The Paris City Council had a marathon session tonight. It began at 5:30 p.m ., and it was 9:36 p.m. before the motion to adjourn. The council was behind closed doors for an hour and 43 minutes, turning in the annual evaluations of city manager John Godwin, city judge Thomas Hunt, and city attorney Kent McIlyar. All three were called back individuallly for an elaboration of their scores. Each council member gave them a grade of 5 (best) to 1 (worst) on a wide range of performance issues. District 7 council member Dr. AJ Hashmi and District 3 council member Sue Lancaster tried to fire McIlyer last month, but they got outvoted 4-to-3. McIlyer complained then that he hadnt even been evaluated in more than a year. The city manager is the one with the power to hire and fire city employees. The City Council hires and fires three employees -- the city manager, city attorney and city judge. So evaluations were on the agenda tonight ... in executive session. The council convened into executive session at 7:50 p.m. and came back into open session at 9:33 p.m. At first it did not appear McIlyers plight was as serious as it was. Mayor Matt Frierson announced: OK, we did performance evaluations on the three listed on the agenda. ... Everyone on the council has had a chance to discuss and meet with the three gentlemen. ... At this point, everyone was given some recommendations that they can move forward on and continue to improve on their job that we hope they all attain. Frierson then moved on toward adjournment. But Hashmi and District 6 councilman Edwin Pickle were shaking their head. The council had reached a consensus that wasnt relayed to the public. Wait, we need to go back for a minute, Pickle said. There was action on the matter discussed in executive session. The review -- the 90-day review? Frierson said: OK. Uh, as we discussed, we all performed our evaluations, and it was determined we would do a 90-day review of the city attorney. ... At that time, we will re-evaluate Mr. McIlyar. The council THEN adjourned. Lancaster complained last month that McIlyer refused her request for the preliminary report of Defenbaugh & Associates into the Paris Economic Development Corporation. Hashmi said McIlyer refused to turn over to him his email correspondence to the mayor and mayor pro-tem Richard Grossnickle concerning the investigation. Hashmi said McIlyer was supposed to be the attorney for the entire council, not just the mayor.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 03:52:00 +0000