{"id":1732,"date":"2012-07-26T16:32:54","date_gmt":"2012-07-26T20:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=1732"},"modified":"2012-07-26T16:37:23","modified_gmt":"2012-07-26T20:37:23","slug":"hudson-named-city-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=1732","title":{"rendered":"Hudson named permanent Coatesville manager"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former D.A. loses bid for public-safety post; Council president nearly loses position<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Jamie Richard<\/strong>, Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

City Solicitor John Carnes applauds new Coatesville City Manager Kirby Hudson upon his appointment by City Council, Wednesday night.<\/p><\/div>\n

COATESVILLE \u2013 In a decisive special meeting last night, City Council appointed a new city manager, almost fired its president, and removed a candidate for interim chief of public safety.<\/p>\n

Assistant city manager Kirby Hudson was named city manager; Hudson has served as acting manager \u00a0since the dismissal of former manager Gary Rawlings last month.\u00a0 Before Hudson\u2019s appointment, the council took a vote on removing the residency requirements for the position.\u00a0 The motion passed on a 5-2 vote with Council President Edward Simpson and Councilperson Ingrid Jones voting against the measure.<\/p>\n

Prior to the decision, many residents spoke in support of Hudson, imploring the council to promote him.\u00a0 School board member and former city council member Paul Johnson spoke in favor of Hudson, citing his previous six years of experience as assistant city manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis young man has created, in his heart, a place for the city to improve,\u201d said Johnson.<\/p>\n

After removing the residency requirement, the board made another 5-2 vote in favor of appointing Hudson; both Simpson and Jones voted against this motion as well.<\/p>\n

After being appointed, Hudson thanked the audience and the board for their support and vowed to improve the quality of life in Coatesville.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really did move and touch me that I had so many people who believed in me,\u201d said Hudson.\u00a0 \u201cI promise that I will move this city forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilperson David Collins addressed previous concerns regarding Hudson\u2019s ineligibility for the position due to tax issues regarding a stipend he received for work with the Redevelopment Authority, claiming that Hudson had been \u201cexonerated of those charges.\u201d Allen Smith, the former Weed and Seed program director, also announced that he had applied to be city manager, but council admitted that they had not reviewed his application.<\/p>\n

In a 4-3 decision, the council voted to remove the consideration of former Chester County District Attorney Joseph W. Carroll for interim chief of public safety from the meeting agenda.\u00a0 Councilpersons David Collins, C. Arvilla Hunt, Jarrell Brazzle and Jeffery LoPrinzi voted in favor of removing the item.\u00a0 Councilperson Hunt claimed Carroll did not possess any experience for the position, but suggested that he could help the city in another fashion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t, in any way, think you\u2019re not somebody that can do something for the city, I just didn\u2019t think it was in that position,\u201d said Hunt.<\/p>\n

Councilperson Collins echoed Hunt\u2019s statements about Carroll\u2019s lack of police chief experience.\u00a0 According to Collins, the council had interviewed Carroll and decided not to hire him; he claimed the motion then just appeared on the agenda before the meeting.\u00a0 Collins also said that he was unwilling to appoint someone to a newly created position that lacked a job description.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our charter there is no job description for public safety officers,\u201d said Collins.\u00a0 \u201cWe really can\u2019t offer that position to somebody when we haven\u2019t defined what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simpson claimed that members of the council had asked the item be on the agenda and that experience as a police chief \u00a0was only a requirement for a full-time police chief and not for an interim position.<\/p>\n

Several residents also spoke out against Carroll and criticized his past performance as district attorney.\u00a0 William Lambert, president of the NAACP Coatesville chapter, accused Carroll of contributing to the disproportionate number of incarcerated African-Americans and chastised him for not taking measures to provide educational and vocational programs for African-American residents.<\/p>\n

Resident Ronald Suber blasted Carroll\u2019s prosecution of convicted arsonist Robert Tracy, accusing Carroll of seeking a more lenient sentence for Tracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a disaster; it made history in a bad way,\u201d said Suber.<\/p>\n

Carroll declined to react to the comments, but did express regret at the outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am disappointed that I won\u2019t get to work with the police, but I respect the council\u2019s decision and I will look for other ways to help the city,\u201d said Carroll.<\/p>\n

Immediately after Hudson\u2019s appointment, Councilman Collins called for a motion to remove Simpson from his position as council president.\u00a0 The motion failed \u00a04-3, with Collins, Brazzle and Hunt voting in favor of removing Simpson.\u00a0 Collins stated that the motion was not \u00a0personal, but focused on what he viewed as Simpson’s poor leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cA leader needs to lead; he or she needs to be a strong leader.\u00a0 Anybody in this room who has been in a leadership role knows that you have to lead from the front,\u201d said Collins.<\/p>\n

After the meeting, Simpson commented that the motion was a matter of politics and was, in part, spurred by his vote regarding Hudson\u2019s appointment.\u00a0 According to Simpson, members of council take disagreements personally and misunderstand the role of the president.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe operate as a body,\u201d said Simpson.\u00a0 \u201cThere are seven people on council; I don\u2019t make the decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former D.A. loses bid for public-safety post; Council president nearly loses position By Jamie Richard, Staff Writer, The Times COATESVILLE \u2013 In a decisive special meeting last night, City Council appointed a new city manager, almost fired its president, and removed a candidate for interim chief of public safety. Assistant city manager Kirby Hudson was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[562,126,560,24,563,561,473,436,267],"class_list":["post-1732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-c-arvilla-hunt","tag-city-council","tag-city-manager","tag-coatesville","tag-david-collins","tag-jarrell-brazzle","tag-joseph-w-carroll","tag-kirby-hudson","tag-naacp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}