Macon Considers Back Pay for Reinstated Public Works Director

Macon City Council’s Appropriations Committee is poised to approve giving $55,000 in back pay to Richard Powell.

Powell was fired by Mayor Robert Reichert in January of 2010. He began the appeals process in February and was reinstated as Macon Public Works Director by city council members in October.

During the termination appeal hearing in October, members of the mayor’s staff testified that Powell did a poor job of managing the department.  Powell’s attorney used improvements in the city’s landfill scores to validate his performance.

This afternoon the appropriations committee scrapped Powell’s resolution and others from the agenda because of time conflicts. Chairman Tom Ellington says the scrapped items will be discussed at next week’s meeting.