Police chief’s residency at issue in PB council

Aldermen worry over home outside city

— The city’s top police officer lives outside Jefferson County, prompting concerns from some aldermen that his residency violates an ordinance.

P ine Bluff aldermen spent nearly an hour in executive session Friday discussing Mayor Debe Hollingsworth’s decision to replace Police Chief Brenda Davis-Jones with a retired department lieutenant who temporarily leads the force.

Jeff Hubanks, who retired from the department in February, acknowledged in a telephone interview Friday that he lives in Cleveland County, which borders the southwestern part of Jefferson County. His city personnel file shows that he has a Star City (Lincoln County) mailing address. LincolnCounty also borders Jefferson County, where Pine Bluff is. Hubanks’ home is about 19 miles from downtown Pine Bluff.

Several aldermen expressed concern about Hubanks’ residency, prompting Friday’s special meeting, Alderman Glen Brown said afterward.

There was no City Council discussion on the matter in public Friday, and no public action taken at the meeting. Hollingsworth declined to comment on the issue after the meeting, as did most aldermen.

Brown said after Friday’s council meeting that he and other aldermen discussed hiring an attorney to consult the city on the matter.

“I think that is something we definitely need to do,” Brown said. “The ordinance clearly says that the chiefmust live in the city limits. I stand behind the ordinances of Pine Bluff, Ark., and if it says the chief must live in the city, then he must live in the city.”

The interim chief, contacted after the meeting, declined to elaborate on the matter.

“That’s not about me - that’s between the City Council and the mayor,” Hubanks said. “I am excited about being in this job, and I have some great plans. Those are the things that I will be focusing on and talking about in the coming weeks.”

A 2000 ordinance mandates that “no one may serve as director of a department of city government, including the chiefs of the police and fire departments, who is not a resident of the City of Pine Bluff continually during the term of his or her service as a departmentdirector or chief.”

“Continued residency in the city during such term of service shall be considered a condition of employment, and failure to do so shall constitute grounds for termination.”

Existing employees at the time of the ordinance’s passage were grandfathered in, although Hubanks retired in February after nearly threedecades with the department.

An ordinance passed in 2002 partially amends the 2000 ordinance, allowing “uniformed officers” to live outside city limits as long as that location is “sufficiently proximate to his assigned duty station within the City of Pine Bluff…in the event of an emergency… .”

The 2002 ordinance does not mention the chief’s position. It’s unclear whether the ordinance applies to an interim police chief.

On her first day in office Tuesday, Hollingsworth relieved Davis-Jones of her duties as police chief. Davis-Jones served as police chief for 2 1/2 years and had some rocky times. A no-confidence vote on her narrowly failed in the City Council in March. Aldermen deadlocked in a 4-4 tie. Former Mayor Carl Redus Jr., defeated by Hollingsworth in November, hired Davis-Jones from Georgia.

Redus, who could have broken the tie, declined to vote.

At that City Council meeting, the South Central chapter of the Arkansas Police Benevolent Association circulated a letter saying members had no confidence in Davis-Jones, citing a lack of “consistency” with disciplinary cases.

In May, another vote of no confidence was taken but failed 4-3.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 01/05/2013

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