Blog Details

Senoia Mayor Scott Tigchelaar acknowledged considerations about lacking monetary documentation, unclear price range records, and unauthorized salary increases inside of Metropolis Hall had been among the causes he determined to flee for mayor closing 365 days.

In an interview with The Citizen, Mayor Tigchelaar acknowledged the points began to floor for the length of the metropolis’s price range course of closing summer season, when council people and residents struggled to elaborate monetary documents provided at a public workshop.

“I acknowledged, ‘Let me peruse the bloody price range,’” Mayor Tigchelaar acknowledged. “After which couldn’t develop heads or tails of it. It modified into once unintelligible.”

Mayor Tigchelaar acknowledged the cost range documents lacked the more or much less detail once rapidly worn to cowl spending adjustments, such as prior-365 days comparisons and notes explaining increases.

“You’re going to peruse one or two years prior budgets, honest, or right spending versus your proposed price range,” he acknowledged. “After which it’s seemingly you’ll presumably like a variance column that claims, , hiya, there’s a 5% lengthen on this with a label column explaining the 5% lengthen. There’s no detail cherish that in what modified into once being provided.”

He acknowledged the dearth of readability raised considerations among council people who had been asking questions about the metropolis’s funds.

“On the most attention-grabbing case, there modified into once real incompetence,” Mayor Tigchelaar acknowledged. “In the worst case, there modified into once one thing untoward going on.”

Wage increases below scrutiny

The considerations later expanded to encompass questions about the metropolis manager’s compensation.

Earlier this month, the Metropolis of Senoia filed a lawsuit in Coweta County Superior Court alleging primitive Metropolis Manager Harold Simmons elevated his like pay by bigger than $176,000 by unauthorized raises between 2020 and 2024.

The complaint names Simmons, primitive Assistant Metropolis Manager Jeffrey Fisher, and primitive mayor William “Dub” Pearman III as defendants.

In step with the lawsuit, Simmons’ salary rose from $ninety 9,718 in 2019 to $183,635 by gradual 2024 — an lengthen the metropolis alleges modified into once a ways past the cost-of-living adjustments once rapidly current for workers.

Tigchelaar acknowledged his like review of metropolis records raised questions about how these increases had been authorized.

“Most attention-grabbing mayor and council, in accordance with our charter, it’s very obvious only mayor and council can approve salary lengthen for the metropolis manager,” he acknowledged. “Not the mayor alone, and no longer the metropolis manager himself.”

After soliciting for W-2 records by start records requests, Mayor Tigchelaar acknowledged he discovered proof of great increases but might possibly presumably well no longer come during documentation showing formal council approval.

“Those are no longer authorized in any formal course of where the mayor and council acknowledged yes,” he acknowledged.

Mayor Tigchelaar also alleged that documents inside of personnel files regarded as if it would had been modified for the length of the investigation.

“There’s approvals that had been save within the file that had been signed by the metropolis manager himself,” Mayor Tigchelaar acknowledged. “After which these had been taken out of the file and replaced by one signed by the primitive mayor who didn’t just like the authority to signal these.”

He acknowledged one more approval regarded as if it would had been added later and backdated.

“There modified into once one signed by the outdated mayor when he modified into once mayor,” Mayor Tigchelaar acknowledged. “However it modified into once save in closing 365 days, and he modified into once mayor 5 or 6 years within the past.”

Leadership transition at Metropolis Hall

The monetary investigation has coincided with a broader leadership transition inside of Senoia’s authorities.

Mayor Tigchelaar acknowledged the metropolis is at the second working with an length in-between metropolis manager while officers notice a permanent replacement.

Passe Trilith govt Rob Parker has agreed to support as length in-between metropolis manager for what Tigchelaar described as a four- to six-month length.

“We wished somebody with some right repair-it skills and govt management expertise,” Mayor Tigchelaar acknowledged. “Rob agreed to attain in for four to six months to be an length in-between metropolis manager for us and relief oversee the notice a permanent metropolis manager.”

Parker beforehand served as CEO and co-founder of Trilith, overseeing trend of the Town at Trilith and the surrounding studio district.

Mayor Tigchelaar acknowledged Parker’s position will most likely be to stabilize operations and relief recruit a lengthy-time length administrator.

“We’ll like Rob for this window of time where he’s steadying the ship and getting everything on an very good keel,” he acknowledged.

The permanent metropolis manager, he acknowledged, would then bear different vacant positions and rebuild the metropolis’s administrative team.

A momentary position, Tigchelaar says

Mayor Tigchelaar acknowledged he by no manner planned to pursue public scheme of enterprise but felt compelled to flee after reviewing the metropolis’s funds and management practices.

“I like by no manner, ever desired to be in politics,” he acknowledged.

As an different, he acknowledged his diagram is to restore legit management and transparency in metropolis authorities forward of stepping away from public scheme of enterprise.

“I feel cherish I’m going to be a one-time length mayor to strive to get issues straightened out, get some qualified legit folk working this metropolis with expertise doing it, save the guardrails in scheme … after which I’m out.”

The lawsuit filed by the metropolis remains pending in Coweta County Superior Court, where the defendants can just like the different to acknowledge to the allegations.