Why doing business with the city is hazardous
The Signal Mountain town manager who started in April, 2024, was taken off the town’s payroll at a special called meeting of the council on Thursday. That is when it became official, but at another special meeting held on Oct. 4, the process began. That was a public meeting at 10 a.m., however only a few citizens were there to see what took place. After that meeting, Matt Trollinger hired a lawyer and negotiations began to develop a separation agreement with Town Attorney Harry Cash. Mayor Charles Poss said, “It is not firing him, it’s a legal separation.”
Mr. Trollinger had accepted the job and said he moved 600 miles and had bought a house. When he was interviewing and negotiating terms of the job, he said he was transparent about taking time off when his baby would be born, and for his brother’s wedding. He said his contract included 12 days of vacation and 12 days of leave. He later discovered a misprint in the contract, saying 12 hours not days, that he did not catch. He told the council on Friday that he had been upfront about his time off and had also offered to take some of the time off without pay.
His understanding of the reasons for dismissal is that he overused leave, and that when the leave began, there were some resolutions that had not been signed. In preparation for his leave, he said he got things in order and made arrangements for Matt Justice to function as the interim city manager so city business would not be interrupted. “I acted in good faith, and received no feed-back from the council,” he said, but he said those things resulted in his termination.
The purpose of Friday’s special meeting was to discuss the termination. The terms of the separation were discussed, but the reason was never mentioned. The terms negotiated between the attorneys was for Mr. Trollinger to receive three and a half months of salary and three and a half months of COBRA benefits for insurance. There would be no admission of liability on either side and there was a clause saying there would be no disparaging remarks from either side.
After lengthy discussion, the council failed to approve the negotiated agreement and made changes before they voted to accept it. The agreement that passed reduced Mr. Trollinger’s pay to three months to be paid in one lump sum and COBRA benefits to also end in three months or when Mr. Trollinger gets health benefits from another employer. No admission of liability from either side remains But the prohibition of disparaging remarks was limited to comments coming during public meetings and to news outlets. There is no time limit to this condition.
Changes to the clause about disparaging remarks were made so that the council will be able to tell citizens what happened, it was stated. The clause would mean that neither party can speak negatively of the other with regards to employment, said Attorney Cash. Councilman Andrew Gardner called that clause “dangerous.” The council feels the need to be accountable to the citizens and to answer their questions about what is going on and why because it will be their tax dollars that will be paying a significant amount for the separation agreement, he said. And the council wants the ability to do it without the risk of the city or themselves personally getting into a lawsuit.
After the council returned to the room following an executive session about legal matters, Commissioner Clay Crumbliss said, “This has been the most difficult decision I’ve had since being on this board. because the man and his career and family is in the balance, and I believe he has a very good skill set and can be successful in his career.”
“I see no reason to speak ill of Mr. Trollinger so I won’t say anything disparaging,” said Mayor Poss.
Vice Mayor Elizabeth Baker said, “I have no intention of saying anything bad,” but she wanted to retain the ability to let citizens know what happened because it is a large amount of money.
The next step will be for attorney Cash to meet Mr. Trollinger’s attorney to put together a settlement proposal and it will be presented to the council to approve, amend or reject.
The first citizen to speak to the council members, asked where the transparency was? She said the first special meeting to discuss this personnel matter was on Friday, Oct. 4, at 10 a.m. and this second one on a Friday was at 3 p.m, both times most people could not leave work to attend, she said. And the website and an email said the video of the meetings could be streamed and would be recorded, but they were not available to watch online, “so don’t act like it was available to everybody,” she said.
That is a fair comment, said the mayor.
The second speaker said, “Talking about transparency, there have been no minutes on your website since July.” And another speaker who has lived in Signal Mountain for 40 years told the council that they needed more transparency. He said he had heard Mr. Trollinger had been doing a good job, and that the only thing town residents know now is that he was fired while he was on leave for his new baby. But he said there are no minutes from the meeting to see what happened.
Mr. Trollinger spoke to the council from the podium and said that his financial vulnerability was leveraged in the separation agreement. In the agreement made between his attorney and Signal Mountain’s Town Attorney Harry Cash, he would have gotten three and a half months of his salary, but the commission reneged on that today, he said. Then he asked the council to honor the six months of salary that was in his original contract with the town. “It’s not the way you should treat employees,” he said before the meeting was adjourned.
