Motley Fire Chief Davis steps down

After nearly 20 years of service to the City of Motley, Fire Chief Troy Davis has agreed (per request of the Motley City Council) to step down from his position.

This decision was made at the regular Motley City Council meeting June 23, following a closed session that same evening that lasted approximately two hours.

During the closed session (a Performance Evaluation for the Fire Chief), the council spoke with Chief Davis; and Assistants Dave Greig and Bryan Hutchison individually.

When the regular meeting reconvened, Mayor Konrad Alexander said that the consensus of the council had been to ask Chief Davis to step down.

The mayor made that request into a motion (adding 'with deep regrets'); a motion which was accepted unanimously by the council.

The council also asked Davis to stay on in an advisory roll; but Davis said he would need time to think about that.

In a unanimous decision, the council later approved a motion made by council member Duane Solga to name Dave Greig as interim fire chief. Previously, Greig has served in capacity of First Assistant Chief.

Chief Davis had initially requested that the closed session pertaining to his evaluation remain open. A lengthy discussion followed at this time before the mayor called for a closed session.

Council member Bruce Mills asked that the formal complaint (filed by the City Clerk's office) be read out loud.

City Clerk/Treasurer Terri Smith said that the formal complaint had to do with the fire department

filling an office they had

been asked to vacate with 'junk.'

Although the above mentioned office had previously been used by the Fire Dept. Relief Association to secure their charitable gambling items, the council had recently decided (per request of Smith) that it should be used as a secure area to store office files, since the Relief Assoc. no longer had charitable gambling.

The fire department apparently took it upon themselves to go ahead and move the office files downstairs; and the appearance of the room after this move was judged differently by at least two council members.

Council member Duane Solga said he had looked at the office. "It looks like it was an intent to aggravate," Solga said of the many boxes stacked throughout the room. He also felt that the method of bringing offi ce files downstairs should have gone through the council.

Council member and

fire dept. liaison Rob Sampson

disagreed; stating that "The fire dept. did what they

were told. They were told to vacate the office, so they brought down the stuff." Sampson said he believed the Fire Dept. thought they were doing the office staff a favor. "This was not done maliciously," Sampson said.

Smith said that a statement had recently been made by members of the fire department to the effect of, "She kicked us out, we're kicking her out."

Chief Davis wondered why this particular incident would be included in a closed session.

Sampson also questioned this; saying that it had nothing to do with a performance evaluation.

Smith said that the closed session had been called because of leadership skills; to see if there had been good leadership skills shown now or in the past. It (the session) had nothing to do with this offi ce item, Smith said.

Council member Nancy Nieken asked Davis why he hadn't stopped members of the fire dept. from moving the files into the office. Davis answered that he was busy.

At this point, Hutchison said that it had been his (Hutchison's) idea to move the files into that room.

Sampson was also concerned about where certain closed-session information (labeled 'confidential') had come from.

"Where did you get it?" he asked Smith, who answered that it was none of his business.

Smith said it had been brought to her and that she only had given it to the people who were already aware of the situation.

Firefighter Connie Davis (Troy Davis' wife) told Smith that she was not even supposed to have been told this information.

Sampson told the council that he believes there

needs to be an investigation

in regard to where the 'confidential' information

for the closed session came from.

It was at this point, at approximately 9:20 p.m., Mayor Alexander requested that the council go to a closed session. The regular meeting reconvened at 11:15 p.m.

In a statement made following the meeting, Davis said, "I don't have any hard feelings toward the city or the council. I took this job because of the people; and I will continue to serve the people of this community until my job officially ends."