Mount Carmel mayor's decision prompts BMA to mull chain-of-command issues

MOUNT CARMEL — Who has the authority to make decisions for the town when the city manager is unavailable?That was one of the topics addressed at Thursday's Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting after board members discussed a resolution about the early dismissal of employees, which led to questions about the chain of command.The BMA also addressed a park and recreation master plan.According to Alderman John Gibson, in early July Mayor Pat Stillwell allowed all full-time city employees to have a half-day off, costing the city around $1,800 in wages.Stillwell did so while City Manager Emily Wood was out sick for three days. Also, the mayor did not contact Wood or any members of the BMA prior to making her decision.Stillwell said she had done the same thing when the previous city manager was in charge."Well, to my knowledge, when Mike Housewright was here," Stillwell said, "he would call me and say, 'Do you still want to let our employees off?' Because that was an issue to stay, and they don't get a whole lot of money anyway, as far as their job. So I told him yes. So he would always call me if there was time off to be given. So Emily was out on sick days. So I was called and said, 'Yes, I'll call, and you all can have half the day off,' and that's just the initiative because they don't get paid a whole lot of money anyway."Gibson noted that choosing to give employees time off is not a power assigned to the mayor in any city ordinances, which also do not specify who should make decisions when the city manager is unavailable.Alderman Steven McClain said that when the town transitioned to the city manager form of government many years ago, he thought that if the manager was unavailable, decisions were to be made by the board as a whole.The BMA approved the half-day city employees received and then decided to table the discussion until the next workshop. The BMA will discuss who should be second in command when Wood is away and then amend the ordinances to include that information.The board also discussed a new parks and recreation master plan.City officials hired a firm to start working on a blueprint that would allow Mount Carmel to continue applying for and receiving grants from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.The process, which starts with a citizen survey, will also include public meetings and interviews with residents and board members.The plan will determine what improvements should be made to the city park based on citizen comments. In addition, the plan will show what activities and improvements town citizens want most.Any town residents or users of the park who would like to fill out the survey can visit www.surveymonkey.com/r/MountCarmelPark.The survey will be open throughout the month of October.