Rainsville Council Members Hold Private Interviews and Appoint New City Clerk

Rainsville Council Members Hold Private Interviews and Appoint New City Clerk

The Rainsville City Council met Wednesday at a special called meeting to address the City Clerk vacancy.

Councilman Rodger Lingerfelt made a motion (2nd by Councilman Joey Graham) to hire Kelly Frazier as Rainsville City Clerk. During the discussion Mayor Nick Jones expressed his feelings on the way the process had been handled behind closed doors.

Mayor Jones explained that it had been previously discussed that the hiring process and interviews should be conducted publicly and the council had agreed, however the council members proceeded to interview candidates privately without any public oversight.

The Clerk vacancy became an issue in February when Judy Lewis officially announced her retirement. At that time, Mayor Jones and Councilman Brandon Freeman pled with the Council to take action by promoting City Treasurer and Assistant Clerk Debbie Lanier to fill the position in the interim.The Council refused and then began taking applications for the appointed position using a standard city employee job posting. Lanier was the only internal employee to apply but withdrew her name due to a number of reasons, including behind the scenes turmoil. Lanier announced her own retirement from the city shortly thereafter.

It came to light at the special called meeting that Rainsville's Council members had been conducting private interviews and holding non-public discussions in regard to the City Clerk position for some time now. The exact details of these non-public meetings/discussions and who they included are unknown.

 

 

We may never know the details involved in deciding this key city appointment, but we do understand that these discussions and interviews date back to before Debbie Lanier withdrew her name from consideration...leaving us to wonder if these backroom meetings played a role in her decision to retire.

What is known is that the public and the media were kept in the dark.