From Mayor Jill Dabbs:
It was with a heavy heart that I have accepted[more] the resignation of Jeremy Lemons the Parks and Recreation Director for the City of Bryant. I have had the privilege of working with Jeremy over the last several years, in both a volunteer and now supervisor capacity. I say without hesitation that he has been a tremendous asset to our City and a pleasure to work with. Jeremy will be truly missed.
I have long held to a personal policy that if any of my employees whether it is with my private business or now as Mayor of Bryant, when any has an opportunity to better themselves and/or their family. I will support and encourage them to do so.
This is the opportunity Jeremy has before him and he has taken. I wish him and his family the best! I look forward to maintaining a friendly relationship with Jeremy as we all will continue to see him actively involved in his community, school, and church.
Randy Releford
On January 6, 2011 I made the following "comment" in the article on bryantdaily.com titled "NEW BRYANT MAYOR ISSUES STATEMENT; TABS KIZER AS INTERIM CHIEF OF POLICE":
"I hear on good authority that the former city councilman Rick Meyer might be the new Parks Director. He was very active and an outspoken advocate of the new facility on Boone Road and very close to the Dabbs family. You heard it here first."
Now, with this resignation of Mr. Lemons you will see that my above statement of January 6th will come true.
Its always comforting when you have inside information!
L.J.
I certainly hope this does not happen! And today she fired two more department heads. She only has a few more to go before she has completed her monarchy. If Meyer were put into that position, he would be her right hand….but I believe he already is. What’s happening to this community is a travesty! These discarded employees are REAL people who have served Bryant well, without regard to politics. No other Bryant mayor has brought politics into the picture and tossed employees out as if they were trash.
joe
Too bad the people didn’t see the writing on the wall before the election.
Dr. Shane Knight will probably replace Richard Penn. His "Dr." is in Theology, and he has no engineering experience; actually, there are no engineers employed by the city now.
Either she will hire one to work under Knight, or she will contract it out.
If I remember right, she wasn’t going to fill Shayne King’s position either; but she did.
joe
From January 6 article about personnel moves:
Dabbs is quoted:
In a recent interview with the state newspaper, Dabbs stated "that she was not planning to fill King’s former position, because she believes the area can be served by the existing employees."
She went from not planning on hiring an HR director on Jan 6, to having the director trained enough to participate in a Firing on Feb. 25.
In 36 working days she was able to evaluate that she needed an HR director, post a position, interview prospective candidates, negotiate salaries, hire a new HR person, train that person, and operate a city at the same time. Hmmmmm……..sounds like she isn’t always truthful. She has these positions filled before she fires the person that is currently occupying it.
L.J.
She states she doesn’t have a "plan" on her hiring and firing decisions, but she has exposed herself several times. I had already figured out that Knight was in line to move up. When Milligan couldn’t get the salary increase in order to hire him, Dabbs hired him. Now, why in the world would he take this position, at this salary, unless he was promised he would see an increase in the near future? Anyone with intelligence can see through that little plot. And I think people are starting to realize that she is not the person totally making decisions. Heck, she didn’t even visit council meetings until right before the election. So how did she immediately come by all this knowledge to make these major decisions….because of her genuius? Don’t think so…..she has someone giving her directives. She has woven a web, but she is getting entangled in her own web and it won’t be too long before she will be exposed! A lot of people are saying they voted for her, but now regret it. She has left the city in a terribly vulnerable position when we lost our Public Works Director, and his assistant, another engineer. Knight does not have the background, nor experience, for the tehnical knowledge needed….and why should the position be altered so she could have a "figurehead" running a department, with the people with appropriate degrees and experience performing the job? Unbelievable lack of good decisionmaking on the part of Dabbs. The City of Bryant was in large built upon the hard work and dedication of its employees and now she is firing the people who made Bryant the great place to live and win all the awards. And when she replaces them it appears she is putting in staff who are no more qualified, and most often less qualified.
L.J.
By the way, a good friend of mine attends the church in Salem that Knight used to pastor. He said the attendance fell down to next to nothing because Knight was ranting at the pulpit regarding political issues. The reason I mention this is because Dabbs is so politically motivated, it makes you wonder if her motivation to hire him had something to do with his politicical "involvement"….plus the fact that Milligan couldn’t get the salary for him.
As I say time again…there is NO PLACE for party politics on the local level. People are getting sick of Dabbs in a hurry and it’s largely because of her lack of good decisionmaking due to party politics and her arrogant lack of respect for the position and the Council…as well as city employees. She needs to remember that the aldermen were all elected by their wards also. And she needs to realize that she is on the SAME level as they are, and not above them. It’s all built upon a system of checks and balances and when she manipulates and tries to circumvent the process, it takes the power away from the citizens living in those wards, who elected those aldermen. The aldermen were elected to represent them on the council and they should be able to be part of the process and not left out.
She sold herself on a platform of transparency and honesty, but the voter’s got hoodwinked. And that makes voters mad!!!!! She can only survive so long with her public relations campaign through the media. Everyone learned as a child the old addage that it’s not important what you say….but it’s what you do that counts.
joe
She isn’t even concerned with transparency. A city the size of Bryant doesn’t need a PIO. She wants a professional spinster to give the illusion of transparency.
Like I said a hundred times. This is all smoke and mirrors.
Her friend’s unemployment rate plummeted the day she took office. And if she can’t hire them, Dennis Milligan will try to.
Kathy
I am so angry about what Dabbs is doing to our city. Transparency? Yes, I can see right through to her agenda and motives.
Resident
This smoke and mirrors appears to me to be a figment of some overactive imaginations laced with bits and pieces of possible truths and 1/2 truths, throw in a little disrepect of others opinions and a huge huge huge effort to keep any kind of stink stirred up.
Spare me all the "you know for a fact this and that crap". I’ve said it a hundred times…. there is not one of you…. let me repeat…. not one of you that is/has/was privy to every detail of every conversation/action with any or all of the involved individuals from Ms. Mayor, ex pc, interim pc, ex employees etc.
My point being if you want to share your opinions as adults… by all means do so but please preface it with: THIS IS MY OPINION.
Quit acting like you’ve got ALL the info or I’m gonna keep thinking your lying. If you were really stand up kind of men you probably wouldn’t be on here playing dirty politics anyway.