The firing of Fort Oglethorpe’s city manager is not final yet. Jim Dinley, fired last week, has filed an appeal and will have a public hearing on March 27 at City Hall to review his termination.

In a 4-1 vote, with Councilman Richard Egeland opposed, the City Council fired Dinley on Monday, March 12, saying he gave misleading and inconsistent statements in a criminal investigation involving other council members.

Dinley said Friday that according to the city’s charter he must be given a reason for his dismissal and his attorneys don’t believe the council’s reason will hold up in court. But Dinley said he is optimistic the appeal will help him to regain his job.

“Hopefully the council will go in there with an open mind and hear my appeal and I’ll take my chances on that,” he said.

Dinley said he enjoys being city manager.

“Nobody can please everybody,” he said. “This is a great town that’s moving forward and has made a lot of progress.”

In the resolution to fire Dinley, the council cited “willful, misleading and inconsistent statements” Dinley gave during an investigation involving Councilman Richard Egeland’s wife, Wanda, and Mayor Judd Burkhart. These supposedly contradictory statements were made in a Jan. 9, 2006 interview with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and a letter written to Councilman Egeland on Aug. 27 of the same year.

An investigative summary from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation paraphrases Dinley as saying during an interview on Jan. 9, 2006, that Wanda Egeland called Burkhart on his cell phone in Dec. 2005 and threatened to reveal unflattering information in the news media if he didn’t get Moye to drop the simple battery charges, personally apologize and print a retraction in the newspaper. Then she said she wanted the mayor to pay her $5,000 for attorney’s fees, according to the document.

The call stemmed from a 2005 altercation in which police say Wanda Egeland threw candy at Councilwoman Jane Moye, destroyed an audiotape and accused her of having an affair with Richard Egeland. Wanda Egeland was found guilty on Friday, March 9 of simple battery for the incident. Egeland said his wife received one year probation and a $1,200 fine for the simple battery charge.

Dinley’s statement says he overheard the Dec. 2005 conversation because the mayor was in his office when he received the call and had turned on the speakerphone. Dinley, in his paraphrased statement, says “Wanda Egeland then stated that if the mayor failed to do any of these things she would go to the ‘press’ about the ‘hit list’ that the mayor and some of the city (council members) had. Wanda Egeland also stated she would also tell the media that he had sexually harassed her when he allegedly touched her breast and patted her on the butt.”

Wanda Egeland was accused of criminal attempt, theft by extortion based on Dinley’s testimony. However, a court dismissed the charge on Friday, March 9, stating there was insufficient evidence to convict her.

In the Aug. 27, 2006, letter to Richard Egeland, Dinley said, “Let me assure you that I did not take Wanda’s comments to the mayor as being extortion… When the call ended, I did not think any more about it. Then the mayor said, ‘That’s extortion.’ I did not think any more about the conversation as a true threat than someone saying ‘I’m going to kick your backside,’ ‘I’m going to call the cops,’ or ‘I’m going to sue.’”

The council met in closed session for 1-1/2 hours Monday night. March 12, before calling for Dinley’s dismissal. As the mayor called for a vote, Councilman Harold Silcox remained silent for several seconds before finally deciding to dismiss him.

“The reason was there,” Silcox said after the meeting adjourned, “but I don’t like to do this so fast at the spur of the moment like that. That was a big decision and I just had to make sure that I was right on it.”

Councilman Steve Brandon said he voted in favor of the dismissal because Dinley gave “two totally different stories” in the investigation. He said he had “not really” known Dinley to lie before then.

“This right here just caught us all off guard,” he said.

Dinley, a retired Air Force colonel, was hired in May 2004 to replace City Manager Paul Page, whom the council fired that January. Dinley had served two years as city manager in Sylvester, Ga., and also had a short stint as city manager of Colquitt, Ga., before coming to Fort Oglethorpe.

Silcox, Egeland, Moye and then-councilman Ronnie Cobb all voted in favor of hiring him against former Councilman Alan Marshall’s lone “nay” vote. On Monday all but Egeland voted to dismiss him. Council members Jane Moye and Harold Silcox voted along with Louis Hamm and Brandon.

An attempt was made in October of 2006 to bring Dinley’s job status to a vote, but it failed because proper docket procedure had not been followed. However, interviews with Moye and Silcox indicated that they intended to vote to retain Dinley at that time.

When asked why she changed her vote only five months later, Councilwoman Moye declined to comment until after Dinley’s appeal. Several calls to Councilman Silcox were not returned.

Former Councilman Ronnie Cobb said he thinks the two just got “caught up in the moment.” He believes that any of the council members may change their votes after the appeal, given different facts and a different setting.

Dinley filed a written request for an appeal Thursday, March 15.

The council did not appoint an interim city manager, but City Attorney Ron Goulart said it had been decided in executive session that he would help handle some of the city’s affairs in the meantime. He said he expects to be officially named interim city manager during the next regular council session.

“I’m just ready for it to all be over so we can set the record straight of what took place,” said Mayor Burkhart.

Egeland said Moye shouldn’t have been allowed to vote because she was a litigant in the case against his wife.

“This is the mayor and this is the city attorney,” he said of the move to fire Dinley. “I want the citizens to know that this is personal.”

Assistant editor Taylor Leonard contributed to this story

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