Aldermen approved two middle management positions within the Starkville Parks and Recreation Department Tuesday but stopped short of redefining SPRD Director Herman Peters’ role as it will function with the addition of a maintenance director and sports programming director in the future.
The department’s new organizational chart was approved 6-1, with only Ward 2 Alderman Lisa Wynn opposing. It adds a director of maintenance and a director of sports programming, and both positions will split oversight duties and report directly to the parks director. The previous organizational chart had all functions of SPRD reporting directly to Peters.
The two new positions are part of suggestions yielded from a master planning effort conducted by Dalhoff Thomas Design Studio and approved this summer by the board.
Starkville’s upcoming Fiscal Year 2016-17 budget includes a $100,000 line item for the new jobs, Ward 5 Alderman Scott Maynard previously confirmed.
Presented by Ward 4 Alderman Jason Walker, a second motion originally called for the city’s human resources department to write the two job descriptions and modify the parameters of Peters’ job description, “to ensure its compatibility” with the newly created positions since many oversight functions of the parks director would be doled out to the two middle management positions.
The measure was amended to only cover writing the new job positions after it met resistance from Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins, who previously warned aldermen not to tend to any SPRD personnel matters outside of creating the new positions.
Perkins took issue with allowing a staff member to rewrite another department head’s job description without receiving any input. Additionally, he said the board should not attempt to change Peters’ role before establishing requirements and expectations for the new middle management positions.
“This motion looks risky to the vice mayor. I’m not clear on what we’re trying to accomplish here,” he said. “I do not see any viable reason or rational basis at this point to modify the director’s position when the director is in charge of the department. The motion isn’t clear. What are we trying to achieve?”
It is believed the board was scheduled to discuss Peters’ job performance in executive session, but a personnel matter dealing with SPRD was removed from the agenda by a 6-1 vote at the start of the meeting. Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver opposed the item’s removal.
Carver called for Peters to be removed from his position in July after he blamed the parks director for SPRD maintenance and facility issues.
Carver said SPRD is “basically falling (apart) from the inside” because of an “if you don’t tell on me, I won’t tell on you” mindset plaguing its employees.
Five of Starkville’s eight parks received “poor” designations in Dalhoff Thomas’ report, and public feedback from the master planning process identified maintenance and field conditions as two of the department’s top challenges.
Perkins calls for decorum at table
Perkins also used Tuesday’s comment section to issue another warning to his fellow aldermen: personal attacks are not allowed under its guiding rules and must stop.
Perkins did not comment further on the matter or specifically call out an alderman for lack of decorum in past meetings, but Ward 2 Alderman Lisa Wynn chided the mayor pro tempore over a number of issues this summer.
Reading from the Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure, the set of governing rules the board previously adopted, Perkins said “debate must be fundamentally impersonal. Any motion, its nature or consequences, may be attacked vigorously, but it is never permissible to attack the motives, character or member, either directly or by innuendo.”
Perkins reminded fellow board members that those in violation of the rule may be ejected by the presiding officer — Mayor Parker Wiseman or Perkins, if he steps in as mayor pro tempore during Wiseman’s absence — or by board vote.
Wiseman said Perkins point was well taken and advised aldermen to call a point of order if they feel he has not stepped in quick enough during heated debate.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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