Recreation Dept. reorganization by Hill may have gone against city charter without formal council approval.

It has come to light that the reorganization of the city's recreation department made by interim city manager Steve Hill may have been a violation of the city's charter and that such reorganization should have gone before council for approval in an open meeting.

Former interim city manager Steve Hill

Hill was recently removed from the interim city manager position he had held since April 2016 after the actions and other problems came to public light under a personnel complaint filed by recreation director Tammie French.  While the personnel board decided some of the complaints made by French had merit, they were filed too late for action to be taken.  

Crossville Parks and Recreation director Tammie French

French recently requested an investigation into harassment of her by the now fired recreation secretary Amy Hester and marketing director Billy Loggins that used an in house city messaging system to allegedly undermine French. 

Changes made by Hill included moving the Palace Theatre operation and the Crossville Depot to be under the supervision of city marketing director Billy Loggins.  In addition, the parks department maintenance personnel were taken out from the supervision of Tammie French and placed under the public works department.  

Interim city manager Lee Lawson said that the changes made by Mr. Hill were currently under review but no changes have been made at the current time to undo the reorganization yet.  Lawson said he interpreted the city charter as saying council approval was required but he was waiting for an opinion from city attorney Will Ridley.    

The Crossville city charter says in Article XVI section 1 (1)  "Within the framework established by this charter, the administrative organization of the city shall be organized into departments of general government, finance, and such other departments necessary to provide health, welfare, police, recreational, fire, public works, utilities and other municipal services as shall be provided in a plan of administrative organization to be developed by the City Manager and submitted to the council for approval." (emphasis added)

Lawson said it is possible that the changes may be left in place for a new city manager to decide what needs to be done but a final decision has not yet been made.  

Crossville Police Chief Rod Shoap resigns--Politics appear to be to blame.

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Rod Shoap addressed the Crossville city council about upgrading the emergency radio system at a recent council work session.  He resigned June 30, 2016

In a move that surprised many, Crossville police chief Rod Shoap tendered his resignation Thursday afternoon. The highly respected chief had given a new face to the Crossville police department and brought a variety of new ideas that strongly affected the local crime rate in a positive way.

Thursday evening Mr. Shoap said “I was tired of waiting for them.” Shoap said that 2 months after he was hired as interim, city manager David Rutherford had decided he wanted to hire him as the full time chief and had even put him in the retirement program.

According to Shoap, since Rutherford was fired, he'd tried working with the interim city manager Steve Hill on the matter but he kept getting put off. Shoap said initially Steve Hill told him it would be a month. That turned into two months, then waiting for the recall to be decided, then it became two and a half months and he was told it would be after the election.

Shoap said his question was, “Why?”

“(Steve Hill) admitted to me that the only issue is with Kerley, and no one else,” said Shoap, referring to councilman Jesse Kerley. Shoap said that Hill told him “Kerley has a problem with a couple of things you've done.” Shoap explained that those two things were that he wouldn't arrest a couple people that Kerley wanted arrested. Shoap added, “I just can't deal with that.”

Shoap continued, “Then (Hill) told me that they were going to meet this weekend to discuss it. I told him that he couldn't do that, “You can't have a meeting with those council people to discuss this unless you do an open records meeting.”

“I've been in law enforcement for 35 year years and I have never once heard anyone say that we had too many cops.” In so many words, that is what councilman Kerley said at the last budget work session proposing instead to take the funds out of the budget for an additional detective for the police department and use the money to build sidewalks.

“We're no longer the most dangerous city in the state, but were not that far from it,” siad Shoap A detective would be targeting criminals, not just patrolling. Shoap explained that the evening after he resigned he had people he didn't even know writing him and telling him how frustrated they were over this situation.

Shoap continued that he had found out another thing that Steve Hill had done. Shoap said he had planned on attending the state wide police chief's meeting. He said that the vendor's all come and that the department had saved $50,000 to $70,000 by attending last year. He got an email from the group recently saying that he was registered but they hadn't gotten the check for the fee. Shoap looked into it and found out that the city manager had canceled the trip without even telling him.

“I'll miss the guys, I love working there, but I'm tired of (the politics),” said Shoap. He added that he especially liked working with the younger guys and training the next generation of law enforcement. “I've worked as hard as I can work and the department has worked as hard as they can work.

He said in the last 2 months while he was waiting he had been contacted by 5 departments looking to hire him but he didn't even apply for those jobs. He said two of them were Murfreesboro and Lebanon.

He said he didn't have any specific future plans and that he and his wife bought a house and would like to stay here.

Long time Crossville police officer Mark Rosser has been named interim police chief for the time being. 

Souza calls council “toxic” as hiring a new city manager put off until after November election

The Crossville city council agreed to put off hiring a new city manager until after the dust has cleared from the city election in November.

In addition to the council seats of Pete Souza and Jesse Kerley being up for election, it looks like a strong possibility that the recall votes for Danny Wyatt and Pam Harris will also take place on the November ballot.

Mr. Souza stated that since 2007 the city has had ten managers and interim managers. “We have a toxic city council. That's a fact. We need to wait. I don't think we could get anybody right now, that's any good as a professional manager that would even come here.”

While preliminary work on recruiting and vetting potential city manager candidates is expected to take place prior to the election, the final decision on who will become city manager will wait until new members, if any, are sworn in.

The council agreed to move forward using the UT Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) to provide the recruiting service at no cost to the city. Crossville mayor James Mayberry said that MTAS had recommended, and he agreed, that the final selection should be delayed until after the election.

Mayor Mayberry moved to let MTAS begin the process and to put off hiring until after the election and councilman Pete Souza supported the motion.

Councilman Jesse Kerley asked city attorney Will Ridely about the legality of putting off hiring a manager. Ridely responded that the motion was fine, but there was nothing stopping another council member from making a motion to hire a manager in the future before the date set in the motion.

The motion was approved unanimously by the council.

Council also approved an employment contract with interim city manager Steve Hill. Hill is to be paid $75,000 annual salary plus benefits offered to other city employees while he serves in the position.

The contract was approved with councilman Souza opposed. Souza felt that the agreement in place when Hill was originally appointed should not be changed.