Board of Aldermen Issues Memorandum (Ultimatum)

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The Lumberton Board of Aldermen issued a memorandum to the employees of the City of Lumberton. The memo was dated September 1, 2011. It stated that on July 28, 2011, the board of aldermen adopted a new personnel policy and that this policy goes into effect September 1, 2011. The board worked feverishly to get this new policy completed before Mayor Holder returned from her medical leave. Unfortunately, they didn't work fast enough. The minutes for the adoption of the new personnel policy were not approved prior to Mayor Holder's return. In fact, the minutes were placed on the agenda the same day Mayor Holder returned, which gave her the opportunity to veto the policy. The memo also stated that the employees need to sign an Employee Acknowledgement Form and return it to the city clerk no later than Tuesday, September 6, 2011 and if they had any questions they should call on of the aldermen. This is what caused the disconnect in the meeting the other night; Mayor Holder told the board that they were in violation of MS State Law 21-3-15 by sending out this memorandum to the city employees and asked them how can they adopt a plan that was vetoed and the veto was never overridden. SEC. 21-3-15. Duties of the mayor. Some noted that Hobson was trying to force an officer to sign the Employee Acknowledgement Form, but she refused to be coerced into signing the document.
The memo said that the new personnel policy went into effect, September 1, 2011, but on Tuesday night, the same board that adopted the new policy, violated their own policy. After going into executive session, the board reported that Ben Barrett, Jr. will take over as the new Public Works Director on November 1, 2011 at a pay rate of $24,000 plus benefits. According to the new policy, all department heads are required to work at least 40 hours/week. The new personnel policy also puts an end to seasonal workers.
When Nicholson and Company completed the audit for fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, they noted some matters for the city to address and the personnel policy was third on the list. This board took this recommendation to heart, but they have yet to address the auditor's recommendation to "Implement procedures and processes to be followed on a monthly basis where all cash accounts are reconciled to the general ledger for each fund. A monthly review of the reconciliations should be performed and approved by someone outside of the daily operations." I guess getting an accurate update of the city's financial status is not as important as the personnel policy.

Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 8, 2011 at 2:39 PM

    ? Jonathan y is Officer Johnson suspended?

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Lumberton InformerSeptember 9, 2011 at 9:30 AM

    I haven't talked with Officer Johnson, but I'm sure her suspension stems from the fact that she did not sign the new employee handbook that the board is trying to force every employee to sign. They're making every employee sign an acknowledgement form, but they never held a meeting to review the new employee handbook. Plus, since there are several people in the public works department that can't read, is placing an x on the employee signature line acceptable, and if so, how can the distinguish between the x's. So, maybe Officer Johnson should just put an x on the form and keep it moving. But this is all about intimidation and ironically, the new employee handbook stated that intimidation would not be tolerated. They seem to think they are untouchable, but those "lukewarm" aldermen will reap what they sow.

    ReplyDelete

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