series of questions Martin prepared.
“General things or philosophical things,” Mims said. “Like, ‘What makes you think you’re capable of leading the McComb Fire Department?’ or ‘Are you a people-person?’ ”
But Smith said if that was the intent of the process, it had not been explained to him.
“I thought all qualifications had been produced and these were the people who were screened and qualified,” Smith said.
