Two McComb selectmen once again butted heads with the city administrator over the search for a permanent police chief Tuesday, with one telling him he should “bring a resignation with his recommendation” for the chief’s job.
Selectmen Tommy McKenzie and Michael Cameron reiterated their disdain for the process of appointing a committee of residents and officials to hire someone for the position.
But this time the two brought what they said is evidence to Mayor Whitney Rawlings and other selectmen to condemn the process.
McComb officials have been looking for police and fire chiefs since both resigned Aug. 30. Both jobs will be selected under the same process, with a committee screening applicants and identifying three finalists for city administrator Quordiniah Lockley to make a recommendation to the board.
Cameron and McKenzie have repeatedly called this a flawed method.
After they requested in writing to see the job applications and other committee paperwork, the pair said they discovered some startling errors.
Cameron presented a score sheet used during the committee’s process to the board. When he asked Lockley if he knew about the scoring process, he said he was not involved.
“There’s a score sheet to get to the top three from five, and it’s wrong,” Cameron said. “The top three really aren’t the top three.”
Cameron said that the candidates were asked questions and ranked on each one on a scale of 1 to 4. Those scores were added up, and a total was reached by combining the scores of the committee members.
However, the score sheet only shows six columns of scores, omitting the scores of one committee member.
Cameron said if those scores had been included in the final tally, Lockley would have received a different group for the top three.
“All seven scores didn’t get tallied. If you throw in that seventh score, your top three changes,” Cameron said to Lockley. “If you had done your job, you would have known that.”
Also, a number was transposed incorrectly while figuring out the sum for one candidate. When the number is corrected, it would raise that candidate’s score and, again, change the top three candidates.
“If y’all make your decision based on that, I don’t think you’re doing your job,” McKenzie said. “I think the city administrator needs to bring a resignation with his recommendation if that’s the process y’all use to make your decisions around the city. It’s wrong.”
When Rawlings referred to the selectmen’s evidence as opinion, Cameron and McKenzie simultaneously yelled, “It’s not an opinion, it’s fact!”
Both Rawlings and Lockley said no one outside the committee knows what happened in the committee meetings but they trust that the work was done right.
“Understand, I respect your opinions. However, I do trust my committee,” Lockley said. “I was not there in the process. How they went about it — none of you were there in the process.
“What we do know is they came to me with three names. I trust that committee because there were good people on that committee and I don’t doubt them. If I did, I wouldn’t have put together those individuals.”
Lockley said he still plans to bring a recommendation for police chief to the board, but no date for that has been set.
The debate kicked off after resident Albert Eubanks came before Rawlings and selectmen to express concern over advice given the week before by board attorney Wayne Dowdy.
Dowdy said then, in his opinion, if Lockley makes a recommendation and the board votes it down, the selectmen are charged with choosing other candidates. Dowdy was not at the meeting Tuesday.
However, Lockley said, as he understands the charter, he continually makes recommendations until one is accepted by selectmen, but the charter does not specifically address the selection of alternates.
There are two conflicting passages in the charter, one that says the city administrator brings a recommendation to the board while “advising and consulting” along the way, and another that simply says the board of mayor and selectmen appoint and select a police chief.
McKenzie and Cameron both said they could make a good case for the fact that Lockley neither advised nor consulted the board along the way, noting that city hall officials have not told selectmen who the top three candidates are.
“We, or I at least, have learned more from the Enterprise-Journal than we have been advised or consulted with from the city administrator,” Cameron said after the meeting. “To this day, we have had no formal notification of who, what, when or anything about the process other than ‘it’s going well.’ All of this, on one of the most important hires I will make in my lifetime or at least while on this job.”
Selectwoman Andranette Jordan said she approved of the way the process was going and trusted Lockley and his committees to bring results to the board.
“I don’t think it’s our position to choose someone and hire that person (for police chief),” Jordan said. “I don’t think that’s the board’s decision. We voted by majority to go with the process, and I think we should see the process through.”
However, the board never voted to approve Lockley’s process since city officials said it’s directed by the charter. When the process was previously mentioned, Rawlings told selectmen and the public the decision as to how Lockley chooses his recommendation is solely up to Lockley and not up for discussion.
Lockley said in August he would feel more comfortable with a committee to assist in the process because he was “not an expert in police.” He formed a seven-person committee to sift through the 57 police chief applications and narrow that pile down to the top three. Lockley was then given three names and interviewed those candidates.
The committee included former McComb Police Chief Greg Martin, Craft Funeral Home owner Sonny Dillon, former McComb Police Chief Billie Hughes, McComb School District security director Greg Gilmore, dentist and business owner Dr. Valerie Turner, Madison Police Chief Gene Waldrop and Sanderson Farms executive Mattie Walker.
But McKenzie said the committee’s work is all for naught since its data appears to be flawed.
“I am absolutely stunned that the flawed data used to determine the final candidates was defended tonight,” he said after the meeting. “The numerous errors would only lead me to believe the rest of the process was questionable and should be ruled null and void, but somehow the process that has been defended by others for weeks is now not so important.
“We knew about this flawed data two weeks ago. We wanted to put this information out, hope the city administrator and board would recognize the problems, and put an end to it. It is sad that the same old problems keep plaguing this city.”
