Aldermen offer job to community development director despite salary dispute

The offer is on the table for Simon Kim to serve as Starkville’s new community development director.

Following an interview with the Starkville Board of Aldermen and a lengthy and in some cases, heated discussion, the board voted 5-2 in favor of hiring a community development director. Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn and Vice Mayor and Ward 6 Alderman Roy A’ Perkins opposed the hire, citing salary concerns. Kim said he would take approximately a week before making his decision.

Perkins spent several minutes speaking against the $88,500 salary Kim would be paid in his position. Perkins expressed concerns over an entry-level department head immediately becoming the third highest paid of Starkville’s department heads after Utilities Director Terry Kemp and City Engineer Edward Kemp.

“This position has been vacant since about maybe August or September of last year,” Perkins said. “We have seven full-time employees in this department to my recollection. It appears that this department has been running very well in my opinion, in the absence of a community development director.”

Perkins said in almost 26 years on the board, he had never seen any department head start at a salary as high as Kim’s potential salary.

“This particular individual, if hired, will become third highest (paid) department head for the city of Starkville,” Perkins said. “Of the nine that we have currently, prior to this hire, five of those department heads came up through the ranks. They have labored long and hard to reach the plateau where they now are situated. We have department heads who have been here for decades who have not reached this level of $88,500.”

Vaughn also railed against Kim’s salary, asking why the city had taken money it had promised its sanitation workers, but was able to pay Kim $88,500.

“The $10 an hour we’ve been giving them, we took it back with the deductible,” Vaughn said. ”Some guy’s got to work 10 paychecks to meet that deductible. They kept a $3,000 deductible. How is this fair? You took back what you gave them. We took it all back.”

However, Ward 5 Alderman Patrick Miller spoke in support. He said if the city wanted the most qualified employees, it would have to pay them competitively.

“I don’t think I would want to pay someone with a PhD, two Master’s degrees, I think 30 years of experience running departments in comparatively large cities the minimum of our salary range,” Miller said. “That’s just my personal philosophy.

Ward 2 Alderman Sandra Sistrunk also spoke in favor of Kim and reminded the board that the city had done a complete payroll review to get every city employee paid at market level.

“I believe that what’s being recommended tonight is probably the market rate for this position,” Sistrunk said. “The other thing I would like to say just to keep everybody focused on things here is that not all jobs are created equal, and that this is not a matter of fairness and making sure all people are paid equitably. We have attempted to address the equitable pay issue when we went through that salary review within the last year, but even within the vice mayor’s position, you will find attorneys who charge different hourly rates.”

Kim is currently a consultant based in Brownsville, Texas. He has worked in community development positions in Texas and Florida.

His interview was initially scheduled for the board’s Feb. 19 meeting, but was rescheduled due to Kim’s flight being cancelled. Kim would replace Buddy Sanders, who resigned in August 2018.

In his interview, Kim spoke to the need to run the city’s community development department transparently. He also said he hoped to streamline some of the department’s processes. He also spoke highly of the kindness and hospitality he was treated with by those he met in Starkville.

“I can be the technical advisor and the liaison to committees, and also I’ve worked for the development of communities in the past, and I know how to lead them and how to find the right information,” Kim said.

The board also approved amendments bringing its Ordinance Section 82-6 into compliance with State Statue 45-9-53, regarding the discharge of firearms. The ordinance deals with landowners in areas annexed by municipalities being able to hunt or otherwise fire weapons on annexed land. The issue was brought to the board by landowners in an area of Oktibbeha County under consideration for annexation by the city of Starkville.

Tuesday night’s public hearing was the second on the matter, with the first taking place at the board’s Feb. 19 meeting. The measure passed by a 5-2 vote with Vaughn and Perkins opposing.

Starkville citizen and regular aldermen meeting attendee Alvin Turner spoke against the measure, citing security concerns.

“It’s hard to stop once it gets started,” Turner said. “We’re doing alright, but I’ve been thinking it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie.”

Another Starkville citizen, Dorothy Isaac also spoke against the ordinance, citing similar concerns to Turner.

“We’ve got people who stay in the woods who are homeless,” Isaac said. “I’m just going to say I’m not for this.”

Ronnie Wofford, who owns 37 acres in the area, spoke in favor. He said he wished the city could change some of the ordinance to allow him to fire more powerful weapons on his land. The state statue allows for air rifles, bows and arrows and shotguns from 10 acres to 50 acres and rifles and pistols from 50 acres up.

“As you know, I’m for this, but it won’t affect me until the next process is done, which is annexation,” Wofford said. “It would have to be approved, have to go through the court, have to overcome any lawsuits if there are any that come up. In doing this here based on the assumption that that happens, I’m trying to understand this.”

He said he owned weapons he couldn’t use anymore on his land under the statue.

“I would hope any approval of this would at least approve this, but I would also like to expand it to keep what rights I do have on the property,” Wofford said.

The board also approved a resolution offering the issuance of negotiable, interest-bearing combined water and sewer bonds in the amount of $10,000,000. The bonds will mostly be used for improvements at the city’s water treatment plant. The revenue bonds will not impact the city’s debt capacity. The measure was approved 6-1, with Perkins opposed.

Additionally, the board unanimously approved a resolution seeking appropriation form the Mississippi State Legislature for the closing of the Starkville- Oktibbeha Class I Landfill. It is a joint resolution with Oktibbeha County.