Council Contracts with Outgoing Mayor and Fire Chief
By John Earp
At the December 21st meeting of the Jal City Council, the council voted 3-1 (with Councilors Richard and Trevino not being present for the meeting) to give contracts to outgoing mayor, Mr. Stephen Aldridge, and retiring fire chief, Mr. Nick Moody. The contract for Moody is to begin February 1st. Moody is retiring after completing 20 years as a firefighter, with his last several years working for the City of Jal Fire Department. It was explained in the meeting that the City doesn’t want to lose Moody’s expertise and all the training that he does, and would like to bring him on as a contractor until a new fire chief can be found. Mention was made by City Manager Wes Hooper that there was a young firefighter who could be trained to be the next fire chief. It was further explained that the City would be combining Fire and Emergency Medical Services into one department, with present EMS Chief Whitney Moody serving as chief of the new Fire/EMS, so the comment about training a young and inexperienced firefighter to eventually replace Nick Moody came across as a bit confusing, unless Whitney Moody also would be retiring in the near future, but nothing specific was stated about that particular point in the meeting. It was further explained that Nick Moody’s contract would be limited to $60,000 for the year following his retirement, and would not be full time. It was further stated that this contract would be possibly renewed on a yearly basis if need be.
A professional services contract with outgoing Mayor, Stephen Aldridge, was also discussed. It was noted that Mr. Aldridge has a lot of knowledge and experience when it comes to water, that he has been dealing with it since he became mayor. The City being involved in ongoing litigation was also noted, with Aldridge said to be the main person for that who has the information and knows the city’s attorneys very well, and the City’s water system very well. City Manager Wes Hooper mentioned he would like to have the City to contract with Aldridge “to keep that expertise and knowledge and so that we’re not taking any steps backwards in this litigation. I would love to say that, uh, I think it’s a good idea, because Stephen knows all of the paper that we have to deal with.” Hooper said he doubted that the litigations would take the rest of this [fiscal] year. Mention was also made that the outgoing mayor would help train the incoming mayor, Philip Little.
Both resolutions passed 3-1, with outgoing Councilor Stacy Ward voting “No” on both. During the Public Comment section of the council meeting, the incoming mayor’s father, Philip Little, asked the council to consider waiting until the new city councilors and new mayor were in office to make decisions on these contracts. No other public comment than that was given in the meeting regarding the proposed contracts.