Long County board affirms Road Department firing and amends personnel policy on hiring and firing

The Long County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 5 amended its personnel policy to grant department supervisors the authority to hire and terminate employees, and later in the meeting affirmed the termination of Road Department employee Cole Reddish.

Chairman Robert D. Parker moved to amend the personnel policy to allow department supervisors to hire and terminate, with the provision that an employee may request reconsideration at the next scheduled board meeting by majority vote; Commissioner John Reddish seconded. The amendment passed unanimously.

Earlier in the meeting, Mr. Clifton Deloach addressed the board and said he believed Cole Reddish’s termination was unlawful, asked who had terminated him and asserted Reddish had worked in a hostile environment and been targeted. Deloach also said he had videos of incidents at the Road Department he would be inclined to share.

After executive session, Chairman Parker moved to affirm the termination of Cole Reddish by Road Superintendent Norman Morris; Commissioner Gerald Blocker seconded. The minutes record Commissioner John Reddish as abstaining and Commissioner Florence Baggs as opposing; the motion carried with a 3-2 recorded tally. The minutes do not provide additional detail about the personnel investigation, the grounds for termination, or whether any evidence presented in executive session will be made public.

The board’s actions change the county’s personnel policy to explicitly vest hiring and termination authority in department supervisors going forward; the minutes indicate employees retain the ability to request reconsideration by the board at a subsequent meeting.