After coming out of its closed executive session on Monday night, the Indianola Board of Aldermen announced several personnel changes including the hiring of reportedly the city’s first African-American woman firefighter.
The city leaders voted to hire Taleja Webb, 22, as a part-time employee at the base rate of pay. Webb, who has been an active volunteer for the past year said she is extremely happy and sees this as the beginning. “Part-time… but eventually. I want to go full-time,” she said.
During her introduction to the board, Fire Chief Orlando Battle said that as a volunteer, “She’s served diligently.” According to him, Webb is already classified as a level two firefighter, which is enough to function on a part-time basis. However, she will have to complete the fire academy before she can advance to the next level.
Webb said it has been her lifetime aspiration to fight fires. “It’s just something that kinda excited me as a kid growing up. Everybody else was saying, ‘I want to be a doctor, I want to be this, I said I want to be a firefighter,” she said.
Fighting back tears of joy, Webb added, “I’ve been wanting to be one for so long.” Webb said she had expressed an interest before, when she first graduated from school, but was not even considered. “The chief before didn’t want me no where near the fire department,” Webb said.
Currently working as a teller for Planters Bank, Webb said she spends any available time around the fire department asking questions and trying to learn all that she can. “I’m doing this and not getting paid, it’s not even about the pay it’s the fact that it’s something I want to do,” Webb said.
In other decisions,
The city fathers voted to hire Robert Combs as a certified police officer at $15 an hour, Juliet Chavers as a non-certified police officer at $12 per hour and Joseph Davis as a part-time municipal courtroom bailiff at $15 per hour.
Additionally, they voted to terminate police officer Samuel Kimber, accept a retirement request from Essie Harris—public works employee—and Alderman Sam Brock added an addendum to the motion requesting the city include a letter of appreciation for time served with the city.
They also accepted the resignation of Firefighter Harry Brown and terminated the employment of Firefighter Cornelius Chapman.
During a segment, prior to entering the closed portion of the meeting that focused on approving the previous meeting’s minutes, Alderman Marvin Elder alluded to some “factors” concerning personnel that may need to be revisited.
“We may need to rectify something that we did, just in case.” He declared that he wanted to make a motion to discuss it as a personnel matter, but no action was taken on his motion. However, after emerging from the nearly hour-long session there was no further mention of it.
