For the second time in as many meetings, McComb’s civil service commissioners refused the city board’s request to discuss allegations that the panel conspired to keep a former fire chief from returning to the department.
Mayor Zach Patterson said Tuesday that the city will send another letter requesting the Civil Service Commission appear before the city board.
The board did not take action on the matter.
In July, resident Albert Eubanks told the board that the commissioners openly discussed how to prevent former Fire Chief Vernell Felder from returning to work at a commission meeting. Eubanks was the only witness to the purported conversation. He later said that he wasn’t trying to imply that commissioners Izeal Bennett and Larry Dorr were in cahoots to prevent Felder’s return.
The commision voted at its special called meeting not to attend the city board meeting later that day, citing a June 2009 lawsuit Patterson filed against the commissioners and others.
“It’s a smokescreen,” Patterson said Tuesday. “They just want to add this lawsuit on as an issue. The suit has nothing to do with us taking care of business.
FROM PAGE 1
City officials had issued a summons for the commissioners to appear at Tuessday’s city board meeting.
The commission’s letter of response also argues that the board does not “have the legal authority to summons or subpoena the Civil Service Commission.”
Commission chair Don Lazarus reminded commissioners of a June 2009 letter from the mayor that said “civil service procedural issues and questions have risen, which cause me great concern and pause.”
The letter also stated that Patterson instructed the fire and police chiefs to refrain from participating in commission meetings, and for the commission to postpone its meetings until further notice.
“We were remiss in our duty to sue him for breaking state law, but that’s water under the bridge,” Lazarus said. “I point this out as an ongoing pattern of harassment and attempted intimidation by the mayor of this board.”
At the board’s meeting on June 9, 2009, the mayor claimed commission members had engaged in improper activities involving city employees. He said he had a written grievance by a department head accusing all three commissioners of political harassment.
Former Lt. Mark Anderson — a close acquaintance of Eubanks — was the acting police chief at the 2009 meeting. He reportedly submitted a complaint of “harassment, retaliation and threats” from the commission members and others.
The commission reinstated Greg Martin as acting chief the next day, and the board upheld the commission’s ruling at a special called meeting.
Selectman Danny Esch said Tuesday that he didn’t believe the board could summons the commission.
Board attorney Wayne Dowdy said the board is within its rights to ask the commission to appear to discuss general business.
“Where does civil service get it from that it operates as an independent body?” Patterson asked. “(The commission) doesn’t think there are remedies for this board to supervise and remove board members.”
The mayor also questioned the legality of the commission using Ashley Atkinson as its attorney, and said he refuses to acknowledge Atkinson as the board’s attorney.
He also said it was “highly suspicious” that Atkinson is the attorney for other boards, and his representation is a conflict of interest.
“They’re trying to keep from coming before the board,” Selectman Melvin Joe Johnson said. “They need all the help they can get.”
Johnson and Patterson later suggested a five-member board with each members representing one of the city’s five wards.
“The board is only three members deep. It’s easy to get into ‘group think,’ ” Patterson said. “They want three because they want ‘group think.’ Now they want to run amuck.”
The mayor also said the commission has historically had one black commissioner.
“That means the makeup for that board remains the same,”the mayor said. “You sit here today and allow the same practice. This old guard and ‘good old boy’ network, this is what it leads to.”
Commission members are appointed by the city board.
Patterson also mentioned a letter he received from a retired black firefighter, which lamented the city’s low number of black firefighters. The firefighter said the department had only four black firefighters when he joined, and has only four today.
“That’s an indictment of Zach Patterson, because I failed to do what I promised the citizens I would do, and make sure everyone is treated fairly and equal,” the mayor said.
Patterson also said the police and fire departments need to do a better job of “moving affirmatively,” and that both departments should mirror the city’s majority-black population.
