Thunderbolt council members fired police chief Irene Pennington in a split vote Wednesday shortly after they announced town administrator Linton Smith had resigned and a former employee had been hired to take his place. The actions leave Thunderbolt — at least for now — without a town administrator, police chief or fire chief.
Mike Godbold left that department about two months ago. The town's finance clerk, Kay McCafferty, has only recently been re-hired. She was gone two weeks.
The administrative upheaval left many of the nearly three dozen residents in the audience shaking their heads and asking each other what was happening. Wendy Hall and Yvonne Feltovic called on council to explain why Smith, the town administrator since July 2010, was no longer there.
“There are a lot of people who are upset, mystified and bewildered by the fact that Linton was gone, missing from the scene,” Hall said. “I hope you understand that a lot of people were upset that ...Linton was dismissed rather hurriedly.”
Feltovic, a former town clerk, questioned whether council was properly following procedure under the state's Open Meetings Law.
“Where was the vote taken if he was gone?” she asked.
Mayor Anna Maria Thomas said Smith resigned, and Caroline Nguyen, a former administrative clerk over finance, was returning to take his place.
As for Open Meetings procedure, Thomas said no vote to accept Smith's resignation was required, a point David Hudson, general counsel for the Georgia Press Association, affirmed. Thomas and other council members explained they could not go into more detail because the decisions related to personnel.
Regardless of the law, resident John Mattingly said the council's lack of openness was concerning.
“Every indication we had seen was that things were going well, and suddenly, between last month and this month they weren't going well,” Mattingly said. “A little more openness would be nice.”
Reached before the meeting, Smith declined comment, other than to say he was proud of what he'd accomplished for the town.
Residents praised Smith for helping to pull the budget from deficit to surplus, finding a better employee benefits package and staying on top of all aspects of daily operations.
Smith offered his resignation March 28, but it came after one executive session on personnel and just before Thomas and Councilman Dave Crenshaw had a planned meeting with him.
Thomas said Smith offered a verbal resignation, but a written one would follow. Details of a severance package are being worked out, she said, so that information could not yet be provided.
Asked whether she supported Smith's resignation, Thomas said: “My hand was kind of forced because majority rules.”
A 4-3 majority ended Pennington's tenure as chief. Crenshaw and council members John Henry, John Cheeks and Sherry Elmore-Phillips wanted the termination; Thomas, Beth Goette and Kimberly Chappell-Stevens voted against.
Pennington's dismissal wasn't much of a surprise. At March's meeting, council and residents had some heated exchanges over her performance. She was criticized for not enforcing the ordinance against animals at large, which residents say contributed to a child being bitten by a wandering pit bull. She also was accused of not riding calls, even when she was the only officer available to respond.
Thomas defended Pennington, saying council had recently given her very specific requirements of her job and a set time of six months to show improvement. The six months have not elapsed
“I have no issues with her performance,” the mayor said. “She's been jam up.”
Immediately after the vote, Thomas looked at Pennington and said, “I'm so sorry.”
Pennington, the chief since 2005, shrugged as she responded: “It was expected.