WEST POINT — A Clay County man is questioning the hiring practices of the county”s Board of Supervisors.
District 5 resident Jesse Ivy is upset the board hired Thomas Storey Jr. to serve as county attorney without advertising the job opening in local newspapers. Effective Jan. 1, Storey replaced former Clay County Attorney Lee Coleman, who resigned to serve as Sixteenth District Circuit Court judge.
But Chancery Clerk Robbie Robinson and the board told Ivy the county was not required to advertise the open position.
Armed with a list of complaints, Ivy also questioned why the board didn”t hire a minority to fill Coleman”s seat. Storey is white, but at least one other person the board considered for the job, Bennie Jones Jr., is black.
“It seems to me there is an effort to keep minorities out of important positions in this county,” Ivy said.
County comptroller Amy Berry said today that county employees split evenly along racial lines. Including elected officials, of the county”s 87 full-time employees, 56 percent are white and 44 percent are black, she said.
The five-member board, which is three white and two black members, did consider whether or not to hire Jones, but deadlocked 2-2 when the issue came to a vote several weeks ago. District 5 Supervisor Floyd McKee abstained from voting and said Thursday it was because he wanted more time to research the candidates. Only after the board deadlocked did supervisors go back and reconsider Storey — who they had discussed earlier in the same meeting — and ultimately agreed to make the hire.
District 2 Supervisor Luke Lummus, in office since 1996, said the board was contacted by several attorneys who expressed interest in the position. The move to hire Storey was made because he appeared to be the “most qualified” for the job, Lummus said. Storey already serves as attorney for the West Point School District and is a judge in Clay County Youth Court.
“We reviewed every applicant the same, whether they were black, white, yellow, green or blue,” Lummus said.
According to McKee, the county will save approximately $6,000 in insurance costs by hiring Storey because Storey already has insurance as a judge.
During a back-and-forth discussion with the board, Ivy also took issue with the lack of diversity among the county”s emergency 911 dispatchers, none of whom are black. But Robinson says the county has had at least four black dispatchers in recent years, and they all left on their own terms.
After the meeting, Ivy said he is considering a run for public office, but is not yet sure what position. He hopes to reach a decision in the near future.
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