Pikeville Town Board chooses new member
By Nick Hiltunen
Published in News on November 5, 2008 1:46 PM
PIKEVILLE -- Monday night bore witness to a major personnel shakeup in the town of Pikeville.
Town officials named a new police chief, announced the resignation of a town official, and then his replacement, and also promoted the town clerk to town administrator.
Pikeville's town board picked a replacement member Monday night, as the mayor announced the resignation of Commissioner Al Greene, who resigned for health reasons.
They also picked Greene's replacement -- Todd Anderson, who moved to the town about three years ago.
The board -- after a lengthy closed session to discuss Anderson and other personnel issues -- also named long-time town Clerk Kathie Fields to the position of town administrator.
One other major move by town commissioners was to appoint police patrolman Pascal Tucker as a replacement for Ken Barrett, who resigned earlier this year. Barrett has accepted the job as police chief of Walnut Creek.
The Pikeville board also promoted officer Eva Scott to the rank of sergeant, increasing her salary to $31,500.
Mrs. Fields has held the position of town administrator before, on an interim basis during transition periods for other administrators, and will now earn $37,000 in the position.
Mrs. Fields' appointment was not unanimous, however, as Commissioner Edith McClenny voted against the appointment.
Mrs. Fields spoke directly to Mrs. McClenny in public session after accepting the board's 3-1 vote to appoint her as town administrator.
"I'm sad it couldn't be a unanimous vote as hard as I have worked," Mrs. Fields said.
Mrs. McClenny said the reasons for not voting for Mrs. Fields were fiscally based.
"I'd like to tell you why, I didn't really feel like we could afford to give you a raise, and that means we're going to have to hire a clerk in your place," Mrs. McClenny said. "That's a lot of money to be putting out that we have not put into the budget."
Anderson, the new appointee to the board, who finished last in the November 2007 election with 32 votes, said he was "thrilled" at the nomination by the town board to Greene's seat. (By comparison, the top vote-getter was Vance Greeson, who garnered just 58 votes, or a full 19 percent of ballots cast).
"(I'm excited) just becoming more affiliated with the town of Pikeville, and seeing how best I can serve," Anderson said after the meeting. "When I ran unsuccessfully last year, my hope was that we (could) bring in some low-impact green industries (into) Pikeville proper."