Conaway was fired the Monday before the meeting by newly named Town Manager Homer Dearmin, who served as interim manager for the past year. The special called meeting took place at 12:30 p.m. Friday and was held at the library because the usual meeting place of the Walnut Cove Senior Center was unavailable at that time.
As the meeting was called to order, Mayor John Hodgkin explained that because this meeting was a closed session to discuss a personnel matter, there would be no opportunity for public comments. The next opportunity for public comments will be at the Feb. 5 regular meeting of the Walnut Cove board.
Hodgkin also explained that because Walnut Cove operates under a manager-board form of government that the town manager made all decisions regarding personnel. He said the board did not have the authority to overturn any decisions made by the manager.
Conaway, flanked with support from family members, friends and the public he has served for the past 17 years, asked for an opportunity to address the board, but the request was denied.
Outside the library, citizens stood talking for almost two hours while the board met inside in closed session. Long-time resident and former town commissioner Pete White said he thought the situation had been handled poorly.
"Maybe disciplinary action was in order, but to up and fire someone a day after you take the job is poor judgment on the town manager’s part. People don’t know all the good Barry has done for this town. To fire him for the first thing that comes up is not right," White said.
Former commissioner Alma Childers said she hated to see Walnut Cove getting so much negative publicity.
"Walnut Cove is a nice town. We get a lot of bad publicity, and I’m sorry that happens," she said. "Someone told me this will be resolved, and it will be resolved the right way, and I hope so. If the people knew all that he (Conaway) has done for this town."
Childers was circulating a petition asking for the reinstatement of Conaway and the dismissal of Dearmin through the crowd and had received 200 signatures with many petitions still out.
The petition reads, "We, the undersigned petitioners, resident of Walnut Cove, Stokes County, North Carolina, hereby request and insist that Barry Conaway be immediately reinstated as Chief of Police of Walnut Cove, with all benefits restored and compensation from the date he was fired by the town manager. No proof has been presented of any wrong doing on his part, and he has served Walnut Cove extremely well for many years. We also demand that Homer Dearmin be removed immediately as town manager. It appears that he was instrumental in the discharge of our loyal, honest Chief of Police and Dearmin is obviously too inexperienced to supervise long-time town employees."
The meeting was re-opened nearly two hours after it was called to order with a vote to adjourn being the only action taken by the board.
Although not afforded the opportunity to be heard during public comments at this meeting, many residents took the opportunity to speak out.
"I hope you enjoy your life in Walnut Cove," Blaine Tuttle Jr. told the board members.
Hodgkin and Dearmin were booed as they exited the building, and Dearmin received a police escort back to town hall to ensure his safety after several threats were heard.
Residents shouted remarks reminding them that there would be another election.
Conaway emotionally told reporters after the meeting, "I don’t know what to do. I was prepared to make a statement to the board, and I didn’t get a chance."
Dearmin said in an interview later Friday afternoon that because it is a personnel issue he can’t discuss the specifics of the firing.
"I understand people are frustrated because the town doesn’t have any explanation of what led to Monday’s events. Under state law and the town personnel policy and out of respect for Barry and his dignity, I can’t comment. Legally and ethically, I cannot," Dearmin said.
Tuttle thanked the crowd on behalf of Conaway. "Thank you all for coming out, and it’s not over," he said.
Dearmin said that under the town’s personnel policy Conaway has the opportunity to file a grievance and he could also seek any legal recourse he desired.
The board’s view
At least two town commissioners are not happy with the personnel action taken by Dearmin last week, but the mayor said no commissioners spoke out in opposition to the decision when the time was allowed for opinions to be expressed.
Commissioner Lora Carter, who chose to keep her public comments to those in a letter to the editor, explained, "Town Manager Homer Dearmin did contact me on Monday morning, but I most certainly did not give approval for him to fire Police Chief Barry Conaway.
"In fact, I explicitly warned him against doing that because the incident that started all the controversy was not a firing offense," she said. "I reminded him that Barry works hard for this town and has probably done more for the people here than anyone else."
Carter said, "My last remark was that people would be extremely angry because they love and respect Barry. Mr. Dearmin said he was in agreement with all I had said and that they had a meeting scheduled later that morning to work things out. The next thing I heard was a call from Fox 8 News wanting my reaction to the Walnut Cove Police Chief being fired."
"I don’t know how all the rumors got started about us agreeing to fire Barry, which I did not," said Commissioner Polly Goolsby in a phone interview this week. "I certainly did not vote or whatever is being said to fire Barry.
"It is true (Dearmin) called me before the meeting with Barry, but he never told me he was going to fire Barry," Goolsby said.
According to Goolsby, Conaway had asked for the mayor to be present at the meeting with Dearmin, but Hodgkin was out of the state on business, so Goolsby was asked to be at the meeting as mayor pro tem.
"I didn’t feel comfortable about being the only commissioner there," she said. "I told (Dearmin) to call the town attorney and ask his opinion and call me and tell me what he said, and (Dearmin) never called me back."
Goolsby said she learned about the termination of Conaway from someone who had seen it on the news. "There are a lot of he said and she said things, but I did not agree, I did not agree to fire him," she said. "If he had asked, I would have plainly told him I would not agree with that."
But Hodgkin said Dearmin’s phone calls to the commissioners prior to the action taken was not to gain the board’s permission for the termination of Conaway. The calls were just to make them aware of what was occurring, because the board has no say in personnel matters.
"We’re a council-manager form of government, and the manager is hired to handle all personnel matters. It isn’t our responsibility to handle those," Hodgkin said this week. "The meeting last Friday was simply to review the actions taken by the manager, and Homer reviewed everything that had happened since the initial incident.
"Last Friday, no action was taken. That means the board of commissioners
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