Two former city of Ringgold, Georgia, employees allege that city manager Dan Wright placed a tracking device on former police Chief Dan Bilbrey's car, saying it was one of the many reasons Bilbrey decided to step down.
Nina Bradley, an employee with the city for more than three years before her last day Wednesday, said she has knowledge that Wright had placed a tracking device on Bilbrey's patrol car.
Donnie Mitchell, who worked for the water service department for the city of Ringgold for 30 years, also said he had heard secondhand that a maintenance employee put a tracking device on Bilbrey's patrol car.
Bilbrey said he couldn't comment on the situation.
Wright, when asked if he put a tracking device on the former police chief's car, said, "The city of Ringgold does not discuss personnel matters."
Ringgold Mayor Nick Millwood did not hear about the alleged tracking device until this week but fielded questions on his Facebook page about it, saying he "was not personally involved in a decision to place a tracking device on anyone's car."
"We have a duty now as Mayor and Council to get to the bottom of how this all went down," Millwood said in one comment. "I will certainly provide updates as we move through that process. There are still aspects of this we are working to understand, and I'd like a full understanding with all the facts before I comment much further."
Aside from the tracking device allegation, Mitchell also said it's common in the city for employees not to have access to the city council because of the way Wright manages.
"Everything has to go through Dan," Mitchell said. "Why have a council if it's a one-man show?"
City administrators also refused Bilbrey's offer to continue to work four more weeks after his resignation Monday night.
As part of his resignation letter, Bilbrey agreed to work four more weeks to finish his tenure. Bilbrey told the Times Free Press that on Wednesday Wright texted him to come into the office. Wright then notified him that his resignation was immediate and the city had refused his four-week offer.
"I turned in my equipment, my vehicle and we parted ways," Bilbrey said.
Wright declined to comment for this story despite repeated requests during the week.
Millwood did not respond to a Wednesday afternoon call seeking comment on Bilbrey's resignation.
HOW WE GOT HERE
At Monday's city council meeting, Bilbrey resigned in front of the majority of his department.
He gave an impassioned speech about how his department has constantly been overlooked, underfunded and understaffed during his tenure.
Bilbrey spoke about how he has felt handcuffed as a chief, how his officers have had to go years without proper equipment and using old vehicles, and how the turnover rate in the department is directly tied to the lack of support from city leaders.
He said funding has been a constant issue in his 10-year tenure as chief. The evidence room has not been finished and officers have had to use a room that does not have a ceiling, finished floors or climate control, meaning it's freezing in the winter and "scorching" in the summer, he said.
Bilbrey said he had been considering resigning for a long time but never thought he would do it in such a public way.
"What they are doing to [Bilbrey] is not right at all," Bradley said.
Bradley said the only reason people are talking about the strife between the police department and city administration is because Bilbrey resigned in such a public way. Otherwise, things would have been kept under wraps, she said.
CHARTER CONTROVERSY
If the Ringgold City Council were to take action against Wright, it would be more difficult today than it was in 2017 after to a piece of legislation created by Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga.
Millwood said the city's elected officials asked their local state representatives to pass an act in Atlanta in 2016, tweaking a couple of things in the city charter. But he said that in October 2016, when he was looking through the city's rules, he stumbled upon a change that was new to him.
To fire the city manager, the Ringgold charter used to require affirmative votes from three of the city's five council members. But now, all five council members have to approve of the firing.
Millwood said Mullis added that amendment to the charter without alerting him. Millwood also said Wright told him he didn't know anything about the change, either.
Millwood thought it was a mistake at the time.
Mullis said at the time he was making the change for stability reasons.
"I think it should be a super majority to fire a city manager or some type [of] related position, again for stability and for due process," he said. "Not to run just to fire a city manager for political reasons."
He added that he told Millwood he would introduce a new charter change if the council approved a resolution outlining the changes. Millwood, who is not a voting member of the council, put an item about the charter on the agenda during the Oct. 10 meeting. The council members did not move to vote.
Millwood then planned to collect signatures from city residents, hoping to solidify support for a special election. The election would ask voters if they want to return Ringgold's rule for firing the city manager back to its previous, three-vote threshold.
At the time, Millwood did not want to fire Wright, but felt three out of the five members was a sufficient bar to clear.
Millwood said earlier this month that he doesn't believe three out of the five council members would be willing to switch back but that he did plan on bringing it up again at the council's February retreat.
In a Facebook post Thursday night, Millwood said the next step the city should make is to open an investigation "into a number of these issues and our current situation," referring to allegations against Wright and the financial status of the police department.
"The council can do that and the current cloud over our city would greatly diminish with straight forward questions under oath and subpoenaed documents that could shed light on a number of issues," his post read.
Contact Patrick Filbin at pfilbin@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476. Follow him on Twitter @PatrickFilbin.