News - Local - Biloxi

Tuesday, Nov. 03, 2009

Biloxi council rejects mayor’s chief again

Atterberry will remain acting police chief until issue is resolved

BILOXI — Mayor A.J. Holloway again asked the City Council to approve Linda Atterberry as Biloxi Police Chief and again the council turned him down by a 5-1 vote Tuesday.

Councilman Clark Griffith cast the only vote in favor of Atterberry’s appointment. Voting no were George Lawrence, Lucy Denton, Bill Stallworth, Tom Wall and Ed Gemmill. Councilman David Fayard was absent.

“We may have to go to court to resolve this,” Holloway said after the vote.

Atterberry will continue to serve as acting police chief until the issue is settled.

Holloway wants the council members to give a reason why they don’t want Atterberry to become the chief. “Just because they don’t like her or they don’t like me, that’s not a reason,” he said.

Attorney Michael Cavanaugh said Holloway asked him to review the legal procedure for appointing a police chief. It is up to the mayor to choose a candidate, he said, and the council to determine if the applicant is qualified or if there is “good cause” for the person not to be appointed.

“If someone else is more qualified is irrelevant,” said Cavanaugh.

“How do we go about confirming someone we don’t feel is the person for the job?” asked Councilman Tom Wall. “We voted to confirm her for acting chief,” but he said the council had no intention of making it permanent.

Holloway said there’s been a lot of lobbying for him to appoint another candidate.

“I’ve been through this one time,” Holloway said. When he appointed now council member Lucy Denton to the school board, the council members turned down the appointment. Holloway sued the council when the members said they would select the new school board member.