Lamar Horton, the city’s human resource director of eight years, was fired Thursday by the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen, while three employees with five to 34 years of city service each were laid off due to financial constraints and reorganizing efforts at City Hall, said Mayor Paul Winfield. 

Those laid off, effective immediately, are Richard Wayne Scott, Johnny Puckett and Donald Womack.

Scott had been head city inspector since 2001, but began his career with the city at the water plant in 1975 and transferred to the fire department in 1977. Puckett has been building maintenance director since 1985, but also traced his career with the city back to 1967 in the fire department. Womack has been public works superintendent of utilities since 2004.

“We’re charged with the responsibility of making organizational changes to promote efficiency in the city, and this is one of those unfortunate things that we have to do,” said Winfield of the cuts, which he first proposed to the aldermen Wednesday. “There’s never a good time to let people go, but we can’t afford not to move forward.”

The termination and layoffs were finalized during a closed meeting that clocked in at just over two hours. South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman cast the lone dissenting vote on all but one of the cuts, but declined to say which one. Votes taken in closed sessions must be recorded in official minutes which, when adopted, become public records.

“To be honest, there probably is some restructuring that needs to be done, but I don’t like the timing of this,” Beauman said. “We found out about this one day and then did it the next. I’d rather have had a little time to talk and think this over, and I expressed that to the mayor.”  

North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield said he didn’t like the timing, either. However, with gaming and sales tax revenues expected to be short of last year’s collections as the fiscal year continues, he said the city has no choice but to start looking at ways to cut costs.

“This has been coming for a while,” Mayfield said. “During the budget process we were looking at a minimum of 50 cuts, and we scrapped everything we possibly could to keep those jobs. But, the City of Vicksburg is in serious condition. We have a difficult task ahead of us and there are going to be some people who are not happy with what we’re going to have to do. Some top officials may need to be moved, some may need to be replaced and some may need to be terminated.”

Winfield said he intends to begin the process of revising the city’s organizational chart of its approximately 550 employees beginning in January, and added more cuts are possible.

“I don’t want to scare people into thinking that the city is in a mode of laying people off, that’s to the contrary,” the mayor said. “Our departments need to be realigned. There’s going to need to be some consolidation, and this is all being done to promote good government and give the citizens of Vicksburg the service they deserve.”

The problem, as Winfield sees it, is there are too many department heads — about 25 total — reporting to the mayor and aldermen. He said he’d like to see that number pared down to about 10, but quickly added that does not mean 15 department heads are facing dismissal.

“They’ll just have different people to report to,” he said. “We’re going to find ways to save money and increase our efficiency. (Department heads) are being held to a much greater level of accountability now, and their responsibilities are going to be raised.”

Shortly after taking office in July, Winfield pushed for a new police chief, fire chief, deputy fire chiefs, city attorney and city judge. All but one of those moves were eventually approved by a 2-1 vote, with Beauman dissenting. In September, two deputy police chiefs were hired by the same 2-1 vote. Meanwhile, Winfield added a chief of staff and director of intergovernmental affairs to the payroll, and has speculated more top positions could be created at City Hall.

In Horton’s absence, Walterine Langford — former municipal court judge who was transferred back to the city’s legal department after Winfield took office — will take over human resources duties on an interim basis. Sammy Rainey will be the interim building maintenance director. Winfield said he envisions Langford and Rainey acting as interim directors for the next three to six months, at which point the city will evaluate new applicants through its normal hiring practices. The positions formerly held by Scott and Womack will not be filled, he added.

Horton was tapped by former mayor Laurence Leyens in December 2001 to head the human resources department. Reached Thursday afternoon, he declined comment. Winfield said he could not discuss the details, but said based on his observations the human resources department “needs to go in a different direction.”

Horton had also served as the city representative on both the Vicksburg Main Street and the Vicksburg Convention Center and Auditorium Advisory Board. Horton said he expected to be replaced on both boards.

Also Thursday in executive session, the mayor and aldermen voted to cease a contract with Dr. Randy Easterling, effective Jan. 11. Easterling, who practices family medicine in Vicksburg and is also president of the Mississippi State Medical Association, has contracted with the city as the medical director for the fire department’s emergency medical services for about 20 years, said Langford. Another doctor will have to be found, she said, as state law requires all EMS operations to have a medical director.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com