Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Hurst resigns as Water Department manager

Resignation of Gurdon's Water and Sewer Manager, Harold Hurst was the number one topic at the Gurdon City Council meeting Monday night.

Included in each council member's meeting packet was a letter of resignation from Harold Hurst. All council members had read this letter and were concerned as to why Hurst was leaving on bad terms.

Council member, Karen Parker, asked, "Why isn't Harold leaving on good terms?"

Gurdon Mayor Clayton Franklin said, "I had heard that Harold was planning on retiring due to his disabilities, therefore I attended the Water and Sewer Commission meeting held on January 21 to see if this was true. While at the meeting I overheard Harold say he was receiving his full salary from the City of Gurdon and his Workman's Compensation check also. This worried me as I knew he could not draw both of them legally."

Hurst said his wife had called Workman's Compensation and they told her it was ok for Hurst to draw both checks.

Franklin then asked the water department if he could see their paperwork. They allowed him to look at it and the Water Commission wrote Franklin a letter stating it had agreed to pay Hurst his full salary, and that it was paying Hurst for 50 weeks worth of "comp" time.

The mayor was even more concerned because the City of Gurdon does not have "comp" time pay.

Franklin then notified the Municipal League and was informed the City of Gurdon was not in trouble; however there must have been some misunderstanding along the way with Hurst's pay.

Municipal League officials said problems will come from the Workman's Compensation people.

With that being said council member Parker wanted to know why the Water Commissioner never came to the city council meetings and why the finances of the water department weren't available to the council at the monthly meetings although all other information was?

Parker said she felt the commission should be abolished since the council is responsible for the commission anyway.

Whether the commission is abolished or not a new manager will have to be assigned soon.

Council members said it would be a good idea to address this problem as soon as possible. However, it was further stated if the commission is kept, new standards should be set before the new manager takes his position.

Such standards include having a representative at all city council meetings and making finance records available to the council.

February 21 is the final date to turn in applications for Water Commission manager.

The council decided that before next month's meeting the mayor should write new standards for the water department and the council will edit and revise them at the next meeting.

Franklin said he would like to talk to the Water Commission before any action is taken to see if they are in favor of the changes and if not, why?

Councilman, Danny Paull, said, "The water commission handles the same business each month in their meetings just like what we handle in ours. There is no reason why they can't do it in here."

Parker said, "I think this would save the city some revenue if we do away with the commission."

Franklin said, "I have no ill feelings towards Harold. However, Harold didn't know he was in the wrong. I feel as if this is a problem between the commission and the city that can be resolved with no hard feelings coming out of it."

A decision was made by the council to hold a personnel committee meeting with Franklin, City Recorder/Treasurer Tambra Smith, Councilman Danny Paull, Water Commissioner Don Moorehead, Fire Chief Jake McBride, City Marshall Don Chiders and Jimmy Caldwell with the Gurdon Street Department. This meeting will allow for new ideas and rules to be made before a new general manager of the water and sewer department can be hired.