As of Monday, Sunflower County no longer has a full-time county administrator.
Shortly after the beginning of its open session, Sunflower County Board of Supervisors’ President Riley Rice called for a closed and then an executive session to discuss personnel matters in the accounting and solid waste departments. He then asked County Administrator Fred Washington to leave the room.
Upon returning to open session, Board Attorney Johnny McWilliams announced that Washington's services were being discontinued effective immediately and on a 3-2 vote with Rice, District 5 Supervisor Gloria Dickerson and District 3 Supervisor Ben Gaston voting yes and District 1 Supervisor Glenn Donald and District 4 Supervisor Anthony Clark voting no.
McWilliams said, "The board took official action this executive session to terminate Fred Washington as the County Administrator effective today with a two-weeks severance pay."
He said the board also expressed a desire to return to a system by which the county’s chancery clerk would take on the dual role of also serving as the county administrator. No other action was reported from that executive session.
However, the lawmakers re-entered a closed/executive session following the open meeting and reportedly added an additional $60,000 to the chancery clerk’s salary for the two-fold responsibility.
Following the board’s decision, Donald, who voted no to discharging Washington, posted a statement on social media expressing his discontent with the choice made by the majority of the county’s lawmakers.
Donald posted, “The biggest mistake the county has made since I have been a supervisor. We have three supervisors who think they are above the law just because they have three votes. Mr. Washington was fired for no reason.”
Alluding to the county’s solid waste program that Washington initiated, Donald questioned why the three members who voted yes made that determination. “Something is wrong with that picture. This man knows his job, those three wanted to do his job,” he wrote.
Donald asserted that under the unit system the county administrator is in charge of the day-to-day operations and not the county lawmakers. He said they messed up when they fired Washington, alluded to other things that may be deemed “out of order” and asserted that the county was headed for trouble.
He also applauded the former county administrator for his work in the position. “He is the best thing that has happened to Sunflower County in a long time. God have mercy on us!!!” stated Donald.
Washington made no direct comments about the Board of Supervisors’ decision, but did issue a word of gratitude to the citizens of the county.
"I want to thank God and thank the people of Sunflower County for the opportunity to serve.” He added, “I'll let the rest of it come out later in the wash."
Washington said he followed the statute for the county administrator’s position.
"So, when the chips fall, whichever direction they fall, I know I'm on the right side of the law," he said.
Washington stated that since Sunflower County is his home, he plans to remain in the area.
"I'm just taking some time to assess what happened, taking time to absorb what happened here," he said, “I'll be in the area, I'll always be in the area because we’ve got (the) Delta Advantage Center moving in the right direction, so I'm here."
Washington had previously served as economic development director for the county before taking over the county administrator’s position last year in October. In that role, Washington had seemingly made notable advances for the county.
"I'm proud of what I did while working for the county. We made some serious strides. We got Parmida in here, under my watch, we got solar farm number one, it's up and still under construction, solar farm number two, construction will probably start in 2022 and solar farm number three, construction will start in 2025," he said.
The Sunflower County Economic Development Board has yet to recommend a replacement for Washington's former position; however the Board of Supervisors also makes the final decision for that position.
Washington said, “I still support Sunflower County. My heart is in the right place for it and I'm proud to say I followed the law on everything I did."
As for the solid waste department, the board had previously hired Keon McCloud as the solid waste manager, so he will continue to oversee the day-to-day operation of that department.
