Published: November 19, 2008 03:50 pm      

WOOLEY FIRED AS SUWANNEE COUNTY COORDINATOR

Heated debate ends in 3-2 vote

Suwannee County Coordinator Johnny Wooley was fired Tuesday night by a 3-2 vote of the county commission. The motion to terminate Wooley was made by newly elected District 5 commissioner Wesley Wainwright, who was sworn in earlier that day. Commissioners Jesse Caruthers and Ivie Fowler voted with Wainwright to fire Wooley. Commissioners Douglas Udell and Billy Maxwell voted no.

Udell suggested Wainwright was paying a political debt by firing Wooley. Wainwright said he simply acted on the wishes of his constituents.

"In speaking with a number of business community leaders and community leaders throughout District 5, there was…a sincere concern in the direction this county is going, both with board of county commissioners and with our county coordinator,” Wainwright said.

Udell pressed Wainwright for specifics.

"Mr. Wainwright, you’re very generic in what the persons who make statements who want to get rid of Mr. Wooley, I heard no specifics, none whatsoever," Udell said. "I would challenge anybody in Suwannee County that can make a statement, an accurate statement, that Johnny Wooley has harmed this county. It has not happened.”

Wainwright said there were residents who would speak against Wooley, but he would not share names without their consent.

"I'm not going to just blurt their names out, but rest assured, and I know that's not going to satisfy your questions, the individuals that I'm speaking of probably have shared this with Mr. Hatch and Mr. Hatch is not here to respond and tell you that Mr. Wooley wasn't doing a satisfactory job,” said Wainwright.

"I haven't heard one person say to me about terminating Mr. Wooley, not a person, no sir," Udell said. "It leads me to ask a question. How much debt is there that you owe in a campaign, who do you owe in a campaign, who have you made promises to about things you would do?”

Wainwright said it was his constituents who wanted Wooley fired.

"I didn't solicit from those individuals in the south end of the county, that Mr. Wooley is the one that I hold accountable, he was brought up by those individuals, and like I said, I'm carrying this forward," Wainwright said.

Udell pressed on.

"Mr. Wainwright, tell the truth now, you’re a good man, now you know and I know that (county Tax Collector) George Burnham wants you to get this man fired," he said.

"He hasn't come up and told me, Mr. Udell," Wainwright countered.

Burnham, who was present at the meeting, initially declined to comment when contacted by the Democrat Wednesday, but said finally that he “never really fully understood where the man (Udell) was coming from last night."

Caruthers kept his thoughts to himself Tuesday night, but offered this by phone Wednesday:

"We'll pick up and move on. I received no great pleasure from this at all, it was a unique situation and we (the board) will try to achieve the goals the public would like us to achieve."

Commissioner Ivie Fowler had little to say about the situation.

"I just have a bad working relationship with (Wooley)," said Fowler.

Fowler seconded a motion by Caruthers to fire Wooley at a county commission meeting in 2006.

Maxwell said he saw no reason to fire Wooley, since, he said, Wainwright gave no reason to do so.

"If I vote to fire somebody, I want to know why I'm firing them," Maxwell said.

Public reaction was mixed.

County resident Michael Wooley (no relation to Johnny) worked with Wainwright on his campaign.

"I worked with (Wainwright) many a days, and the conversation of firing Mr. Wooley never came up,” Michael Wooley told commissioners Tuesday.

Local resident Jim Ward said he was not pleased with Wainwright’s proposal to fire Wooley.

"The people spoke, you're our county commissioner,” he said. “I'll support you as much as I can, but I'm telling you right straight off as far as I'm concerned you started off on the wrong foot."

Ward lives in Wainwright's district.

Johnny Wooley said he understands the need for change, but wished the board had handled things differently.

"Certainly there's no hard feelings with me with any board member up there,” Wooley said Tuesday. “This is politics tonight, this has no reflection, in my opinion, on what type of job I've done in the last five, six years I've been here. It's called politics, and I understand that. My only disappointment would be the way it was probably handled tonight as an emergency agenda item. Had ya'll come to me and said, ‘Listen, we got three votes and we want to change, ain't got nothing to do with the type of job you've done, we just need to change,’ ya'll wouldn't have had to went through this charade tonight.

“I would have given you a resignation, I would have walked on down to the house and looked for another job, that's just the type person I am," Wooley continued, holding back tears. "As I told ya'll when I got hired, I understand politics, and politics is about change, and we had to change, and I'm leaving because of that change, I don't have a problem with that."

Wooley served as county coordinator since May 2000. He was also director of emergency management.

Assistant County Coordinator Donald Robinson will take over duties as both coordinator and emergency management director until a replacement is hired.