SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tenn. - Sammy Burrows will remain as South Pittsburg's city administrator after the City Commission voted 3-2 against his removal this week.
At the board's July meeting, resident Kenneth McCallie suggested Burrows should be fired after he complained about city workers mowing along routes that the Tennessee Department of Transportation is responsible for maintaining, such as U.S. Highway 72.
He said South Pittsburg employees had been mowing some private property lots, too.
"That's misappropriation of our tax dollars," McCallie said. "Two years of mowing is probably quite a bit of money."
When McCallie brought the mowing issues to Burrows' attention recently, he said Burrows told him that he wasn't aware that some of the areas being mowed were private property.
McCallie told the board it was "part of his job" to know.
Commissioner Paul Don King said he agreed with McCallie's statements.
King made the motion to remove Burrows from his job, and Commissioner Jeff Powers seconded that.
Burrows said he is working on a contract with TDOT that will allow the city to be paid by the state for mowing along the highways around town.
He said he had no comment about the board's narrow vote to keep him as city administrator.
In other business Tuesday, King said that, months ago, the sudden exit of several South Pittsburg police officers was blamed on former police Chief Dale Winters, and recently three more officers turned in their resignations to take jobs with nearby law enforcement agencies.
"I didn't step up in here to try to fire nobody or try to take nobody's job," King said. "It all goes back to the city looks bad."
Most of the problems in the city "starts with us" [the board], he said.
"Water is money," King said. "You go to the head of the stream. Guess what - we're the head of the stream. I'm going to go along with Mr. McCallie and see where we can go with this."
Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com.