Tuesday’s city board meeting in McComb unearthed a familiar situation, even though it’s an entirely different board.
They’ve fired their police chief again.
The McComb Enterprise Journal reports that Chief Garland Ward was before the board in a discussion of whether a retiring police officer should be allowed to buy his service weapon for $1, which is customary in a lot of law enforcement agencies.
Mayor Quordiniah Lockley said Deputy Chief Delre Smith will serve as interim chief.
Lockley had said the retiring officer could not buy his service weapon because the department does not have enough, the E-J reports, but Ward had just put in a purchase order for 10 new ones. The shortage, officials said, was because Ward had recently hired some new officers.
“The thing is about the weapons, that’s the most important item in the police department and you should never be short with that,” Alderman Bruce Mullins said after the meeting. He said that he has opposed the idea of Ward as police chief since he took office.
City Administrator David Myers told the E-J Ward has 10 days to appeal his termination to the Civil Service Commission.
Lockley, Terri Waterman-Baylor and Tabitha Felder Isaac have said they would vote to rehire Ward depending on what happens in next week’s special election to fill the vacant Ward 4.
