By Betsy Finklea
The Latta Clerk/Treasurer Ernest Barrentine had his public grievance hearing on Thursday night in front of a room of spectators in the Latta Town Hall council room.
Barrentine was not reappointed by council in a 4-3 vote at the January meeting of the Latta Town Council. Council members Alex Stoops, Brian Mason, Lutherine Williams, and James Reaves voted not to reappoint Barrentine. Council members Abbott Shelley and Trudy Drawhorn and Mayor Nancy Brigman voted to reappoint Barrentine.
Barrentine appeared before the Town of Latta’s grievance committee. Harold Snipes is the chairperson and members include Crystal Moore, Josh Holt, Beverly Spruill, Andy Britt, and Tony Roberts.
Snipes said the hearing was necessary, according to policy, but pointed out that this was a hearing not an open forum. He said the findings from the hearing will be brought to the mayor, who will present it to council likely at the next council meeting on Thursday, February 14th. Barrentine was the first to present information to the committee. He said he invoked his right to a hearing under the policy of the Town of Latta. Barrentine said that the council provided no reasons in his dismissal, and he would like to know what they are. He said during his 17 years, he had received no written or oral reprimands and it would stand to reason that if council had a problem with his performance that they would have attempted to resolve it with him.
Barrentine said he understood the position was appointed, but he felt that the town had discriminated solely against him. He said there are other positions in the town that are supposed to be appointed annually and had not been. Barrentine said prior clerk/treasurer’s had only been voted on only one time.
Councilman Brian Mason, who was one of the votes not to reappoint Barrentine, spoke. He said he had not planned to come and speak, and he was not sure that the hearing was completely appropriate because Barrentine was an appointed official, not an employee of the town. He said that other council member(s) had told him that they were not going to show up for “a circus.” Councilman Mason quoted ordinances. One point was that council could choose not to reappoint for any cause they deemed sufficient. On the issue that council did not have the right to tell the clerk/treasurer what to do, he outlined duties from an ordinance that ended with the statement that the clerk/treasurer was to perform other duties as required by council. Mason said Barrentine was not fired and not terminated. He said he had a position for one year, according to ordinance, he was not reappointed and therefore, his initial term had lapsed.
Councilman Abbott Shelley, who was one of the votes to reappoint Barrentine, said he found Barrentine to be very smart and thought that he had done a very good job.
Mayor Nancy Brigman said that this hearing did not just come out of the blue. It was requested by Barrentine and the attorney for the municipal association and a labor attorney said it was legal if he wanted to come before the public. She said that Councilman Mason had not said anything about Barrentine’s performance.
She said the CPA tells her that Barrentine has done a fine job with the accounting and the record-keeping and the auditor had confirmed that. She said that Barrentine was honest and had done a fine job. She said if Barrentine is not reappointed they were going to have problems with someone doing the paperwork and dealing with the grants. She said if they got someone new it will take them about three years to learn the job. She said they needed to think about the town.
After Brigman’s comments, Barrentine had a brief rebuttal. His rebuttal focused on a records request that was mentioned in previous comments. Barrentine said that the request did not come from council, it came from one council member, and he was told not to do that. He said he was supposed to be e-mailed a list of files. He had not received this, but he had a witness to the conversation about the list.
The committee has 20 days to make a decision.
