No Longer Offered Outdoor Chattanooga Job
posted March 15, 2006
Mayor Ron Littlefield said Wednesday that former city parks and recreation director Rob Healy had "burned his bridges," and is no longer offered his former position as director of Outdoor Chattanooga.
The mayor said, "He burned his bridges last night, destroying his credibility as a manager." He said he acted "like a suicide bomber. I'm very disappointed."
Mayor Littlefield denied charges leveled by Mr. Healy during an appearance before the City Council. He charged there was politics involved in departmental hiring and that he was asked to ignore fraudulent spending.
Mayor Littlefield said he checked the list of those hired by Mr. Healy, "and there was not a single person there other than ones hired by Mr. Healy."
The mayor said his administration had been aggressively seeking out fraud within city government, and he said some of those being investigated were among his supporters in the last election.
Mayor Littlefield said the new parks and recreation director, Larry Zehnder, would be taking up offices at the city's site on Watkins Street. He said Mr. Healy had continued to maintain his offices at the Outdoor Center location at the Resource Development Center.
He said he would be meeting with Mr. Healy later in the day. He said, "We will ask him to turn in his keys, and he can move out his personal items and we will move on."
Mayor Littlefield said he will find another person to head Outdoor Chattanooga, which he said "has national potential."
He said Mr. Healy had not been "fired," but was asked to go back to the Outdoor Chattanooga post. Mayor Littlefield said that is "the glitzy part" of parks and recreation.
He said Mr. Healy would have been allowed to keep his present salary, which he said is almost $100,000.
Mayor Littlefield said in handling governmental personnel that certain due process rights have to be maintained. He said Mr. Healy "got ahead of the curve a couple of times, which caused us quite a lot of difficulty."
The mayor said city parks and recreation is not "broken." He said, "A small number of people cause some problems."
He said he believes Mr. Zehnder will be able to improve the department "far more rapidly and with more efficiency."
He said it had been planned for Mr. Zehnder to come on board next Monday, but he said he would likely start later today.
Mayor Littlefield said, "I like Rob. He's a very interesting, energetic person. He is rather volatile and does threaten to quit quite a lot.
"I certainly didn't expect him to do what he did last night. I'm shocked and disappointed he would say such a thing. To me it was a very dramatic thing. It makes it very difficult to continue to work with him."
Mayor Littlefield said he had considered the offer at Outdoor Chattanooga "a step up" for Mr. Healy and not a demotion.
Al Chapman of the mayor's staff said Mr. Healy did not visit the staffs at the recreation centers until months after taking the post.
He said, "He spent all his time concentrating on Outdoor Chattanooga."
Mr. Chapman said, "The mayor's taking an unfair hit on this."
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