SOUTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — The mayor of a local city says he is fighting to keep the police chief he just hired.
Channel 2 Action News broke the news on Twitter that the mayor of the city of South Fulton offered the new chief his job, but hours later, the city council rejected it.
"I'm telling you it was very difficult for me to sleep," Mayor Bill Edwards told Channel 2's Nefertiti Jaquez.
Edwards said he had difficulty sleeping because he had to make one of the toughest phones calls of his life.
“I said to Luther, 'We need to, we got an issue,'” he said.
The new city of South Fulton had its first police chief, but only for a few hours.
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The mayor, who’s also the interim city manager, offered Luther Lamar the job saying he was the most qualified of the 94 candidates that applied.
Lamar, who’s the assistant police chief at Baton Rouge Community College and a 14-year veteran of the Fulton County police department, was hired Monday to run the new department.
“In my heart, I feel he’s more that capable of the job,” Edwards said.
But the mayor said members of city council disagreed, then voted unanimously not to give Lamar the job because they thought another candidate would be a better choice.
“There is a provision of the law that during the transition period – in the absence of the city manager –that the council can weigh in on the hiring and firing of individuals.”
It’s news that has stunned several residents, like Harvey Davis.
“This is life and death,” Davis said.
Davis is worried about the fact that the city is set to take over police services in less than 60 days.
"I can’t live with not having somebody respond to a 911 call when I’m in peril," he said.
We've told you about neighbors concerned over who will police their streets starting in March. Fulton County said the jurisdiction will cover a seven-mile stretch of unincorporated area.
Neighbors were also upset after leaders voted to change the city's name.
The mayor vetoed a measure that would have changed the name to Renaissance.
Cox Media Group
