Saying it had lost confidence in City Administrator Arnold Brown to address critical community needs, the Arcola City Council last night terminated Brown effectively immediately.
Brown served as Arcola’s city administrator for just under 17 months.
CITY ADMINISTRATOR TERMINATED – Arcola City Administrator Arnold Brown did not attend Tuesday’s night’s city council meeting, and now his chair awaits his successor. The council voted unanimously to terminate Brown effective immediately.
He was appointed to the city’s top administrative spot on Dec. 17, 2007. Arcola had been without a city administrator for almost three years prior to Brown’s hiring.
In moving to terminate Brown, Councilman Greg Abarr noted the council’s lack of confidence.
“The city council has really lost confidence in our current city administrator and we’ve identified someone else who can do the job at a lower cost,” Abarr said. “It’s this council’s duty to save money when we can and we need someone who can be effective as our city administrator.”
Abarr did not identify the person who would be replacing Brown.
Brown was not in attendance at the meeting.
Abarr then introduced a resolution that formally stated the council’s lack of confidence and terminated Brown.
“This resolution expresses our lack of confidence in the city administrator and terminates him from office effectively immediately,” Abarr said.
He added the city would pay Brown the equivalent of two week’s pay as a severance payment.
No other council member spoke on the matter and the resolution was unanimously approved without further discussion.
The council agenda included an “opportunity for the city administrator to address council, present witnesses, offer written materials, etc.” Nothing other than the resolution was introduced into the public record.
Although no member of the public spoke while Brown’s employment was being deliberated, one local resident talked about Brown during the public comments portion of the meeting.
Virginia Hernandez said Brown did not listen to residents.
“The people of Arcola may be dumb, but we aren’t stupid. The people are tired of hearing about the airport, the airport, the airport; all Mr. Brown talks about is the airport,” Hernandez told the council. “We don’t want to hear about the airport; we want businesses coming to Arcola.”
Hernandez also said Brown was out of touch with the needs of Arcola.
“Mr. Brown doesn’t seem to know nothing about Arcola. He came in roaring like a lion and he’s done nothing.”
One city hall insider who asked not to be identified said Brown lost the council’s confidence over a number of gaffes and poor communication.
“He didn’t communicate very well and when something went wrong, the first thing he tried to do was blame somebody else,” the source said. “Over time, just about every council member got burned and they were just fed up. That, coupled with the fact that he never seemed to make any real progress on the critical needs of Arcola, cost him his job.”
Before coming to Arcola, Brown worked for the Texas Cooperative Extension Service for 31 years before retiring. He spent 20 of those years working with various cities in a community development role.
After retirement, Brown worked for four years with a nonprofit agency in the Acres Homes area to develop affordable housing before taking the Arcola position.
Efforts to reach Brown for comment have been unsuccessful.
Arcola need voice for mor funds and dollars?