For the second time in less than a month, the Reidsville City Council spent nearly two hours in closed session only to return with no update, explanation, or solution for the situation involving terminated Assistant Chief of Police Jermaine Snell.
Issues surrounding Snell’s employment have plagued the city with lawlessness, ethics violations, and decline in morale for more than three months as three of the city’s five council members have attempted to override the findings of an independent investigation and an administrative hearing which sustained Snell’s termination.
After Snell’s public display of opposition in September, coupled with his appearance at another September meeting with two out-of-town attorneys, city officials have effectively been silenced due to the possibility of litigation by Snell who says he wants his job back. Read the background on Snell here.
The specific details of Snell’s demands have not been made available to the public due to the ongoing negotiations and back and forth, but the entire situation continues to leave the council at an impasse. Council members Verdie Williams, Carolyn Blackshear, and Theron Harris have worked behind the scenes to orchestrate a restoration of Snell’s employment, despite Snell being under investigation by the Georgia Peace Officer Standards & Training Council (POST).
During Monday’s regular council meetings, citizens expressed their disdain for the closed session discussion, the lack of resolution, and the disregard for the public’s time as they waited for council to return to an open meeting.
Monday Meeting
Council members convened Monday to discuss a number of unrelated items related to regular city operations. At 5:23 p.m., though no motion had been made by council members, City Clerk Nivea Jackson collected her things, stood up, and abruptly left her desk in the council chambers to go into closed session. Moments later, council voted 4-1 to move into closed executive session to discuss potential litigation. Councilman Dan Bennett opposed the motion to go into executive session.
Like the mid-September special-called meeting, council remained in closed session for nearly two hours, returning at approximately 7:00 p.m.
Mayor Vicki Nail announced that the city was no further along in resolving the potential litigation and that no further comment could be made at the advice of legal counsel in Atlanta.
Citizen Attriss Nail stood to address council about the lengthy time behind closed doors. “Y’all sit back there an hour and a half and haven’t come up with an answer and I think the citizens ought to know what the heck is the problem with somebody that can’t come up with an answer and get this crap out of the city where we can carry on the city functions. I am so disgusted with the council that cannot get this issue resolved. This is the second time y’all have sat back there for hours and you still ain’t done nothing.”
Councilman Donald Prestage explained that the GIRMA attorney advised the council not to comment due to the ongoing litigation.
Susan Waters asked why the attorney can’t provide a comment, to which the city attorney responded that the GIRMA attorney’s contact information would be distributed for people who wanted to reach out. It was then asked if he would just tell people that he cannot comment on the ongoing litigation, but no response was offered.
Councilwoman Blackshear said that if the city council divulges any information ‘about anything,’ they would lose representation.
“And it took y’all two hours to decide you couldn’t say anything?” Waters asked from the audience.
“Yes ma’am,” Blackshear replied.
“That’s ridiculous. So are y’all ever going to be able to decide anything?” Waters asked.
“When is this can going to stop getting kicked down the road?” Keller Wilcox asked from the audience. “When is somebody going to make a decision?”
“We don’t even understand why there’s even a discussion about it,” another person said.
“Let’s go to court, let’s file a damn lawsuit, let’s go to court,” Wilcox said.
“That might be what happens, but now I make a motion to adjourn,” Blackshear said.
“I bet you do want to get out of here and not answer questions,” Wilcox said.
“This is ridiculous,” another person said.
Seeing a number of hands raised, Mayor Nail asked to hear from the public on any matters, but was overridden by a motion by Councilwoman Carolyn Blackshear to adjourn the meeting. It was seconded by Councilwoman Verdie Williams.
Nail again stated that she’d give anyone who wishes to speak the opportunity to do so, at which time Blackshear said, “I called for a motion that we adjourn.”
Another citizen expressed his displeasure with the council’s decision to adjourn as citizens attempted to speak.
“How we just going to adjourn when we have people who have things to say and they haven’t had a chance to say them?”
Councilman Dan Bennett stated the meeting was not closed and encouraged people to speak.
Another citizen spoke up and said that she understood that litigation couldn’t be discussed, but that prolonging everything was getting in the way of doing the city’s business. She implored the council to focus on the city and make decisions. “Take your feelings out of it and try to handle business,” she said.
“You have to sit up here to know what we’re talking about,” Blackshear told her.
The citizen said she understood but that the council needed to work on making decisions together instead of always fighting. “When you’re showing that you’re weak because you can’t be in unity, this is from the citizen’s standpoint…”
Blackshear interrupted her, “That’s not true. That’s not true…You think we want to sit back there for that long?”
The citizen said it was showing a lack of consideration for the people’s time, to which Blackshear interrupted, “Oh Jesus!!” and dropped her head. “What are we supposed to do? Tell the legal people…we aren’t going to listen anymore?” Blackshear asked.
At that point, the citizen said Blackshear was not understanding what she was saying.
Mayor Nail interjected that she and the staff are at the office every day taking care of the city’s business and will continue to take care of city matters while also working to find a resolution to the potential litigation issue.
At 7:18 p.m., Councilwoman Williams departed the building without explanation, prompting an outcry by citizens who said she was abandoning her post. A few minutes later, Williams returned to her seat as Councilwoman Blackshear called the citizens “pitiful.”
As citizens continued to address the council, Blackshear muttered, “You have a lot to learn” and “You just don’t know.”
At 7:23 p.m., a motion was made to adjourn and the meeting concluded.
