For the second time in about a month, the Fort Oglethorpe City Council struck several agenda items that one council member wanted and refused to allow public comments on issues involving the police department.

This time it was about the suspension of Police Chief Larry C. Black, who had a room filled with more than 50 people supporting him at the Fort Oglethorpe City Council meeting Monday night.

Black was suspended on Nov. 13 without pay for not following Interim City Manager and City Attorney Ron Goulart’s instructions to investigate a complaint involving a seat belt citation and for distributing a memo that criticized the mayor and a council member, Goulart said.

Black appealed the suspension on Nov. 19, and Goulart said he would reevaluate the case within 10 days as required under city code. Council Member Harold Silcox said Black should be able to appeal to the council rather than to the same person who suspended him.

Yet Goulart, as well as council members Jane Moye, Steve Brandon and Louis Hamm, said neither the charter nor the personnel manual allows the council to consider the matter. They struck down three items Silcox had placed on the agenda to allow the council to consider reimbursing Black for lost money and expunging his record.

The chief could appeal if he were fired or received a reduction in pay among other things but not for a simple disciplinary action, according to city code.

“His salary has not been cut,” Moye said, “and that is the reason we cannot reasonably (hear his appeal).”

Silcox said that because the suspension was without pay, the council could hear the appeal.

“If $3,000 is not a reduction in pay, I don’t know what is,” he said.

Monday was Black’s first day back at work. He attended the council meeting but did not speak, following a long-standing policy in which city employees are not allowed to speak with the news media without permission from the city manager.

On Oct. 22, Council Member Richard Egeland asked for Black to be allowed to address the council about another matter for which he had received public criticism, but the council voted to strike that from the agenda, following Goulart’s advice to keep the matter internal.

---

Stricken agenda items

* Schedule a date, within seven days, a time for the mayor and council to hear Police Chief Larry C. Black’s appeal of his suspension.

* Reimburse Black for all money lost as a result of the suspension without pay on Nov. 13.

* Expunge the suspension-without-pay action of Nov. 13 by the city manager from Black’s personnel records.

---

Comments cut

Despite a strong citizen presence and requests from at least one audience member to address the council, the council voted to adjourn before hearing anyone’s comments. The council left the room in spite of Fort Oglethorpe resident Earl Townsend’s pleas to be heard and a room full of people shouting in his defense.

He and Freddie Roden, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Baxter Shavers Lodge. No. 99 in Catoosa County spoke to the crowds without the benefit of a microphone after the meeting adjourned.

“… I do believe that I will represent the vast majority of our citizens,” Townsend said, reading to the audience from a prepared statement. “The city manager/attorney has raised the issue of incompetency by his action of suspending Chief Black. I would say to you that he has pointed out his own incompetency by airing out in public a personnel issue, which no competent manager would ever do about one of his employees.

“This raises the issue of a lawsuit by this employee as well as others, and places this city in some financial jeopardy.”

Roden said he was upset that Goulart had not responded to a letter he sent on behalf of the Fraternal Order of Police asking for Black to be reinstated with back pay and allowed to conduct his own investigations in the future. He said the organization has been professional at all times.

“We would have appreciated it had we been responded to in the same manner,” he said.

Goulart handled the seat belt complaint rather than allowing Black to do so. Goulart has said that was only because Black refused to do it himself.

Goulart left the building shortly after the meeting adjourned along with the rest of the council. Silcox stayed around to talk for several minutes, and council member Richard Egeland did not attend the meeting at all.

Egeland has been a key vote in support of Black.

Much to Mayor Judd Burkhart’s chagrin, the audience frequently applauded Council Member Harold Silcox’s efforts at giving the chief a chance to speak up for himself and attempted to shout down Burkhart and the other council members’ efforts to block Silcox.

City manager ad

Also at the meeting, the council voted 3-1 to postpone further advertisements for a city manager until the council meets again to fine-tune the wording.

Silcox said the council had unanimously agreed to advertise at the last meeting, but did not vote on the matter. The ads in local newspapers and with the Georgia Municipal Association would have totaled more than $4,000, officials said. The city charter requires a council vote on matters more than $1,000.

Silcox, who went ahead and placed the ads, said his fellow council members should have brought up that fact at the last meeting rather than rescinding their earlier agreement to go ahead with the advertisement.

“They said last council meeting to go ahead and advertise,” he said. “And it costs money to advertise. I thought they knew that.”

Fire truck purchase

Silcox was also the lone opposition to buying a fire truck for nearly $500,000 with a special-purpose local-option sales tax. The rest of the council voted for the measure, saying they wanted the savings of more than $40,000 they would incur by purchasing the truck at the same time as the county government is purchasing a truck.

Silcox questioned whether it made sense for Fort Oglethorpe to make the purchase if the county is going to consolidate with the volunteer department stationed in the city, essentially forcing Fort Oglethorpe out of the driver’s seat in funding negotiations.

“One month is not going to hurt us to wait to address this with the new council,” he said. “We’ve got enough equipment right now…Bring this back in January.”

Mayor Burkhart said, “If the next council wants to rescind our decision on the first of January, that’s up to them.”