Gordon Police Chief Says Job Threatened, Mayor Says No ‘Significant’ Employee Changes

GORDON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The Gordon Police Chief still has a job, but he says that’s just for now. This comes after he says the mayor threatened to fire him over a scheduling issue. But during Tuesday’s city council meeting, the mayor announced she hasn’t made any “significant” employee changes.

It was standing room only as more than a hundred Gordon residents packed city hall, the lobby, and waited outside. There were at the city council meeting because of what they heard.

“I had heard some things that were going on that I didn’t like,” Gordon resident Konreid Etherdge said. “I heard the mayor had unilaterally fired the police chief.”

“You don’t come in and throw people out that’s been dedicated to a community without a dire reason,” Gordon resident Judy Brown.

It is a rumor Gordon Mayor Mary Whipple-Lue addressed at the start of the meeting.

“At this time, the City of Gordon has not made any significant employee changes,” Mayor Whipple-Lue said.

But Gordon’s Police Chief Mike Hall says that could be in the works. He tells 41NBC the mayor threatened to fire him after he refused to change his employee’s schedule. He wouldn’t speak to us on camera, but called Mayor Whipple-Lue’s administration a “dictatorship” and a “hostile take over.”

“We are in the process of evaluating all departments and making the best decisions on behalf of the citizens,” Mayor Whipple-Lue said during the city council meeting.

We asked the mayor to elaborate.

“We tried calling you on Friday to get some kind of answers,” 41NBC’s Amanda Castro asked. “No further comments, please,” the mayor responded.

Councilman Terry Reese spoke out during the meeting and said the community should talk to the leaders directly instead of spreading rumors.

“Stop all this stuff about I hear, I hear, I hear. Come talk to your mayor,” Reese said. The crowd erupted with cries of “We did!” and “We tried!”

Councilman Terry Eady added to that and said the mayor needs to follow the city’s charter.

“We cannot vary from it. The mayor cannot do anything she wants because she’s the mayor. I’ve heard that statement,” Eady said.

Eady tried to talk about the scheduling conflict at the center of this drama during the meeting, but he was cut off by the mayor.

“The schedule that we have had some contingent about can only be changed,” Eady said. “Excuse me, excuse me…you only wanted to talk about what you want to do to make the city better and now that is enough,” Mayor Whipple-Lue said.

To be clear, Mayor Whipple-Lue did not fire the police chief, but Chief Hall told 41NBC you can probably expect to see him in the unemployment line.

41NBC talked to the city’s attorney, Joseph Boone, to find out if the mayor has broken any protocols. He wouldn’t comment, saying that is attorney-client privilege.