McAlister

The Meridian City Council voted Tuesday morning to cut the salary of Chief Administrative Officer Richie McAlister to $0, citing his performance. Mayor Percy Bland said he would veto the action.

The order, introduced by long-time administration critic Weston Lindemann, the Ward 5 representative on council, passed with three votes following an executive session Tuesday.

Tyrone Johnson, council president and Ward 2 representative; Kim Houston, Ward 4 representative; and Lindemann all voted to cut pay for the position.

George Thomas, of Ward 1, and Fannie Johnson, of Ward 4, voted against the pay cut.

In a released statement, Bland said, “the actions of the City Council today were not only political and personal, but also outside of their legislative authority … When this order is received I will be exercising my rightful Executive Authority to veto this action.”

“I think it is a major mistake to do this,” Thomas said, voting with Fannie Johnson against adding the order to the council agenda. “You can’t go out and hire anybody if the salary is zero.”

Thomas pushed back against fellow council members before the vote on Tuesday, warning against setting precedence by cutting salaries of unfavored employees.

“I just think it’s a mistake to even get into this issue,” Thomas said. “If we reduce the position (salary) to zero, the mayor can’t hire anyone.”

McAlister was hired as CAO in December 2015 after serving as Mayor Percy Bland’s assistant for two and a half years.

According to a January 2019 payroll, the city pays McAlister $36.06 per hour regularly.

A 2018 payroll lists McAlister’s pay as $36.06 for an annual salary of $75,000.

Lindemann and McAlister have publicly feuded since Lindemann won the Ward 5 seat in 2017. Lindemann tried to eliminate the CAO position in December.

“At what point is the money amount worth it?” Lindemann asked. “For all the poor decisions that are made, all of the litigation that we have as a result of decisions that were made… the wasteful spending that wasn’t even approved by the council.

“I think the City of Meridian would be better served if we had someone else in that position.”

Lindemann started the meeting before Bland returned from his office, where he waited during executive session. Once Bland learned of the order, he said he would veto it in the public meeting.

“There are decisions that the executive branch makes, no matter if you agree with them or not,” Bland said. “You cannot be the mayor and a City Council person. You cannot be able to talk to our employees about decisions we’ve made as the executive branch. At the end of the day, no matter what your feelings are about those people or those situations, they’re our decisions to make.

But if you want to go with what you have on the table, it’s your decision and y’all can vote on it.”

Lindemann told Bland he didn’t think the mayor could veto the decisions, since the council had the “sole authority” to set salaries.

Bland, in an interview Tuesday afternoon, pushed back against this assertion, citing the Mississippi Code that said the “(CAO) shall be answerable solely to the mayor in the performance of his functions and shall be subject to dismissal at the pleasure of the mayor.”

Following the meeting, Lindemann said many issues he’d introduced had been ignored or remained unresolved.

“There’s never really been any conversation with he administration about these issues. There’s been no attempt to actually resolve the problems,” Lindemann said. “I think the council (as a majority) felt that we can move forward with someone better, who’s going to not intimidate employees (or) retaliate when they don’t get their way. And really bring better management skills to the table that will really help city taxpayers save money.”

Lindemann said that over the last two-to-three years, payroll had increased by $4 million but services had decreased. He said he thought someone who “wasn’t working to serve special interests within the private sector” would be a better fit for the position.

Thomas noted that the decision seemed to stem from a personal dislike.

“In my opinion, what he wanted to do was get rid of Mr. McAlister,” Thomas said. “What the council voted on was not to get rid of Mr. McAlister. The council voted to set the Chief Administrative Officer’s position with no salary… I don’t believe anyone is going to volunteer to take the position of Chief Administrative Officer.

“You don’t fire people because you don’t like them.”

Thomas said that McAlister’s responsibilities include implementing the orders of the council, ensuring compliance with decisions from the Mayor’s Office and supervising department heads on a day-to-day basis.

“That’s why we have a Chief Administrative Officer. They are the administrator for the City of Meridian,” Thomas said. “Unless something is done, we will not have a Chief Administrative Officer. No salary, no work. So now the question is, ‘Who will assume those duties?’ “

In response, Lindemann said the mayor devised the CAO’s responsibilities and could delegate them out.

“We’re going to save taxpayers a lot of money. The city will be operating at a more efficient level and people are going to see an increase in services as a result,” Lindemann said. “Really, the mayor is responsible for everything the CAO has been doing but he chooses to delegate… so I think the natural fit to replace the CAO in the interim while we’re waiting for the hiring process to get started for someone else would be for the mayor to do that job.”

Though McAlister hasn’t officially left the position, Lindemann discussed moving forward with the hiring process for a new CAO, conceding that any hiring decision would be Bland’s choice to make.

“I think the council in the past has had some involvement in the process… ultimately it’s the mayor’s appointment and the council confirms,” Lindemann said. “So once that gets started, however that gets started, we can revisit the salary and pay whoever this next person is based on what they’re worth.”

Bland, in an interview outlining his plan to veto the action, said that he felt “like this was legislative overreach.”

“Mr. McAlister has been a vital piece to the puzzle of moving this city forward,” Bland said. “Even though there have been differences between council members and sometimes myself and the administration, at the end of the day the department heads come up under the purview of the mayor… the City Council, even if they don’t believe that that person has done a great job or is doing a great job, it’s still up to the mayor to be that person to judge that performance.”

Bland said that the council would need four votes to override a veto from his office and said that the vote was unexpected.

“They actually go into an executive session to talk about employee performance evaluation and then, after coming out of that I was still down here. When I came back into the session, what was on the table for a vote was to zero out a salary of a department head,” Bland said. “The performance and production of department heads is something that the executive branch, the mayor and CEO, should be dealing with.”