The Manning City Council met this evening to appoint a new member to the Grievance Committee as a result of an expired term. According to City Administrator Scott Tanner, Carrol Harrington was originally appointed to the committee in March 2017 to fill an unexpired term of a former employee. The term was to end on June 30.
Due to a clerical error, an incorrect date of the end of the term was on the paperwork, showing the term to end in December. The proper date for the ended term was not discovered until the Council was preparing for the Grievance Committee hearing of former police chief Blair Shaffer, which will occur at 10 a.m. Thursday morning at Manning City Hall.
The Council had previously appointed an alternate to the Grievance Committee, Donna Hodge. The Council unanimously voted to appoint Hodge to the Committee as an official member.
The Committee has five members. However, members with direct conflict of interest are not allowed to vote on a grievance. James Pringle, a reserve officer with the Manning Police Department, will not sit with the Committee. Manning Fire Chief Mitch McElveen will be allowed to sit with the Committee but will have to abstain from voting, as he is also under the auspices of the Public Safety Committee. The remaining three members, Jason Montgomery, Edward Pompey and Hodge, will have a vote in the proceedings.
With those on the Grievance Committee with conflict of interest unable to vote on the grievance, it brings the question of whether the City Council members who are on the Public Safety Committee will vote, should the Grievance Committee find merit in Shaffer’s case. As three members of the City Council are on the Public Safety Committee, would this constitute a conflict of interest? They have already voted twice on the matter: once to terminate Shaffer and once to sustain that termination.
Should the four remaining council members vote with three voting in Shaffer’s favor and one voting against Shaffer, this would be a clear case in Shaffer’s favor. However, if the three remaining members who have already voted twice vote again, the two Pack and Mayor Pro-tem Sherry Welle would likely vote the same way, leaving a three to three vote with Mayor Julia Nelson as the deciding vote.
Councilmember Clayton Pack, who is one of the members of the Public Safety Committee, stated they’re still figuring things out. He was unaware of the conflict of interest issue with two of the Grievance Committee members. Pack stated he did not know how the Council would handle their own possible conflict of interest in order to give Shaffer a fair grievance process.
Shaffer is confident going into the meeting tomorrow, knowing he will be heard and will be able to publicly state his position on what has happened.
“I’m glad tomorrow to be able to get my story out as to why I was actually terminated. I’m looking forward to the public hearing what was behind my immediate termination,” said Shaffer. “I invite everybody to come. I would love to see 60 people in here.”
