Rancor spilling out over proposed hiring of WR administrator

Warner Robins City Council plans to vote on whether to hire a city administrator at its next meeting, although supporters say they wouldn’t move to fund the job or fill it until January.

At Monday’s meeting, the council held a first reading of an ordinance creating the position following a heated discussion in the precouncil meeting. The ordinance was not on the published agenda, but it was added at the request of Councilman Keith Lauritsen.

Councilman Tim Thomas said he supported the ordinance because potential mayoral candidates should know the council’s intent.

The ordinance, which Lauritsen described as a draft that can be changed, spells out duties of the administrator, which include acting as liaison between city employees and the mayor and council, as well as hiring and firing of city employees. The administrator would make recommendations on the hiring and firing of department heads to the mayor and council for their approval. The ordinance does not specify whether the change would make the mayor’s job a part-time position.

Qualifying begins Aug. 21. That is also the date of the council’s next meeting, in which it is scheduled to vote on the ordinance. Thomas said he would not favor filling the position until January, after the winners of the Nov. 7 election will take office.

“If a new administration comes in and says ‘We don’t want it,’ then they vote it out, no big deal,” Thomas said.

Mayor Randy Toms, Lauritsen, Clifford Holmes and Chuck Shaheen are up for re-election this year, although Shaheen has said he does not expect to run again for council. He said he might run for mayor if the council approved a city administrator. Shaheen said the current form of government in which the mayor runs the day-to-day operations of the city is antiquated.

During Monday’s debate, however, Shaheen said he is running for mayor whether it is a full- or part-time job. Asked afterward if that means he is definitely running for mayor, he declined to say so. He previously served as mayor for four years before stepping aside to run for council.

During Monday’s meeting, Toms accused supporters of the city administrator concept of having an illegal meeting at Lowe Toyota. Shaheen and others denied it, saying they never had more than three council members in the meeting, which is allowed. Four council members is a quorum and must be advertised as a public meeting.

Holmes said he went to the meeting and three council members were there when he arrived. He said he didn’t go in until Shaheen walked out of the room, so there were never more than three in the room together.

Councilman Mike Davis described that as an intent to have an illegal meeting, however, and Toms said afterward he is considering reporting the matter to the state as an ethics violation.

During the precouncil meeting, Shaheen challenged him to report it.

“If you think we did something wrong, turn it in tomorrow and let it go before the state to see if the state says we did something wrong,” Shaheen said, raising his voice and pointing a finger at the mayor. “And quit using it as a little tool to try to intimidate us, because you don’t intimidate us.”

Davis said in the regular council meeting that he didn’t find out about the proposed ordinance until just before the meeting, and he said it was not the first time something like that had happened.

“Y’all got your group together, you get your votes and you don’t include the rest of the council,” he said when the ordinance was being discussed during the regular council meeting.

Council members also discussed the possibility of putting the city administrator issue on the November ballot as a referendum question, and there appeared to be support, but they did not vote on whether to go that route.

One person who spoke during the residents’ comment portion of the meeting opposed the ordinance.

Aaron Hufstetler, former chairman of the Houston County Republican Party, said when a leader at Robins Air Force Base needs to talk to someone who runs the city, he should be talking to an elected official, not an appointed one.

“If anybody cares about this economic engine that drives Middle Georgia at the end of Watson Boulevard, they need to think twice about a city administrator,” he said. “I think this city administrator subject needs to die.”

This story was originally published August 8, 2017 at 1:20 PM with the headline "Rancor spilling out over proposed hiring of WR administrator."