During a special/emergency session held just days after suspending town clerk Kim Reams pending the final outcome of an intent to terminate, the Greenville Town Council made an offer to a Jacksonville certified personal accountant to fill the vacancy. Just one day after, a contract was made effective on Friday, May 15, and signed on Sunday, May 17.
The virtual Zoom meeting commenced a little after 2 p.m. on Thursday, May 14, to consider/hire an interim town clerk. This meeting was necessary due to action taken on Monday, May 11, when a preliminary resolution to terminate Reams' employment with the Town of Greenville was passed 4-1. While Reams’ is still on the payroll, she now has less than 10 days to request an appeal or accept the termination.
Meanwhile, it was announced during the May 14 meeting that deputy-clerk Carolyn Spears submitted her letter of resignation the previous day, which left no one to run the office of town clerk and care for day-to-day administrative tasks, including payroll. "We have been reaching out to several entities regarding trying to find someone that could come in and help us during this time," said Mayor Brittni Brown, in regards to searching for an interim town clerk. "Our town manager has reached out to the [Florida] League of Cities and the clerks association – some of the members of the board have also reached out to professional contacts that we may have, trying to solicit someone that can serve in that interim position."
Lee N. Jones Jr., CPA, was the only candidate to submit a resume to the board, and spoke on his career, strengths and accomplishments. Gaining a bachelor's degree from the University of North Florida, Jones has over 25 years of experience growing, analyzing and managing businesses and departments, as stated in his resume.
The document continues to state that Jones has experience working with public and private entities, federal and state agencies, grant administration and management as well as other entities. Since 1995, Jones has experience with a private practice (1995-2003), and has served as a chief financial officer for Community Investment Services of Atlanta (2003-2012), chief financial and compliance officer for First Anguilla Trust Company of The Valley, Anguilla (2012-2015), chief financial officer of The West End Project/(Community Based Organization Development Center, Inc.), of Atlanta (2015-2018) and chief financial and operation officer of Bat Conservation International (2018-2020). He is currently practicing privately once more, as his resume lists, providing financial and technology solutions for non-profit entities.
"One of my strengths I'm hoping to bring to Greenville in transition here is not only financial experience and training, but also my experience and training in technology and leveraging technology so that things become more efficient, easier and ultimately cost less," said Jones while speaking to the board and interested parties through Zoom. "I really just want to do a good job, if I'm able, to ensure no critical services or no critical matters fall short while you're going through your transition."
Before opening up discussion, Councilman Calvin Malone made a motion that the board consider hiring Jones as the interim town clerk, seconded by councilwoman Brandi Tillman. Following, councilman Bobby Burnett spoke briefly.
"I'd like it clarified just exactly how we came about getting Mr. Jones' resume and why is it the only resume?" Councilman Burnett asked. "Another question I have – does any council member have any relationship with him, prior relationship or know this gentleman previously, and has anybody been in contact with him prior to this week?"
Mayor Brown responded to Councilman Burnett, stating that as she "opened up the discussion, since Monday, after we had our meeting, myself, our town manager, other council members I would hope … all of us, of course, knew that we need to have someone fill the position that was vacated on Monday." She reiterated that town manager Edward Dean contacted the Florida Leagues of Cities and Clerks Association.
"I just know he was a professional contact as far as the financial field, so that's how Mr. Lee came to our attention by me reaching out to the contacts that I have," Mayor Brown continued. "He sent over a resume. I'm not sure if Mr. Dean received any type of resumes from any of his contacts, but this is what we received from him."
All council members confirmed they have had no relationship with Jones. "I have no relationship with him, but I would like for you, though, to consider we are in an emergency situation," Councilman Malone stated.
Councilman Burnett continued to pose questions, asking, "Did anybody have contact with him prior to the meeting?"
"Yes sir, Mr. Burnett, I said that I reached out to my professional contacts; that's how Mr. Lee came aboard and I requested and asked if he would send us a resume," Mayor Brown responded.
"It seems that you have a problem [unintelligible], Councilman," Councilman Malone added. "Are you opposed to that, us trying to do our job? Trying to find somebody to fill a vacant [position]?"
"I'm just trying to get answers to questions I have, Councilman," Councilman Burnett replied.
When asked when he would be available to start, if hired, Jones stated that his intentions were to begin immediately. Mayor Brown informed Jones that the town needs someone to start immediately, citing the priority of ensuring town staff continue to receive payroll as well as handling multiple open grants.
"I understand we're in a situation where we do need some desperate help down there at city hall, but in the rush to get somebody there, is anybody considering doing a background check on this gentleman or do y'all know him well enough to say you don't need one?" asked Councilman Burnett.
"That's what we're doing now," Councilman Malone responded.
"I understand you're doing an interview process now, but I'm talking about doing a background check to check the background history and all of that. That's required."
"Yes sir, I'm pretty sure we can take care of that with Mr. Reid," said Mayor Brown. "At this point, we wanted to bring this before the board and have the board discuss and possibly take action so we can make sure that the town's business continues."
Dated Sunday, May 17, Attorney John Reid emailed a memorandum to council members, detailing the results from criminal checks and a level II background check. The memorandum confirms that Jones is licensed as a CPA in the state of Florida (expiration: Dec. 31, 2021) and the state of Texas (expiration: Dec. 31, 2021). The memorandum also shows a null and void Florida CPA license, which expired on Dec. 31, 2003, after the license was issued on Feb. 14, 1996.
Additionally, no criminal history or civil judgments or liens appeared on the background check. However, as far as Jones' personal credit history, it is noted that "the undersigned did not seek nor receive from the applicant written consent for a review of his personal credit; therefore, a credit check was not conducted. No search results pertaining to Mr. Jones' credit history outside that available through public records were reviewed."
Continuing with the meeting, Attorney Reid began requesting guidance from the board which would allow him to form and negotiate the terms of employment. "I think at this point, we would, more than likely, want to engage in an independent contractor relationship and then at some point, if we were to extend a permanent offer, we would transition to the career service employee status," Attorney Reid stated. "If it would be the desire of the board to negotiate an independent contract relationship with Mr. Jones, open-ended, subject to a 48-hour termination clause, and then the only further guidance I would need from the board is whether there be some type of guidance on compensation. You could delegate that to me completely, but I would advise you to at least give me some guidance."
"At this point, of course, I can only speak for myself so other members chime in," said Mayor Brown. "For me, if Mr. Jones is acceptable to it … looking at our current budget regarding pay, retirement and insurance – taking all of those things into consideration, in my mind, gives us an idea of what we have available to use. Of course, I understand it's a negotiation, so Mr. Jones will have to be agreeable [unintelligible] … I would like, at least for the short term – if its just for the first couple weeks or so – so we can kind of get things stabilized, if we could stay within what we currently have budgeted, and then give Mr. Jones an opportunity to kind of lay some foundation, get some things together and then we'll have a better idea, moving past that, what we're able to do."
Before the vote, Attorney Reid brought up the fact that Reams is currently suspended with pay, "so we'll be paying her her full salary, plus health insurance and retirement; all of her benefits." Reid also added that Spears submitted her resignation and "she's already contacted us about cashing out her leave."
"We will be paying out a significant amount for Mrs. Carolyn immediately, and then depending on what the board does with Mrs. Reams, we'll be paying her out as well, but at this time, we are paying for our clerk, so we would be paying for two clerks," said Reid. He continued, "So, I think as far as staying within the budget, do you want to stay within the amount – and I don't know how much anybody makes – if we're willing to keep it within the Mrs. Spears’ [budgeted salary] going forward for the interim as a part time in order for us to stay within the budget or do we want to keep it within the amount that was previously budgeted to pay for Mrs. Reams? So, we'd be paying that twice," said Reid.
"Right. [Unintelligible]. Just the short time until we get everything settled with things, and at this point, we have two salaries that will be available to us as far as compensation," said Mayor Brown.
While the following comments from Mayor Brown and Councilman Malone were mainly unintelligible due to poor service through Zoom, the board later voted 4-1 on a motion to extend an offer of temporary employment as the interim town clerk to Jones (as clarified earlier in the meeting, though Mayor Brown used the wordage, "hire"). Councilman Burnett cast the dissenting vote, stating, "I want to make it clear I'm not opposed to Mr. Jones, I'm just opposed to the process."
Days after the meeting, Councilman Burnett took to his personal social media account, stating that the Town of Greenville is "in crisis."
"Contract signed this afternoon by Greenville Mayor paying interim city clerk $3,600 before he starts tomorrow [Monday, May 18], $3,600 [on] June 1, and then starting June 15, he gets $1,684.62 a week!" Councilman Burnett stated. "Majority of citizens in Greenville live below the poverty level and this is how this council is spending your money. Remember in November, Greenville." The post was shared approximately 29 times by current Greenville residents, former Greenville residents and past council members.
Councilman Burnett also questioned the Mayor's ability to sign checks for Jones and other employees, posing the question, "What emergency has been declared?" and stating "she has no grounds under the Greenville charter to sign a check alone!"
In an email to Attorney Reid, Mayor Brown informed Attorney Reid of Burnett's post on Facebook, calling it "a lot of 'mess.'" Attorney Reid replied: "As far as his statement regarding your signature needing an emergency, that is not correct. You currently sign now. The issue of emergency did come up because he asked about our procurement policy. I told him, and I'm planning to write a memo to the whole board explaining this issue, that I spent a good part of the day researching the procurement statute (ch. 287, F.S.) and our own policy to ensure that our contract with Mr. Jones is proper. I believe that it is."
Upon a public records request, Attorney Reid forwarded a copy of the Town of Greenville's current procurement policy, which states under exceptions that non-competitive procurement may be used only under the following (one of many listed) circumstances: "public exigency or emergency exists such that the urgency for the requirement will not permit delay incident to competitive bidding."
According to the contract between Jones and the Town of Greenville, as provided in accordance with public records laws, Jones will be paid for each month (prorated for partial months) that this contract is in effect; the board shall pay Jones $7,300 prospectively and monthly, with the exception of the first month, which shall be paid by the terms outlined as follows: a total of $3,650 at the beginning of the contract, and again on Monday, June 1. Starting Monday, June 15, and every Monday as long as this contract is in effect, the board shall compensate Jones $1,684.62. This amounts to approximately $87,599.20 over a 52-week period. The payments of over $3,000 were clarified in an email from Attorney Reid to Mayor Brown on Saturday, May 16, which states: "After speaking to Ed about cashflow, I proposed the first month payment being broken into two equal payments and then paying weekly …"
Greene Publishing, Inc. reached out to citizens of Greenville to get their thoughts on the issue. Long-time resident and former council member Elesta Pritchett responded: “Before the election, I went to my church, and other churches, and preached: 'Please don't change the people that are already [on the board]; if you do, we will go right back to where we were …' Those people up there, not all of them, they are not for the citizens.”