Gateway — Dissension arose at the Gateway City Council meeting last week as Mayor David White was questioned about firing Clarence McKenzie and hiring another man at a higher hourly rate.

“I let Clarence go,” White said after he was asked.

“Why?” asked council member Michael Johansen.

“Because his hours, miles. It’s all down there. It’s all in black and white. Did I show you that?

You need to go over it,” White said, referring to a spreadsheet compiled by his wife, Terri White, also a city council member.

“When do I get to express my opinion?” McKenzie asked. No one responded.

“Is he not allowed to get paid per mile?” council member Cheryl Tillman asked.

“Not 60 cents a mile,” White responded.

As McKenzie said that there are discrepancies on the spreadsheet, White banged the gavel and said: “We’ll have order in the council meeting. If I decide to let you discuss this, I will. The way it is right now, I’m not.”

Terri White said the spreadsheet was compiled “word for word from his invoices.”

Tillman said McKenzie had previously asked the mayor for the paperwork and been denied access to it although it appeared that Terri White did have the paperwork.

“There has been an issue about this from the first of the year and I just didn’t pursue it,” the mayorsaid.

Tillman said all of the dates of McKenzie’s work were prior to White’s taking office. “And you’re bring it up?”

“If somebody’s cheating the city, yes!” White said.

“Now look out,” McKenzie said. “I don’t question being fired. I just don’t like being talked about the way I have been.”

City attorney Joann Mc-Cracken said the mayor had the statutory right to fire a city employee.

Johansen said: “It’s not a question of being fired.

It’s the manner. If he (McKenzie) had something set up with Lida (Schnitzer, the former mayor) ... if you want to change that, you need to talk to him.”

Council members questioned the experience and rate of pay for the new man hired to run the road grader. They also complained about the condition of one of the roads he had graded.

McKenzie was being paid $12 an hour and the new employee is being paid $15 an hour.

McKenzie’s last pay check was also held for seven weeks. White said it was because he was “checking through all his paperwork.”

McCracken said McKenzie was not a city employee.

“I got paid by the hour,” McKenzie responded. “I’m expecting a W2 form and I need it by Friday.”

Johansen asked White if his reason for calling McKenzie a cheat was because he charged 60 cents per mile.

“Look at this,” White said, waiving his hand at papers on the table.

“I can’t. I don’t have a copy,” Johansen said. “How do you know that wasn’t his agreement?”

“We don’t have any record,” Terri White said.

“Nobody said he was a crook.”

“I’ve kept track of my mileage. I don’t cheat nobody. I might have made a mistake,” McKenzie said.

Johansen said: “His donating time way outweighs his discrepancies.”

“Nobody has donated more time to this city less it be the Schnitzer family,” McKenzie said.

David White replied: “The Schnitzer family is all in the past. I’m the new mayor.”

“All of this is in the past.

This isn’t even on your time,” Tillman said.

“You give me no respect whatsoever,” David White said. “I deserve a little bit of respect, being the mayor.”

News, Pages 1 on 04/20/2011