By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



WARRIOR — Mayor Rena Hudson won a battle Monday night at the Warrior City Council meeting when the council voted to hire a new magistrate.

Hudson had said at the Feb. 16 meeting that she wanted to hire a new magistrate to replace Renee Sears, who turned in a two-week notice on Feb. 13.

However, several council members objected because during the same meeting, Hudson also proposed laying off three full-time and two part-time city employees, as well as cutting the hours of other city workers.

Theodore Hines was the main voice of opposition Monday.

“We’re in a money crunch,” said Hines. “I don’t think we need to hire anybody until we can do better.”

Hines said the city clerk and clerk’s assistant could absorb the work of the magistrate until the city gets into better financial shape.

However, Hudson insisted that the magistrate’s position is a full-time job and said it was unfair to ask the clerk and assistant to take on more work.

With Hines having the only “no” vote and councilman Brad Fuller absent, the council voted to hire Ann Crane as the new magistrate. Crane has worked as contract labor for the city and is already partially trained for the magistrate’s job, according to Hudson.

Hudson said that the city would still save $10,000 with the hiring of Crane, because she would no longer be paid approximately $2,000 a year for contract labor and because she starts out as a “step one,” which is a lower pay grade than Sears had.

Hines wanted to table the hiring so the city could advertise the job and allow other people to apply, but the mayor said the job needed to be filled immediately.

“We’re in a crunch because of the time frame,” Hudson said.

A city magistrate is responsible for issuing arrest warrants, granting bail in misdemeanor prosecutions, conducting arraignments and setting non-guilty pleas for trial, opening court and calling the docket, granting continuances and much more.

In other business, the council:

• adopted an ordinance opposing non-user utility fees and to establish fines and other penalties against assessments of non-user utility fees on Warrior residents

• voted to send a police officer a course in Meridian, Miss., in order to complete his meth lab certification course

• accepted the April 1 retirement of street department employee Watts Wells and thanked him with a round of applause for many years of service

• voted that the mayor and council members will not attend the Alabama League of Municipalities Conference in Montgomery in May because the city can not afford it

• granted approval for a Birmingham Water Works Board proposal to request $117 million from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA). The funds would be part of the more than $700 billion economic stimulus package recently passed.

The council changed the day of the next regular meeting to March 23 at City Hall, with a pre-council meeting at 6:30 p.m. and the regular meeting at 7 p.m.