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Amid pressure from the EMS board, director resigns
Wednesday, September 26, 2007 11:49 PM EDT
McClanahan had previously said she was planning to retire at the end of the year.
"I feel like, if I wasn't here I would be under less stress," said McClanahan, on the verge of tears once the board left the building.
Asked about a reason for her resignation McClanahan declined to comment.
"I had been previously told that I was under their employ so I'm not allowed to talk to the newspaper," she said. "I could be fired if I do."
Handwritten signs announcing a special meeting, Sept. 26 at 10 a.m., appeared in public places.
According to the signs, the meeting was called "to discuss personal (sic) and possible actions". At the sign posted at the meeting site, at the EMS building, an attempt was made to correct it to read "personnal" when in fact the intention was to discuss personnel issues behind the closed doors of a three-hour executive session. The entire meeting took three hours and three minutes.
Before the meeting began, board Chairperson Kim Jones spent several minutes talking with board member Lisa Cooper in the parking lot of the building before they entered the building separately, along with third board member Max Wolfe.
At 10:01 a.m., Jones called the meeting to order and a motion was immediately made to go into executive session to discuss personnel.
A phone call was received by EMS Director Betty McClanahan which caused her to knock on the meeting room door and inform the board members to turn on the speakerphone because board Attorney Ed Massey was on the line. She then closed the door and turned off the phone in her hand.
Only McClanahan and her daughter were present when the meeting started. Some EMTs drifted in and out of the public area of the meeting room, while others appeared to be waiting in the garage area for something, but wouldn't say what.
"Things were just slow at work so I came up here," said Jim Wilson, who was also on-call for EMS Station 2 in Augusta.
At 11:05 a.m., Massey arrived and entered the meeting.
Shortly before noon, McClanahan was asked to enter the executive session.
McClanahan exited the session once and was later called back into the room. McClanahan again emerged from the room a short time later. Before the board returned to a open session, Wilson and EMS member Lisa Ruf, who had been in the EMS garage, were asked to enter the executive session.
With the session broke, Jones announced there had been no action taken in the meeting. Wolfe asked if he should make the motion and indicated something written on a yellow piece of paper.
Wolfe read from the paper.
"I move to accept Betty McClanahan's resignation which shall be effective Friday, Sept. 28, 2007 at 5 p.m. The decision was made by the board based on their unanimous decision to move the agency in a different direction. The board, in their last meeting approved a restructuring of all management positions. Under the terms of the agreement, Betty will continue to act as executive director until Friday, Sept. 28, 2007 at 5 p.m. That would be my first motion," said Wolf.
Board members unanimously agreed to the motion.
In another motion, Ruf and Wilson were named to replace McClanahan as interim co-directors of the EMS.
"The board will be posting the open vacancy within the next few weeks for a permanent position," said Wolfe in the motion which was also accepted in a unanimous vote.
McClanahan replaced Alex Hyrcza as director in 2000.
For more area news, go to http://www.bracken-online.com.
Contact Wendy Mitchell at wendy.mitchell@lee.net or call 564-9091, ext. 276.
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