Former City Council candidate Bill Thomas held an impromptu news conference on the steps of City Hall Wednesday where he said the city manager, mayor and all council members should resign.
    Thomas outlined a list of reasons why he believes City Manager Shane Haynes is not fit for his position and why the councilmen who supported the manager’s decision to terminate five public safety personnel should resign. Thomas said the series of terminations was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
    “I’m calling for the immediate resignation of our city manager, Shane Haynes, Will Britt, the mayor of Statesboro and the council who supported the city manager and Will Britt as of late,” Thomas said.
    Last Thursday, Haynes announced five terminations resulting from the restructuring of both the police and fire departments. Statesboro Police Chief Stan York and Fire Chief Dennis Merrifield both had their positions eliminated in favor of a public safety director who will oversee both departments. In addition, one police officer and two fire captain positions were eliminated in the restructuring. Haynes said the move was taken in part to solve a $425,000 city budget shortfall.
    Councilmen Tommy Blitch and Gary Lewis both said they support Haynes’ decision to restructure the public safety upper management and both confirmed that they will not be resigning from office.
     “I think we all support him,” Lewis said. “I’m fine with the restructuring.”
    “Absolutely not. That’s just one man talking and I don’t know why people would listen to him,” Blitch said. “He has the right to talk freely. It’s America and you can discuss what you want.”
    At the close of his prepared talk, Thomas called for a reexamination of city/county consolidation.
    “I encourage you to become actively involved in your local government and I would also urge you to support consolidation of city and county government,” Thomas said. “If we could all together on that and consolidate government it would stop the tail from wagging the dog.
    Haynes could not be reached for comment.
     Human Resources Director Jeff Grant said two of the five public safety employees terminated last Thursday have decided to accept resignation, but would not specify who had made that decision. Last week, former SPD  Lt. Frank Roach said he would accept retirement and York said retirement was on the table and he would consider the option with his family. Of the three other officers terminated – fire captains Emerson Melton and Mike Smith and fire Chief Dennis Merrifield – one has accepted termination, one has decided to appeal his determination and one has yet to inform the city of his decision.
     Thomas was defeated last fall in the District 1 race by Councilman Tommy Blitch, who garnered 170 votes to Thomas’ 80.