Written by Tracie Sullivan
The Career Service Committee filed a decision Tuesday, July 7, stating that they believe the Iron County Commissioners wrongfully terminated former Sheriff Deputy Lt. Jody Edwards last April. The commissioners previously voted to let him go as part of the reduction in force that included 70 employees who lost their jobs after the County sold the ambulance service to Gold Cross.
The three-member Career Service Committee ordered that Jody Edwards be reinstated to his position at the sheriff’s office with back pay dated to April 30, his last day on the job.
However, he may have to wait to return to work pending an appeal to district court by the Iron County Attorney’s office.
Jody Edwards’ attorney Scott Burns received a phone call late Tuesday afternoon from Deputy County Attorney Mike Edwards informing Burns that the county had already filed an appeal in the decision. However, Burns said he told Mike Edwards he had not yet seen the decision from the committee, nor had any knowledge that the committee had even made a decision in the case.
“My first question was, ‘what decision?’ I have serious concerns about how this has been handled,” Burns said. “It is inappropriate for the County to tell me that they are going to appeal a decision I haven’t even been provided a copy of.”
Burns said he quizzed Mike Edwards on how the Iron County Commission voted to appeal when in order to do so, the normal procedure would be that the commissioners would have to first hold an open public meeting. Then they could vote to go into a closed executive session to discuss personnel issues and litigation. Finally, the commissioners would be required to return to an open meeting to take a vote.
Burns added that all meetings would also have to be properly publicized.
“How is it that the committee made their decision less than 12 hours ago, but the Commission has already voted to appeal it?” Burns said he asked Mike Edwards. “This is about litigation and personnel issues. These decisions had to be made in an open meeting and they can’t have an open meeting … there hasn’t been enough time to give the proper public notice.”
Sandra Benson, chair of the Career Service Committee, said the committee parted ways at 1:55 p.m. on Tuesday after writing their position and providing a copy to the County human resource assistant, Betsy Cummings, to distribute to both parties.
Per a request made by The Independent, Natasha Hirschi called after 2 p.m. to let the paper know a decision had been made in the case but would not be public until after both parties were notified and given a copy of the committee’s decision. Hirschi said that once that happened, the County human resource office would distribute a press release making the decision public.
“The committee did not intend for either party to be notified by phone,” Benson said, adding that she wondered if Burns had received a fax in his office that he had not yet seen.
“We discussed getting the decision to the different parties quickly because there were a lot of people anxious for this decision,” Benson said. “We wanted to make sure we sent it the quickest way possible that wasn’t a phone call.”
Sheriff Mark Gower said he also didn’t know a decision had been made when he received an email late Tuesday evening from the Iron County human resources director Leslie Bishop, informing him that the County was appealing the committee’s decision which would be stayed until after the appeal.
“What they’re saying is that Lt. Edwards cannot go back to work until after the appeal,” Gower said.
Burns also said Mike Edwards had told him the rush for the appeal was to stop Jody Edwards from returning to work.
“He told me they filed the appeal as quickly as they did because they didn’t want him to go back to work,” Burns said.
The Independent made several attempts to contact both the County Attorney’s and the Iron County Commissioner’s offices via emails and phone calls but received no reply.
Tracie Sullivan can be reached at email [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @tracie_sullivan and Facebook at www.facebook.com/traciesullivan.
