ASHDOWN — Little River County Sheriff-elect Gary Gregory will have a mostly new staff his first day in office after choosing not to rehire seven deputies, a transport deputy and the chief dispatcher.
Gregory, a former Ashdown police officer and former marshal of Foreman, will be sworn in Tuesday. The deputies and dispatcher will continue to work until Monday.
“He can’t really fire them because they’ve never worked for the next administration, so he just simply chose to make everyone reapply and just didn’t accept them to come back to work,” said Sheriff Danny Russell, who is retiring.
Russell said the nine employees were notified in writing four days before Christmas that they were not going to be part of the new administration.
“They literally got handdelivered a letter that said, ‘Thank you for applying, but your services are no longer needed,’” he said.
Gregory has not returned telephone calls to the Texarkana Gazette. But Russell said the new sheriff will keep four dispatchers and two transport officers.
Russell said the nine employees losing their jobs had five-minute interviews with the Little River County Employment Review Board, which represented Gregory.
Chief dispatcher Martha Sue Abney, who has worked in dispatch at the sheriff’s office for 17 years, released her one-page letter from the employment review board.
“You were referred for the above position [dispatcher], but you were not selected,” the letter states.
The letter states Abney’s application will be kept active for three months from date of receipt.
“Should future openings become available, we hope that you would consider applying again,” the letter states.
“I guess I will go on the unemployment list, and I’m not a young person. We do have a lot of young deputies that have families without a job. It’s not a good thing for Little River County. I’m hoping in two years Danny runs again,” Abney said.
Abney said she was first under the impression that she would keep her job after Gregory assumed office.
“They didn’t tell me why I didn’t get a job. It [the letter] just said I was not selected,” she said. “I know I did a good job.”
The letters from the employment review board were delivered to the sheriff’s office Dec. 21 and given to Abney to distribute to the other employees who were not rehired.
Russell said Arkansas’ status as an at-will state gives Gregory the authority to choose employees to keep on the payroll at the sheriff’s office.
However, Russell said lawyers with the Arkansas Association of Counties’ risk management division suggest that new sheriffs review employees after several months before making a decision whether to retain or terminate employment.
“I’m not sure what Gregory’s agenda is,” Russell said. “He’s getting rid of experienced and dedicated people.”
“When I was elected in 1997, I was helped by Chief Deputy Ken Sutton and Deputy Larry Phillips. I thought I knew everything, but I didn’t. I found out real quick I knew nothing about being a sheriff.
“If it wasn’t for the help of Ken Sutton and Larry Phillips, I would have fallen flat on my face,” Russell said.
Russell said he has offered to help Gregory learn the system at the sheriff’s office, but there has been no communication yet between the two.
“If he doesn’t want to talk to me, I can leave the office and he can talk to a deputy about the system,” Russell said.
Russell said he asked County Judge Clayton Castleman to leave messages with Gregory about the transition. Castleman confirmed he has spoken with Gregory, but no meeting has been scheduled.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 12/28/2012