Mount Olive fires town manager

MOUNT OLIVE — Mount Olive Town Manager Jammie Royall was dismissed after a special closed session meeting of the Board of Commissioners on Jan. 13. The vote, which was held after the closed session, was 3-2 with Commissioners Delreese Simmons and Vicky Darden opposed. The board also voted 3-2 to appoint Glenn Holland, currently the utilities superintendent, as interim town manager.

The move has been anticipated for several months, with several commissioners mentioning during the December and January regular meetings that the town needed new leadership. The special closed session meeting was originally scheduled for Jan. 15, but was moved up due to Royall having scheduled surgery on Jan. 14, Commissioner Thomas Brown said. After the surgery, Royall would have been out for three months, he added.

Simmons took to Facebook to protest against the decision, pointing out that the three commissioners who voted for Royall’s dismissal — Brown, Danny Keel and Mayor Pro Tem Barbara Kornegay — are all white, while Simmons and Darden are Black. “How is it the three white commissioners knew who they had picked as [interim] town manager, but the two blacks knew nothing?” he wrote.

“I assure you the decision made on Mr. Royall had nothing to do with race,” Brown told Duplin Journal. “There was nothing racial behind it. It was strictly performance-based reasons.”

Keel agreed. “The only comment I would make is that the decision was based on performance,” he said. “He was just not doing the job. His performance was not to the expectations of the board.”

However, Simmons alleges that the board never gave Royall a fair chance. “Jammie didn’t do some of the things they wanted him to,” Simmons told Duplin Journal. “But Jammie’s had his hands tied since day one. They made it impossible for him to do his job.”

The strife over the town manager has added to simmering tensions on the board, with Simmons speaking out at each board meeting about other commissioners, without naming names.

Brown called the tension on the board “disheartening,” and reiterated that the decision on the town manager was a necessary one. “We were put in a position where we had to do something,” he said. “We have a lot going on in town, and we need someone to steer the ship.”

Keel added, “I hate it because I want everyone to get along. With time, I believe things will get better. I think we’re no different from many other boards in that we don’t always agree.”

Kornegay and Darden didn’t respond to calls for comment as of this writing.