Town of Oriental Personnel Procedures: Due for Amendment?

This morning at their 11:15 special meeting, the town board of commissioners passed a motion to offer Dwaine Moore, who is a corrections officer at the prison in Pamlico County. Moore, a resident of Oriental, has been working for months as an unpaid auxiliary officer for the Town of Oriental. The board also offered an unpaid position as auxiliary police officer to Bob Lyons, a marine patrol officer for the state.

From the subsequent discussion, it was unclear to me whether the board would decide to conduct a formal search for a permanent Chief of Police to replace the retiring Chief Casasa.

After the meeting, I decided to reread what North Carolina General Statutes have to say about hiring personnel. Here is what I found:

"Section 160A-148. Powers and Duties of Manager.
The manager shall be the chief administrator of the city. He shall be responsible to the council for administering all municipal affairs placed in his charge by them, and shall have the following powers and duties:
(1) He shall appoint and suspend or remove all city officers and employees not elected by the people, and whose appointment or removal is not otherwise provided for by law, except the city attorney, in accordance with such general personnel rules, regulations, policies or ordinances as the council may adopt.
(2) He shall direct and supervise the administration of all departments, offices, and agencies of the city, subject to the general direction and control of the council, except as otherwise provided by law.
(3) etc."

Among the officers who may be appointed by a city, presumably in this case by the manager, is the chief of police and other police officers (NCGS 160A-281.)

Another interesting provision of NCGS is the following:

"Section 160A-165. Personnel board.
The council may establish a personnel board with authority to administer tests designed to determine the merit and fitness of candidates for appointment or promotion, to conduct hearings on the appeal of employees who have been suspended, demoted or discharged, and hear employee grievances."

In other words, it appears that under NCGS, the board appoints the manager and the manager makes all other personnel decisions, possibly as supported by a personnel board if one is established.

And by the way, town commissioners have no legal authority to provide any degree of supervision or direction over any town employees.

Maybe it's time to review how the town does business.