Last Thursday morning the Spur city council held a special meeting to address personnel and consultant matters, including an executive session to review applications for a new city secretary following the resignation of current staffer Ashley Carothers.
The council reached a recommendation on a 4-1 vote (with one member, Hope Ortiz, absent due to the death of her mother) to hire one of the applicants. An offer was extended, said Carothers, but declined the following day. The council will resume the search.
For its part-time summer help position, council hired Myles Hammack for 20 hours per week.
The council also contracted with new legal counsel, the Underwood Law Firm of Lubbock, to succeed former attorney Hunter Harris of Lubbock-based Huffaker & Harris in advising the city. Carothers said there had been some dissatisfaction with the city’s prior arrangement, and the council undertook a review to hire a new firm. Matthew Wade of the Underwood firm was on hand to participate in the May 25 meeting.
Of greatest concern to Spur citizens is what was described on the agenda as “Police Matters,” a topic held over from the regular May 18 agenda, when it was not taken up. Discussion with Spur Police Chief Billy R. Spears and his attorney, Aaron Clements, was held in open session, according to Carothers, and centered on contract negotiations related to a review of performance.
Clements said it was difficult to respond to the “broad statements about the chief ’s presence on patrol” given the complexity of state law and absent more specific allegations. “[Spears] is on salary 24/7 when he is in the jurisdiction,” said Clements. Expecting to cover 168 hours in a week with two officers is “not a viable solution,” he said, adding that there are numerous places on the patrol route where citizens may not readily see the chief on patrol. Clements addressed the competitive salary and hiring climate for law enforcement applicants in cities such as Lubbock.
Carothers said that a contract for city-provided housing had been offered at the outset of Spear’s two-year tenure but was not ever agreed to. The city earlier terminated its lease on a house in Spur initially provided as the police chief’s residence.
Carothers said the matter will likely now go on the June city council agenda.
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