Three Statesboro City Council members requested a special called meeting for Monday to discuss the possibility of asking City Manager Shane Haynes to resign. But since the mayor and two council members cannot attend, no action is expected at the meeting.

Council members Tommy Blitch, Gary Lewis and John Riggs signed a letter Thursday requesting a special council meeting be held Monday at 9 a.m. in City Hall. None of the three would confirm that they called the meeting to discuss Haynes’ employment, saying only that it was to discuss a personnel matter.

“Personnel,” Blitch said. “I don’t think it would be proper to say who it was at this time until we get to the meeting.”

The letter was dropped off at City Hall Thursday afternoon by Charles Olliff, one of the six men who filed a lawsuit in June against the mayor and city council. The suit alleges that the council violated Georgia Open Meeting laws when they held meetings to discuss the city’s budget and the restructuring of the police and fire departments.

Riggs said Olliff and Blitch came by his house Thursday afternoon to ask him to sign the meeting request, but added that no other topics were discussed.

“They showed up and wanted me to sign (the letter) to call a special meeting Monday,” Riggs said. “(We) did not discuss the lawsuit at all.”

Olliff, on the other hand, would not talk about the visit to the councilman’s house.           

“I don’t think we should discuss that,” Olliff said. “What happened will become public.”

Mayor Joe Brannen said he was not contacted about the meeting prior to receiving the letter in the mail, nor was he consulted about the date of the meeting.

“No, I was not aware of it until I heard about it yesterday and I received a CC’ed copy in the mail today (Friday),” Brannen said. “They did not give any consideration. And I had expressed to more than one council member that September 7 was the date that I think it should have been held. We’ve got an open meeting violations suit against us, which is supposed to be heard Aug. 31, and I wanted that lawsuit to be heard before the personnel matter.”

Council members Will Britt and Travis Chance also said they were not asked to sign the request and did not find out about the letter until after it had been signed by the other three councilmen.

Despite rushing to get the meeting scheduled, it is likely no action or discussion will take place Monday because Brannen cannot attend due to a conflict with a prior business engagement. Riggs said he wants to wait until the mayor is able to be present before holding an executive session.

            “There will be no action taken. I’m not sure what the legalities are,” Riggs said. “If we’ve already scheduled a meeting, I don’t know if we have to go into the meeting – you know, convene and adjourn - but I know that I will not be taking any action because the mayor will not be there.

Chance and Britt also said they had previous commitments and would not attend Monday’s meeting.

Riggs said even if another council member calls for a vote on the personnel matter, he would take no action.

“I would abstain, yes,” Riggs said.

Referring to the meeting at Riggs’ home with Olliff and Blitch, Brannen said he didn’t believe it was good judgment for individuals on either side of a lawsuit to meet outside of the courtroom.

“I would think that was inappropriate behavior for everyone involved,” Brannen said. “You got a plaintiff that has sued the city and individual council members and my thought is, if it’s gone this far, all communication should be cut off until the court hearing.”

Haynes’ employment contract with the city states that if he is terminated while still able and willing to perform his duties, he would receive a cash payment equal to six months aggregate salary, plus one month for each year of service. Since Haynes has been with the city for more than two years, that would result in a payment of eight months salary. In addition, Haynes would receive continued benefits coverage for six months.

All told, if Haynes is forced to resign or his contract terminated, either action would result in a cost to the city totaling approximately $85,000. Brannen said that sum would not include any costs associated with conducting a search for a new city manager, which could cost the city additional thousands.

Only if Haynes is terminated due to a misdemeanor or felony conviction, or if he resigned of his own volition, would he not receive a severance package.

For his part, Riggs said he likes Haynes and thinks he is doing a good job. He added that the restructuring of the police and fire departments has had a positive effect on both public safety departments.         

“I would say the morale at the police department has increased five-fold and I would say the morale at the fire department has increased 20-fold,” Riggs said. “We wouldn’t have done it if it was a bad move.

 “Some people may think that we were not acting in the best interest of the city – that can’t be any further from the truth,” Riggs said. “Every decision I ever make on city council, I’m doing for the betterment of the city and I’m doing for hopefully my grandchildren who’ll live here years from now.”

Riggs wanted to be clear that, in his opinion, the increase in morale was not due to former Statesboro Police Chief Stan York, Captain Frank Roach or any of the other public safety personnel leaving, but was a result of the new public safety structure.

When asked, both Blitch and Lewis refused to comment about their opinion of Haynes’ job performance. However, Brannen said he supports the city manager.

“From what I have seen, Shane is doing a good job,” Brannen said. “He’s qualified, he wants to do a good job and he’s our city manager.”

Phil Boyum may be reached at (912) 489-9454.