Sparks fly during Chadbourn Town Council emergency meeting, leaves town without an attorney or manager
CHADBOURN, NC (WWAY) — A major shake-up in leadership in the town of Chadbourn after sparks flew in an emergency meeting held Saturday, which resulted in two members of the town’s staff willingly leaving their jobs.
On Saturday, Mayor Pro Tem Tony Jordan called an emergency meeting for the town of Chadbourn without consulting the town manager, Jason Robinson, or Mayor Philip Britt.
“Oh no, I was not involved in any conversations; this was done completely behind my back,” Britt said.
Jordan called for the meeting to be a closed session, to quote, “discuss the qualifications or character of an individual public officer or employee.”
Britt said he couldn’t say who it was, but added it was over some personal issues Jordan might have.
“They were wanting to take some actions but the problem with it being a personnel issue I can’t say so much. I will say no action ended up being taking”
Britt left the meeting as he said it wasn’t handled well, and it wasn’t going through the proper legal process
Later, Britt came back to adjourn the meeting alongside Jordan and council member Avala Nealy before delivering some shocking news.
“Our town attorney has quit, and is no longer working with us,” Britt said directly to the audience watching online.
He also announced that the town manager, who could be seen looking distraught after an hour-long meeting, had decided to abruptly retire.
WWAY could not confirm who the meeting was about, but in a Facebook post made by Shannon Britt, the wife of the mayor, she comments about the situation that happened, and talks about Ken Elliot, who is the police chief.
But that wasn’t the end of what happened at the meeting, as before they could adjourn the meeting, Jordan could be seen arguing with someone off camera after commenting “Do you have something to say” to a woman named Erica off-screen.
Britt said he didn’t understand the sense of urgency and wished it was handled better as the town has to let the media know at least 48 hours before the time of the meeting.
After everything that has happened, Britt hopes to get things back to normal, but that won’t happen until they can fill in the empty seats.
“We would have our normal regular meeting the first Tuesday in the month, but we’re gonna need to retain another attorney before we can go forward with that So any personnel discussions or anything like that I will not be participating in until we have an attorney.”
Town manager Jason Robinson says his retirement is set for March 31st.
WWAY has reached out to Mayor Pro Tem Jordan for comment, but has not heard back.
