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Police called for order at Beebe City Hall: Political power struggle unresolved
By Tim Bousquet
The Daily Citizen
Wednesday, July 14, 2004 12:43 AM CST
Police were called to Beebe City Hall Tuesday to help defuse a heated dispute between Mayor Don Ward and Clerk/Treasurer Paul Hill.
At the center of the conflict is a feisty 22-year old clerk and a set of keys.
"I will not be stepped on," said Sarah Brittain, assistant city treasurer. "I will not be walked over."
Brittain showed up for work Tuesday only to be told by Hill that she was being placed on administrative leave. Hill suspected her of billing the city for goods she ordered from a mail order catalog.
Hill's suspicions were raised by an invoice sent from ABC Distributing, a Miami, Fla. firm that targets employees of large organizations.
The invoice, dated June 28, was addressed "Attn: S. Brittain" at Beebe City Hall. It stated that the account was delinquent in the amount of $42.83 for two orders placed in March.
"It was just addressed to me at City Hall," said Brittain. "It wasn't a bill for the city. People in City Hall have been ordering stuff from ABC for 15 years. The dispatchers at the police station order things, too. No one's ever charged the city, except once, when the assistant to the mayor ordered something for the office.
"But anyway, I had already paid the bill by the time they sent the notice. It just hadn't gone through their system yet."
"Pending a complete investigation of this issue I am placing Ms. Brittain on administrative leave immediately," Hill wrote in a memo to Ward on July 7.
"I gave her written notification that she was on administrative leave and she became severely distraught - pulling her hair, tearing up the letter, stating she was gonna (sic) 'freak out'..."
Hill called Beebe police to escort Brittain out of the office, and to take her office keys as well.
Hill said Brittain's administrative leave was non-disciplinary.
"It was leave with pay," he said. "I had to leave for a couple of days, and I didn't want her working pending the results of my investigation."
Ward, however, said Hill wanted to initially suspend Brittain without pay.
"I said, 'Paul, you don't want to do that. That will create all sorts of legal problems,'" explained Ward. "So he put her on paid leave."
Regardless, Brittain fought the suspension, and asked for the City Council to hear her case. At a special meeting of the Council Monday night, the council voted unanimously in Brittain's favor, ordering her re-instated and demanding that her employee file be cleansed of the matter.
The Council said they had hired Brittain and therefore they, not Hill, had supervisory authority over her.
Brittain returned to work Tuesday morning, taking up her usual position at a desk in anteroom to Hill's office.
"Yeah, it's tense around here," she said as a reporter interviewed her. Hill was working at his desk, about 20 feet away.
Tuesday afternoon Brittain headed out to make a deposit at the bank, and asked Hill for the keys to the office.
"I couldn't give her the keys back," said Hill. "Because I'm responsible for this office. The Council said she no longer works for me, so I can't give responsibility for this office to someone I have no authority over."
Brittain walked down the hall and complained to Ward, who went back and confronted Hill.
"From my perspective, I was just trying to carry forth what the City Council wanted done," said Ward. "I'm the one who works here all day, implementing what they tell me to do. That's my job. But I don't want this to be a black eye for the city - it's slowing down the process of government.
"I went down there and said, 'Paul, I'm going to tell you once, I want the keys to her office. He said, 'I do not plan to give the keys. I will not give her the keys at all.'"
Ward then called the police. Over the next two hours at least three different Beebe police officers were sent to City Hall to referee the standoff, as Ward demanded that Hill turn over the keys and Hill refused to do so.
"Let them arrest me," said Hill "I'm not turning over these keys."
The last officer to arrive was Sgt. Don Inns, who Hill said is a long-time friend to both Ward and Hill.
"[Inns] finally worked out an agreement," said Hill. "It basically came down to I'd let [Brittain] continue to work at her desk and do all her work, but I wouldn't give her the keys."
The situation hadn't changed by Wednesday, and that the atmosphere throughout the building was noticeably charged.
Ward characterized the most recent blow-up as part of a long-simmering feud.
"He's arrogant and he's defiant," said Ward of Hill. "I think he wants to be mayor."
Hill's attempt to place Brittain on administrative leave was unfair, he continued.
"He tried to set her up," said Ward. "He wanted to leave two or three signed checks with her when he left. He thought she'd fill out the blank checks, and then we'd catch her stealing from the city."
"That's a lie," Hill said in response to the charge. "That suggestion may have come from somewhere else, but I have a strict policy of not leaving blank checks in the office."
City policy is that all checks must be signed by both Hill and Ward. The two have approved only one check to ABC Distributing, the one both agree was a legitimate purchase by the mayor's assistant.
Hill, for his part, broadly suggested that Brittain holds her position only because she was hired by the former city treasurer, who is Brittain's grandmother.
"The City Council made her position full-time in the spring of 2002, about a year before I took office," said Hill. "As to whether that should be a full-time position, that's another discussion.
"She was on maternity leave when I got here," he continued. "And when she came back, I shook my head and said, 'oh, no.'"
Brittain took the charge of nepotism in stride.
"Oh, honey, I'm born and bred in Beebe," she said. "When I worked here with my grandmother, I was in at eight, and out at five. I didn't get any special treatment. She made sure I worked the hours I was supposed to, and cut my pay when I didn't."
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