Council Votes to Discipline City Manager

By John Earp

This past Tuesday in the Chambers of the Jal City Council, a special meeting was called for personnel matters involving review of investigatory findings regarding employee grievance and recommended discipline. City Manager Wes Hooper, who had been placed on administrative leave a few weeks earlier was present for the meeting, and asked the council if he could be allowed to speak to the city council in executive (closed) session prior to the council reviewing the investigatory findings with the city attorney. Mayor Philip Little said they would first meet with the attorney, who attended the meeting remotely, and then would call individuals into the closed meeting if needed. The council did not call anyone into the meeting.

During the city manager’s administrative leave, the only information that was made public was that some grievances had been filed against Hooper, and that these were under investigation. It was never made clear why it would take over three weeks to investigate the grievances, nor was any other information concerning the personnel matter made available.

After being in closed executive session for about 50 minutes, the council readjourned in open session and took a vote concerning disciplinary action. In an interestingly split vote, the council voted 4-2 to recommend discipline for Mr. Hooper. Councilors Crispin and Smith voted against disciplinary action. Councilors Seifts, Chacon, Sauceda, and Trevino all voted for disciplinary action.

When asked after the meeting what the disciplinary action would be, Mayor Little said, “He will be written up. Call me in the morning and we will discuss it.” After calling the mayor several times on Wednesday and Thursday and never getting a callback or response other than a couple of texts saying he was busy with something, it became apparent, sorry to say, that the mayor did not wish to speak about the matter, even for a brief phone interview of a couple minutes.