Residents spoke up for recently terminated McComb Police Chief Garland Ward during the city board’s work session Wednesday night.
Ward has appealed his Oct. 11 firing to the city Civil Service Commission, which agreed Wednesday to take up the matter but has not set a date for a hearing. Deputy Chief Delre Smith is at the head of the department in the interim.
Michael Martin asked why Ward was fired.
Mayor Quordiniah Lockley, who has expressed disagreement over the 3-2 split decision, said “poor job performance” was the official reason.
“I disagree with that, OK,” said Selectwoman Tabitha Felder Isaac, who opposed the firing, as did Selectwoman Terri Waterman-Baylor. “I’m saying I disagree with poor job performance.”
“I’m not privy to any personnel information or anything like that,” Martin said. “I just felt like that was the wrong decision by the board, especially a board that was already short a member.”
Justin Lofton started a petition to reinstate Ward and had a total of 516 signatures as of Thursday afternoon. Some signatures online and others are from petitions left at businesses.
He disputed Selectman Bruce Mullins’ motion to terminate Ward because of an apparent lack of guns in the police department.
“Two others offered no rebuttal, no specific plausible reason that would provide transparency to the community, to the public, to the voters, to the constituents who put you in office as to why you would remove the police chief,” Lofton said, referring to selectmen Tommy McKenzie and Matt Codding, who also voted to fire Ward.
Lofton was also concerned that the vote came a week prior before a special election to fill the Ward 4 seat, which set up the 3-2 split vote.
The seat became vacant with the death of John Bates, who Lofton said supported Ward, which would have forced the issue to a tie vote by Lockley.
“I know for sure, because he supported the police chief, that he would have voted in favor of keeping him on board,” Lofton said of Bates. “So that vulnerability gave some of you the power and you wilted that and used it to misuse your position of power that the people of the city of McComb elected you to have.”
Former Selectman Donovan Hill said he believed Ward had done a good job.
“The community is greatly upset about our police chief being terminated,” he said. “Chief Ward has done an outstanding job, as many of the citizens of McComb know already. To terminate a police chief during the circumstances we’re in right now, of course, I think was irresponsible, especially for the minor reasons that were given.”
Hill expressed his concerns with Mullins, McKenzie and Codding.
“Definitely, the constituents are disappointed in the Ward 5 selectman, Bruce Mullins, in your stance in terminating our police chief that, actually, from what I understand, supported you in the campaign,” he said.
Hill also asserted that the selectmen who fired Ward had someone else in the police department in mind to become police chief and had been “grooming” him for the job.
Mullins disagreed after the meeting.
“It’s easy to make assertions about things that you don’t know about,” he said. “I am the sort of person that’s going to do my homework. The only thing that I can say about those individuals who have made those comments is they haven’t done their homework.”
Eddie Thompson, who is in a Nov. 8 runoff with Shawn Williams for the Ward 4 seat, acknowledged he did not know the reason for Ward’s termination, but questioned the timing.
“If the board has been here for three months and can terminate a man within two and a half years, did you consider thinking about other things that has caused you to come up with the reason to terminate him based on what he’s done in the past?” he asked. “I’m just asking because it seems to me that, that was a very quick judgment.”
McComb NAACP president Mamie Kettle said she was investigating to make sure the board followed city policy when terminating Ward.
“I do want you guys to know that we are looking into this and I’m hoping that everybody around this board is being fair and honest about their vote,” she said.
Codding and McKenzie did not comment. Ward did not return a message.
