Office Manager Eliminated at CEIDC – $72,000/year to Move Boxes
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
CROCKETT – Crockett city council and Crockett Economic and Industrial Development Corporation (CEIDC) held a joint meeting Monday, Sept. 16 to debate not only the recent creation of the Office Manager position itself, but the manner in way it was created, seemingly with no approval or authorization of any kind.
As recently reported in The Messenger, CEIDC Executive Director James Gentry recently hired former law enforcement and education administrator Woodrow Jones to serve as Office Manager, without approval and budgeting required to create such a position. After our reporting, Jones wrote a lengthy letter to The Messenger, to which we publicly responded. Despite Jones’ claims, Gentry himself confirmed the facts from our reporting, namely that the position was not put up for any votes, was created without consulting any city officials or CEIDC, and even shocked the crowd by revealing Jones’ salary – which had been reported as over $60,000 a year.
Crockett Administrator John Angerstein warned council the discussion was not about any one person, but rather if the city wanted to create a this new position, which would cost the city around $87,000, including benefits and a $65,000 a year salary.
Gentry had turned in Jones’ application, which was received by The Messenger through a Freedom of Information Act request, listed his salary to be $65,000 a year.
“The $65,000 you are referring to was what he (Jones) put on his application,” Gentry explained to several audible gasps. “There were conversations about that being less than I wanted to offer, but it was negotiable. It was going to be, hopefully, $6,000 a month.”
When Gentry earlier spoke with The Messenger, he said he found a mess at the CEIDC offices and needed someone to go through the many boxes and files and help get the office organized. The revelation that CEIDC pays $72,000 a year came as a shock, even to city council, who knew only of the application submitted. Gentry reiterated what he had said in his interview, that he believed he had the right to hire anyone he needed to further CEIDC’s mission.
Gentry said he returned after over a year of administrative paid leave only to find more than 100 boxes stacked up and wanting to adhere to the findings of the forensic audit, wanted to improve the CEIDC filing system and only destroy documents which would be able to be destroyed and archive the rest. Gentry said he had mentioned his plan to get some help with the project to Crockett Mayor Dr. Ianthia Fisher.
It was in fact Fisher who asked a series of devastating questions, which got to the heart of the controversy.
“What is the role of your Executive Assistant?” Fisher asked.
“She is my secretary. She is, as I have stated in the past, as needed, in different directions and responsibilities within her knowledge and capability,” Gentry answered.
Gentry stated he felt the scope of the filing was “beyond her capabilities,” he said he wanted to implement a formal procedure for documentation at CEIDC.
“There were no additional papers added to your department during the forensic audit. What I am saying is, what existed in those boxes, was already under your operation?” Fisher continued.
Gentry confirmed this to be the case.
“My concern is, wouldn’t it be more beneficial to you, if someone who was familiar with what was already in the office, as opposed to bringing in someone that had never seen the information before, because if she had been with you, she was familiar with it,” Fisher said, referring to CEIDC’s Executive Assistant. “Why an additional person at that amount of salary? Maybe a part time person may help you move them and put them in a row, but for someone to have to come in, it seems like a really large amount of money when you have one able-bodied person and you’d have to get the last word, so you would actually have to help.”
Regarding Gentry’s “conversation” with her regarding the new position, Fisher wanted to clear that up, too.
“If the procedure was being followed, why wasn’t your economic development board involved? You talked to me about ‘possibly’, and that was just a general conversation,” Fisher said. “The board should have known, because you have to have funding allocated before you even begin, and then you have to have a full job description, and those things are spelled out, and they’re spelled out under the policy, and the procedures were not followed, and that is a concern.”
Councilman Mike Marsh asked if anyone on the board (city council) had participated in interviewing Jones. Jones had earlier confirmed ‘a couple of people’ had interviewed him for the position, but would not reveal who they were.
“Yes,” Gentry said, “Mr. (Darrell) Jones here on the board offered to sit down with me to look over the job applications I had. He was with me when I interviewed the gentleman. He was able to assess and ask specific questions that were helpful in determining this gentleman was qualified to do what I wanted to get done.”
Angerstein confirmed CEIDC had agreed to follow city procedures on hiring personnel, which Gentry said he was unaware of, even though he acknowledged he knew he could not spend more than $15,000 without board approval.
Gentry argued he had hired people in the past, but Angerstein explained he could hire for approved positions, but not create a new one.
“The procedures you have always followed have always been because there was a budgeted position in your budget,” Angerstein noted, going on to explain he can only hire city positions when they are approved, budgeted for – and even then, following city procedures on posting positions and interviewing several candidates.
Councilwoman NaTrenia Hicks had questioned who had called the CEIDC meeting and having arrived a few minutes late, wasn’t clear the meeting was a joint session with both city council and CEIDC. The tone of the meeting, began to boil over, with neither side backing down.
“My question is, is he (Gentry) not allowed to amend his budget?” Hicks asked.
“No,” Angerstein said, flatly. He went on to explain the council that very night had to approve several budget amendments to allow Angerstein to spend the city’s money in different ways.
The Messenger had earlier noted Gentry demanded the same pay as Angerstein in his proposed contract, and it would appear Jones’ hiring was tied to the hiring of Consultant Nancy Windham, and an attempt to tie Jones’ salary to hers.
“Did you redo the budget for her (Windham)?” Councilman Darrell Jones asked.
“Yes,” came Angerstein’s reply.
“The money comes from CEIDC and she makes $72,000 a year,” Jones said.
“She is a retied director of economic development of the city of Frisco,” Angerstein said. “She came in as a project manager while Mr. Gentry was gone, and I was doing all those projects by myself. I asked for help for these projects because I was overwhelmed with work.”
“We hired Ms. Windham and she’s making $72,000 per year and only working 30 hours a month,” Hicks said. “Can you imagine how many infrastructure projects we can do for that?”
“You approved that,” Angerstein answered.
“I wasn’t here then” Hicks replied.
Angerstein and Fisher confirmed Hicks did vote to approve Windham, and the meeting began to break down, before Fisher was able to get the parties to stop arguing and move on with the meeting.
Jones made a motion to approve the new position, which only he and Hicks voted for. Marsh followed up with a motion to reject the new position, pay Jones the $3,000 he was owed for the time he had worked, and eliminate the position. This passed, with Marsh and Councilmen Dennis Ivey and Elbert Johnson voting in favor, to applause from the crowd.
The group then went into a lengthy executive session, to discuss what disciplinary measures, if any, might be taken against Gentry for the hire. When the group returned, Hicks proposed a verbal reprimand, which failed for lack of votes. Ivey made a motion for a two week suspension without pay, which also failed.
It was decided to leave the matter at that, after the long meeting, and take it up again at a future CEIDC/city council meeting.
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
