Public safety director position, city pay structure approved at council meeting
Last week’s East Ellijay City Council meeting was a historic event with the first time a new city mayor had been sworn in since 1972. Any other time East Ellijay’s mayor had been sworn in during the past 50 years, it was longtime incumbent mayor Mack West taking the oath of office. West passed away at age 88 last month, leaving the mayoral seat to be filled by mayor pro-tem Don Callihan.
Callihan, a longtime East Ellijay City Councilmember and retired Georgia Power crew supervisor, was sworn in by Gilmer County Probate Judge Scott Chastain shortly after the Feb. 23 meeting began and after he was approved to transition to mayor by councilmembers Ed Forrester, Linda Smith and Chris Callihan.
Prior to the swearing in, Callihan noted that this may have been the only East Ellijay council meeting in the last 50 years not to have been led by West.
“When you think of East Ellijay, you think of Mayor West. He leaves a legacy that I want to see us as elected officials and city staff continue,” Callihan said. “He always tried to do the best he could to take care of our citizens and their needs. It’s a passion of his to make sure the city is financially sound. More than that, he wanted to provide a safe and peaceful place for the citizens to live, work and do business. I want us to keep that going.”
Callihan’s first items of business as mayor were introducing a new position, public safety director, and a pay scale classification plan for all city positions.
Callihan said both items had been topics of discussion when West was still mayor, but had not been voted on by the council, which ultimately approved them.
Police Chief Larry Callahan will be East Ellijay’s first public safety director, Callihan announced.
The job description includes overseeing and assisting with several different aspects of city operations including acting as head of the police department and overseeing code enforcement/city planning operations.
East Ellijay’s longtime city planner, Mack Wood, expects to retire later this year, after which Callahan will take on much of the duties currently handled by Wood. He will also represent East Ellijay when working with Gilmer County and the City of Ellijay in regard to public safety operations, including, but not limited to, law enforcement issues.
“He’ll still be the chief, but he’ll also be taking some responsibilities for city planner and over code enforcement and city court,” said Callihan.
Shane Bowman, East Ellijay’s assistant police chief, will be in charge of handling day-to-day operations of the EEPD, Callihan noted.
An amended position classification/pay plan was approved to reflect low-high pay ranges for all city positions, including the newly added public safety director.
Callahan said, per the city’s charter, “we need to have a pay scale classification for high and low. It really is nothing new. It’s just tidying up what we had, to make sure we’re bracketed right on both ends of it.”
In other news ...
﹣ Councilmembers denied a request for a zoning variance for a mobile home. Chief Callahan said, historically, the city hasn’t allowed mobile homes to be moved in. He and Mayor Callihan agreed with maintaining that stance.
﹣ A beer, wine and distilled spirits pouring license for Pueblo Cantina was post- approved, as were business licenses for Pueblo Cantina, Ellijay Embroidery and Stoneyard Ellijay LLC.
“They’re (all) open, so it’s basically post approval on these business licenses. Hopefully, in the future, we’ll be able to vote on these before they open up,” said Callihan.