Baldwin city administrator Jerry Presley has resigned following a month of closed door meetings and an effort by the mayor and some council members to get rid of him.
After meeting in closed session for approximately two hours and 15 minutes on Monday night, the Baldwin City Council unanimously accepted the resignation of Presley, effective Monday night.
Following the closed session, Mayor Jerry Neace called for a motion to enter into a “mutual separation agreement” with Presley. The motion to accept the agreement was approved unanimously. Council member Rodney King was absent from Tuesday’s meeting due to an illness.
The agreement gives the reason for termination of employment as “mutually agreed separation due to irreconcilable differences.”
“I want everybody to know Jerry Presley had the agreement written up,” said council member Robert Bohannon.
The city agreed to pay Presley for 12 weeks at his current salary in exchange for Presley making himself available to the city as needed during the 12 weeks to answer any questions regarding operational matters of the city. The city also agreed to pay Presley for any accrued, unused personal leave at his current base salary of $20.14 per hour.
Presley agreed not to sue the city or any of the council members individually or in their official capacity and all the parties involved agreed not to “undertake any harassing or disparaging conduct directed to any party to the agreement.” The council and Presley also agreed to “refrain from making any harassing or disparaging statements concerning the other party to any third party for any reason including for purposes of providing employment references.”
Council member Beverly Holcomb told Presley she had enjoyed working with him on city business and she wished him well.
Presley said, “I wish the citizens well. I wish the community well. And I hope they, the council, can come to terms and work together and move forward for the good of the city.”
Presley said he does not have another job at this time, but he hopes to stay in local government and help other cities. Presley said he started his own company at the end of 2008 and had been doing some part-time work, but due to the demands of the Baldwin job he had had to give this up.
“The Good Lord led me to Baldwin and He will lead me somewhere else,” Presley said. “I received some personal support from citizens during these difficult times and I really appreciate this.”
Presley has been at the center of council controversy in recent months after he called for a full investigation into threats and acts of intimidation made by council member Jeff Parrish.
At a called meeting on Feb. 1, Presley was criticized for his handling of Baldwin finances and, during the meeting, Neace called for a motion to terminate Presley on two occasions during the meeting and both times the motion failed by a 3-2 vote.
Neace asked the city’s accountant, Beth Grimes, to attend this meeting to go over the financial status of the city and the issues of funds transferred from one city account to another to meet financial obligations of the city.
Presley advised the council that when he was trained for his job with the city he was trained to do transfers of funds on a case-by-case basis and understood this had been the common practice for the city for a number of years.
During the council’s work session meeting on Feb. 10, a two-hour and 13-minute closed session was held to discuss personnel and Presley was called in for a portion of this meeting.
