SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tenn. - After a failed attempt to fire South Pittsburg police Chief Robert "Bobby" Simpson last month, newly elected Mayor Virgil Holder succeeded on his second try.
Holder's effort to remove Simpson at the South Pittsburg City Commission's December meeting failed on a 2-2 vote. Just moments after being sworn in as mayor in December, Holder made a motion to fire Simpson, saying the city was ready to move in a different direction.
Vice Mayor Paul Don King would have cast the deciding vote last month, but he missed the meeting because of medical issues.
King was present at the board's January meeting, which meant the end of Simpson's tenure in South Pittsburg.
"After 30 days of observing and looking at how our South Pittsburg Police Department is operating, I still remain with the same belief [that Simpson should be fired]," Holder said, without giving any specific reasons for his stance.
Holder made the motion to remove Simpson and "terminate his service," and King seconded it.
This time the board voted 3-1 to fire Simpson.
Commissioner Ronnie Lancaster, who voted to keep Simpson last month, was absent.
Commissioner Samantha Rector voted against removing Simpson both times, and after the final vote, she addressed him directly.
"I just want to personally thank you for the great job you've done for South Pittsburg," she told Simpson. "I'm speaking for my district that we're very pleased with the turnaround you've done with our police department."
Simpson was hired by the previous city administration in February 2015, and immediately went to work making a long list of changes to the department.
The police station's evidence room was overhauled after state inspectors described it as "atrocious," and a new interview room was constructed.
Some other changes dealt with standardizing officers' uniforms, weapons, bulletproof vests and body cameras, and changing the radio system so that personal scanners could no longer detect communications among police officers.
The department's policies were completely overhauled and updated, among other reforms.
South Pittsburg's police department was decertified by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for failing to submit data in an acceptable manner between 2012 and 2014 when it was under the direction of former chief Dale Winters.
Simpson said the TBI audited the department's reports back to 2013 and found "a variety of problems" with hundreds of reports that were either coded improperly, missing, or just not entered.
The TBI recertified the department last April after several officers took the backlog of cases and submitted them properly.
"It's been my pleasure," Simpson said after the vote to fire him.
The board voted unanimously to appoint Lt. Ryan Meeks as the town's interim police chief while the search begins for a new one.
Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com.