By Martin Couch
On Thursday afternoon when Bryant mayor-elect Jill Dabbs called Bryantdaily.com, she seemed in shock over the resignation by Bryant Police Chief Tony Coffman.Coffman, who is said to have taken a job[more] in Cammack Village as a patrolman, announced Tuesday to a few people he was retiring.
"I had no idea he was going to do that," Dabbs said in a telephone interview. "I tried to talk to him, but I've got no answer from any of my calls or messages to City Hall. This has been nothing but a very unsmooth transition. There has been no cooperation at all with them."
Dabbs indicated she would be the one to select the new police chief as per her mayoral duties.
"If he would have come and talked to me or just called me," she said. "We could have figured this out. I have seen him at Council meetings and other meetings and we have spoken, but I had no idea he was going to resign."
Calls and emails to Coffman remained unanswered after a week.
As people in Bryant anticipate the start of the Dabbs' administration, the name of Mark Kizer, husband of newly elected City Clerk Heather Kizer, has been among those mentioned to take Coffman's place.
"I know he wants it real bad," an alderman said.
Dabbs has also non-suited the city for water rate reviews that were corrected by the City Council in the December meeting that will raise water rates and sewer rates nine percent beginning on Jan. 1 for Bryant residents.
The tension between Dabbs and Bryant City Hall has been a result of miscommunication, "or just not wanting to talk to me," Dabbs said.
She is supposed to take office on Jan. 1.
