Power play?

Published 10:53 pm Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Several Dalton City Council members say they are merely clarifying the way police and fire department chiefs and assistant chiefs are chosen.

But at least one Public Safety Commission member says council members would render commission members “useless” and essentially a “beer board” by revamping the city’s charter and robbing the PSC of the power to make those appointments.

The controversy has already apparently caused one PSC member to resign.

The PSC was organized in 1945 as the Civil Service Commission. Members are appointed by the City Council. While its responsibilities have evolved over the years, the PSC primarily deals with violations of the city’s alcohol laws and hires employees for the police and fire departments.

Or at least PSC members thought they had the power to hire those employees.

Earlier this month, City Council members voted to accept Police Chief James Chadwick’s resignation, effective Nov. 1, and to appoint assistant chief Jason Parker as interim chief. Some members of the PSC said the council was “usurping” the commission’s role.

The proposed changes to the city’s charter would allow the PSC to make all appointments to the police and fire departments except for chief and assistant chief. The council would appoint — and possibly fire — the chiefs and assistant chiefs.

The current charter allows the PSC to “have the duty and authority to assign personnel from the respective departments to such positions and ranks” and also allows the commission to fire the chiefs.

The proposed changes would give new power to the city administrator, currently Butch Sanders, to call special meetings of the PSC to conduct investigations of chiefs. The city administrator position didn’t exist in 1945.

Under the proposed changes, PSC members could be removed by a majority vote by the mayor and council. The council could vote on the changes during its next meeting on Oct. 1.

Some council members believe they are clarifying their role. PSC members disagree.

“It’s not a clarification,” PSC member Terry Mathis said during a commission meeting Tuesday morning. “It’s a change.”

PSC chairman Lane Ashworth called the proposed moves “wholesale changes.”

Steve Farrow, the attorney representing the PSC, said the council has the authority “to change the charter anytime they want to.” Historically, the PSC has been the group to hire chiefs and assistant chiefs, Farrow said. He pointed to the hiring several years ago of the most recent chief — fire department chief Barry Gober — when the PSC (along with a council member serving as a liaison) interviewed the candidates, narrowed the list to finalists and made the hire.

“My recollection was there was not an additional decision made by the council beyond that,” Farrow said. “The decision was all made at this level.”

The dispute apparently led former PSC member Homer Fuller to resign from the board earlier this month. And current PSC member Steve Townsend believes stripping the commission of the power to choose chiefs and assistant chiefs will make the group “useless.” He questioned why the council would want to change authority granted to the PSC in 1945.

“As the old adage goes, ‘If it ain’t broken, why fix it?’” Townsend said. “It’s served us well for 62 years. Why now change it? Because now it appears that politics will win and become part of the process.”

City councilman Bobby Grant, who attended the PSC meeting Tuesday morning, said he does not know who requested the change to the charter. No other council members attended the PSC meeting. Councilman Dick Lowrey, the liaison to the PSC, was unable to attend.

Grant countered Townsend’s argument by saying “politics” can also play a role on city boards and commissions. As an elected official rather than an appointed member of the PSC, Grant believes council members are more accountable to the citizens. He added that he is happy with the PSC’s performance and thanked members for their service.

Grant said council members are not trying to undercut the PSC’s authority.

“To me that’s not a power grab,” said Grant, who is not running for reelection in November.

Grant said he favors having two PSC members, two members of the City Council (including the council’s liaison to the PSC) and a private citizen involved in selecting new chiefs and assistant chiefs.

Asked if the changes to the charter are a clarification or an actual change in the process, Lowrey said on Monday, “It’s not real clear.”

“But my understanding is that the Public Safety Commission has had the authority to hire the chief, and of course, there wasn’t an assistant chief until recently, and the chief and assistant chief in the fire department,” Lowrey said. “And it’s not taking them out of the loop but adding council members into it.”

Asked what has changed to make the council want to take that power away from the PSC, Mayor Ray Elrod said, “I think the council feels like that should be their responsibility.”

Councilman Terry Christie said the reason for the change is due to “confusion” that resulted from Chadwick’s resignation.

“It came up because the chairman thinking that the Public Safety Commission had the responsibility to do something and it seems like that the city attorney and some members of the council thought that maybe that was not the case and that we needed to see about clearing up the confusion,” Christie said.

Councilman Charlie Bethel agreed that the roles needed to be clarified.

“It was one of those areas that was not definitive and it needed to be clarified,” Bethel said. “And of course, we are in the midst of a search, so no better time to clarify than now. Once you find something that needs to be addressed you gotta address it.”



Staff writer Charles Oliver contributed to this report.

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Members of the Public Safety Commission are Lane Ashworth (chairman), Terry Mathis, Steve Townsend and Keith Whitworth. There is one open spot after the resignation of Homer Fuller earlier this month. Members are appointed by the Dalton City Council and serve five-year terms. They are not paid.