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Century’s Newly Hired Town Clerk Leaving
August 3, 2010
Century’s newly hired town clerk is leaving, just a few weeks after the assistant town clerk called it quits.
Darlene Peters, who was hired back in June, is leaving because her husband accepted an out-of-state job, according to Mayor Freddie McCall. She will remain on a part-time basis temporarily as she works to complete a degree at an area college while the town works to hire another clerk.
McCall said he has a “couple of good” prospects to fill the position from the recemt pool of applicants from which Peters was hired. He said Monday night that he was not yet ready to recommend a replacement for Peters.
On August 16, the town council will consider paying consultant Debbie Nickles to work two days per week to keep the town current on grant applications while they are without a full-time clerk.
Deputy Town Clerk Karen Hughes resigned her position prior to the July 5 town council meeting. Christina Wood, a nine-year town employee, was promoted to deputy clerk.
In one other employment related action Monday night, the town voted to use a temporary agency to find a staffer to fill in for an employee that is currently pregnant and missing work on a regular basis.
Comments
25 Responses to “Century’s Newly Hired Town Clerk Leaving”
REGARDING:
“Minutes are to report the highlights of a meeting and are to be kept as brief as possible. ”
Yep. who said what about something off subject does not belong in minutes. Generally I know you want the form: Motion by…., received a second. After discussion motion carried/failed. It doesn’t matter what the discussion was, only what the resolution of the motion was. More than that is simply silly.
Someone insisted on more?????
David for not considering war stories
and fishing tales as part of the minutes
I understand that none of us really know how difficult your job (Ms. Peters) has been as the new town clerk. I am not trying to be mean. It is, however, difficult to get past the the fact that you seem to be on Northescambia.com and frequently commenting on the website during working hours (9:43am August 3).
I understand that you are very frustrated, but you yourself are giving your critics ammunition to use. You are never going to convince people by constantly defending yourself. Quit trying!
P.S. to George from Brewton,
I agree, it should be a 40 hour work week for the Town Clerk. I have been putting in 50 to 60 hours per week since I started. Thanks, Darlene
To George from Brewton,
The minutes at the Council Meetings are typed every word “verbatim.” According to Robert’s Rules of Order, there are specific items which are typed verbatim. Minutes are to report the highlights of a meeting and are to be kept as brief as possible. There have been three hour meetings which were transcribed word for word resulting in a 26 page document.
Therefore, there is the extra time to transcribe every word “verbatim” (try it sometime). I type an average of 70 wpm and it is still extremely time consuming. I believe this time could be spent more productively, for such things as completing important financial tasks. In addition to the extra paper used because of it.
Recordings are kept if anyone has a question regarding what has been said, so I think this is something that could be remedied. This is a decision the Council has to make.
To the other comments, I speak for myself, not for the Town, and I put my name, not a pseudoname. I am not getting full pay for part time. My move to Spokane Washington was unforeseen when I took this job, these things happen.
Darlene
OK OK OK I take it back, Not the janitor………..BUT sometimes its best just to clean house and start over, BUT please not the janitor.
Maybe Brenda would do a better job.
How can the council be involved in anything if we can’t even get enough votes for a quorum due to members missing and those who are present refusing to vote? (See article re: Hawkins vote at Monday’s meeting). It seems to me that the council gets involved when they feel like it.
I don’t think this is about the employees. They are doing the best they can when they are working with a new clerk that is now leaving, No one has been hired in Karen’s place, a worker that is pregnant and out on a regular basis, and a Mayor and Council that are not doing what they were elected to do. The Mayor should be trying to get these positions filled with qualified people as soon as possible and quit letting people that turn in a notice continue to work part time and drain the town when there is no benefit for the Town and it’s citizens. Everyone would like to work part time and draw full pay but that is not getting the work done in City Hall. Council please get involved in the hiring, at least have a work shop and look at all the applications and then let the Mayor make his reccomendation and you will know if the best applicant was reccomended
I love the commits about Centry in my opinion there are running a close second to the SRIA.
REGARDING:
“Get rid of EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE right down to the janitor’
It’s fun to spout off, but getting rid of everyone would mean the water would soon be off or infected. The sewage would be backed up. The gas would stop flowing.
Getting rid of everyone would bring much unhappiness and makes no real sense.
Besides, what did the janitor do wrong???????
Obviously minutes are needed because they are the official record of the decisions of the council. If you don’t record the decisions, there is no reason to have meetings in the first place.
I remember an instance where the one recording minutes often reversed the decisions of the board by giving votes different outcomes. She only heard what she wanted or expected to hear. We finally had to keep a tape recorder running and still had to correct the minutes at the next meeting because she either wouldn’t listen to it or still didn’t hear it right.. (This has nothing to do with Century, simply an observation from another instance and situation.)
I assume she meant some other matter was a source of inefficiency.
Could be wrong, it happens way too often (doesn’t stop me, though)
To the last comment – Why jump on people when you don’t know what’s going on. There are many workers that do their job there. Maybe they should do the same where “you work at”
I say Get rid of EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE right down to the janitor………..start fresh with a whole NEW crew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I find it interesting that the Century town clerk is making official statements on behalf of the town about keeping council minutes a “major cause of inefficiency, expense, and ineffectiveness”. And she’s making official statements about how she disagrees with northescambia.com reporting about the town council.
So just who is in control of Century if the town clerk can make official statements like the one below? At least she signed her official town statement with “Peace”.
The town clerk said keeping minutes has been a ‘major cause of inefficiency, expense, and ineffectiveness for the Town’s City Hall’ in her comments.
Maybe Century would just prefer to not keep minutes? Escambia County keeps an audio recording, video recording, has a person keeping paper minutes and someetimes has a court reporter. You think they do that for their health?
I agree Big Al.
All I can say is I agree with Century friend. It is what it is. To me some things are not done fairly, from reading the tri city ledger and north escambia. I am glad I don’t live in that town. To me, which my opinion don’t count – if they are not going to consider hiring within beings that there was two that had applied for the job way back and the mayor and council didn’t even consider them, because they weren’t qualified. I think they need to hire a new town clerk, to put in a 40 hour work week. And from Resident of Century if Kristina did some of the town clerk’s duties why isn’t she being considered?
And to Darlene : What do you mean by this ” I won’t get into the specifics about this part of the job, which has been a major cause of inefficiency, expense, and ineffectiveness for the Town’s City Hall ”
Confused by this comment.
Best wishes to concerned and resident of century
best of luck to all concerned
>and making common office incidences a major issue.
Really Darlene? The mayor FORGETS to tell his council that the assistant clerk quit? And you, the town clerk sitting in that meeting, also conviently FORGET to remind the mayor that the assistant clerk quit almost as soon as you started? And you are mad that northescambia.com reported it?
Hush! Shame on you northescambia.com! Century prefers to not tell people what they are doing in public meetings. Shame, shame!
If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
I guess that’s the phrase that applies here. You, Darlene, don’t care for northescambia.com reporting what goes in council meetings? That’s the mentality that’s gotten Century into so many problems in the past. It’s the job of the press to keep government straight. Don’t the same stories run in the weekly Flomaton rag paper? They look the same to me. I think the problem is that so many people read northescambia.com and not the weekly and Century looks dumber on a much larger scale.
I guess northescambia hurt your feelings when they published that editorial about Century’s almost secret (and illegal) little meetings.
Sometimes I don’t think people in Century’s government realize they are the laughing stock of Escambia County. Let’s hope the upcoming election changes that.
Hello to Resident and Concerned,
I would like to answer to your questions. I had offered to take on Karen’s duties when she left, (with no increase in salary) so that the Mayor was able to promote and give raises to Kristina and Denise. Believe me, if Kristina wanted to take the minutes, I would have gladly allowed her, too. I won’t get into the specifics about this part of the job, which has been a major cause of inefficiency, expense, and ineffectiveness for the Town’s City Hall.
As far as working part-time, that is something I had offered to the Town to allow for a smooth transition. It is of no convenience to me to stay part -time to assist the office and I am able to finish my dissertation just as well in Spokane, Washington as I can staying in Florida. But, as one government manager once told me, “No good deed, goes unpunished.” I have found this to be a true statement.
I agree with Big Al, it has been quite entertaining, especially with the Northescambia.com articles provided by William Reynolds. It’s SAD because there are much larger concerns in this town, yet there are those who would rather spend their time and energy giving opinions regarding situations in which they do not have the entire picture, and making common office incidences a major issue.
Peace,
Darlene
Are we not suprised? I mean really.
Why is she being allowed to work on a part time basis in order for her to finish her degree. The Town of Century needs a Clerk, a full time Clerk. Things are getting worse all the time at City Hall not enough people to do the jobs that need to be done and no one seems to care. The citizens of Century elected the Mayor and Council to take care of the business of the citizens and this just is not being done .If things keep going there will not be anyone working in City Hall because the employees are fed up with what is going on up there. I do hope the Council will get involved in the hiring of the next Clerk.
Kristina Wood has taken over Karen Hughes duties she was at the meeting taken notes but she was not at the table because the clerk was there. She is doing Karen’s job and some of the Town Clerk’s job.
Who in their right mind would want to work down there is that mess? This stuff just keeps getting funnier and funnier. Much funnier and it will start to get SAD.
The council needs to be able to review ALL potential applications ; not just what is selected for them! Reopen the application process. Let the council revie them in a workshop. Then vote after research and background checks on the right person.
Check these people out first…town! Whether it be a new employee or a prospective business. Do due diligence. That should be the charge of the mayor and council.