Jerry Neace
UPDATE: Baldwin's City Council voted unanimously Thursday night to approve the separation agreement with City Administrator Jerry Neace.
Baldwin Mayor Joe Elam would not provide any details about the agreement or why it was necessary. Elam said providing a copy of the agreement would be delayed while it is reviewed and executed by attorneys for the city and Neace.
Also Thursday, the council named Willam Anastasio as the sole finalist to be the city’s police chief.
“We began with over 20 applicants for the position, and we narrowed it down to four and interviewed them,” Elam said.
Anastasio comes to Baldwin from the Roswell Police Department, where he served for 20-plus years, Elam said.
Anastasio replaces former Baldwin police chief Charles Webb, who resigned on May 1.
Since Webb’s resignation, Officer Matt Nall has been acting as interim police chief of the department.
On July 29, 2020, The Northeast Georgian reported:
Baldwin will soon be searching for a new city administrator.
City Administrator Jerry Neace and the city are working to reach a separation agreement soon, Mayor Joe Elam said Monday.
After Elam informed The Northeast Georgian of the plan for the agreement on Monday, he did not return several messages left for him Tuesday to elaborate on the status of the pending separation agreement.
The situation with Neace was not mentioned at Monday’s Baldwin City Council meeting, which Neace did not attend. There was an executive session discussion about personnel, but nothing was decided by officials afterward.
Councilwoman Alice Venter was reached by phone Tuesday, but would not immediately give comment on the situation.
Neace was reached by phone Tuesday afternoon, but he also declined to comment.
Neace is the former mayor of Baldwin who resigned in 2018 and took over as city administrator.
In other news from Monday night’s meeting, Baldwin’s Fire Department is set to receive a new ladder truck after the city council approved a $126,500 expenditure to purchase one at its meeting Monday night.
During the meeting, Baldwin Fire Chief Joe Roy said that he had looked for a “good, used truck for about a year,” before finding this one.
The used ladder truck, which will be purchased from the fire department in Pleasant Hill, South Carolina, will cost the city approximately $126,500 after factoring in its price and an additional $1,500 for transportation costs, basic service and to have the city’s name put on the side of the truck.
The truck is also scheduled to be purchased using SPLOST VI funds, as Finance Director Melanie Chandler said that enough funds were allocated to public safety on the spending list to cover the purchase.
According to Roy, the Baldwin Fire Department has been without a ladder truck for some time, as its previous one was damaged and is currently out of operation.
“I’m really excited about this,” Venter said. “Thank you for finding this, because I know I have been worried about not being able to service out citizens as fast as possible with the ladder truck. I can’t imagine how you guys felt being the ones that actually have to show up.
Along with approving the purchase of a new fire engine, the council also unanimously approved the the Professional Drive paving project.
The project is expected to cost no more than $160,000, and it will also be financed using SPLOST VI funds.
“We’ve gone over the numbers with our engineers to make sure this [price] included everything that they’re anticipating for that project,” Chandler said.
The council also unanimously approved a budget amendment to allow an additional $814 to be spent on Baldwin’s contract with Habersham County Animal Control.
“The invoice from the county was about 3% higher than we budgeted for, so we would like to ask council to approve a budget amendment for this expense,” said Chandler. “That would come out of our legal expense budget line because we were very cautious on that budget, so we’re able to cover the [cost] out of that.”
In other business, the council:
• Held a public hearing for a zoning variance request from Lula Capital LLC for five additional properties in the Highland Pointe Subdivision.
The request asks that the minimum front setbacks be moved to 20 feet for three of the properties and 15 feet for the other two. The amendments allow for less grading and a larger backyard areas on the properties.
• Unanimously approved the second readings for all six zoning variance requests from Lula Capital for properties in the Highland Pointe subdivision.
• Approved an IT contract for the 2021 fiscal year with Anderson Compute and Network Service.