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Health & Fitness

My Meeting with the Mayor

I have been so busy working on my dissertation that I haven’t been able to update you on an impromptu, two hour meeting I had with Mayor David Maynard on Friday. 

Our conversation was sincere, impassioned, and occasionally animated! We discussed the latest news about cleaning the property, and several other interactions I’ve had with Mr. Toms. We discussed the “state of the City”, the role of the City Council and the City Administrator, and the expenditures of the City. 

The Mayor is standing by his word that he will not share the personnel records of the City Administrator although he knows that the records could be obtained through an open records request. The Mayor doesn’t believe any good can come from someone’s personnel record being shared with the public.  The Mayor truly believes that Mr. Toms understands the severity of what happened and the negative attention it brought to the City.   

Throughout the discussion, I appreciated that the Mayor:
• requested that we speak face-to-face rather than via email
• is standing by his word about not sharing the personnel record
• was candid throughout the conversation and was honest about the things he was willing to discuss
• was willing to hear me out about my concerns
• answered all of my questions

I do trust in the Mayor’s leadership, and I believe that he is working to coach and supervise the City Administrator. I want to be clear, I was not, through my letters to the Mayor, requesting that Donald Toms be fired. I do want Mr. Toms to be held to the same standard as other member of the City staff—which means that he needed to face some level of accountability and it should be documented in his personnel file. I understand that Winder is a much larger city than his prior employers, but he has the education and experience to know what the Gratuities Act is and how to abide by it. 

I appreciate the relationship I am building with the Mayor and I remain intrigued by Winder and Barrow County politics!

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