GUYTON — A motion to appoint a public safety director died on the Guyton City Council table on Jan. 9.
Steve Collins, the Post 1 council member, answered Mayor Jeff Lariscy’s call for a motion to name Stacy Strickland public safety director during a regularly scheduled council meeting. The motion was greeted with silence by Franklin Goldwire (Post 2), Joseph Lee (Post 3) and Michael Johnson (Post 4), effectively killing the measure without a vote.

Strickland has been serving as Guyton's public safety director on an interim basis since the mayor fired Kelphie Lundy in February 2016. Lariscy listed repeated negligence, the creation of a hostile work environment and the failure to recruit firefighters as the basis for his decision.

Goldwire and Johnson later voted to overturn the firing but Collins backed the move. A 3-0 vote was needed to reinstate Lundy. Lee was not on the council at the time.

Lundy, a veteran of the Statesboro Police Department and Effingham County Sheriff’s Office, had served as public safety director since March 2015. 

See the Jan. 17 edition of the Effingham Herald for more details.