NATCHEZ, Miss. – Ousted Adams County administrator Angie King confronted the Board of Supervisors at their meeting Tuesday seeking a public explanation why it voted 3-2 not to reappoint her earlier this month.
“I gave everything I could to this county – and look what happened to me for no reason,” an emotional King said as she defended her work as county government’s chief executive.
While county supervisors have been publicly vague about their reasons for firing King, they said county operations were being mismanaged under her administration.
“When a person does not perform, something has to be done,” said Supervisor Angela Hutchins, who was the pivotal vote Jan. 3 when the board decided to remove King from the job she had since 2020.
King and Hutchins exchanged angry words during Tuesday’s meeting before King was tugged out of the room by her allies that included Supervisor Rickey Gray.
Gray, along with county board President Warren Gaines, voted to reappoint King two weeks ago when supervisors held their first meeting of 2023 as they picked their chief board staffers for the year.
Gray said he’s not been given an adequate explanation from his fellow board members why they voted to dismiss King. “Rickey Gray still does not know why she was fired,” he said.
As he presided over Tuesday’s meeting, Gaines pounded his gavel hard several times to quell the verbal fireworks that flared up as King and supporters defended her and sought supervisors’ reasons for ousting her.
“I don’t think we need to get into a public discussion about this,” said Gaines, who did acknowledge he wanted to retain King as county administrator.
Tuesday was the deadline supervisors previously set for prospects to apply for the job and be considered.
As administrator, King oversaw the daily operations of Adams County government, including an annual budget of about $30 million with about 250 employees under the governance of the five-member county Board of Supervisors.
Other supervisors joining Hutchins in voting to dismiss King were Wes Midddleton and Kevin Wilson. In explaining their decisions, Wilson said they “had different reasons.”
He noted King had a “very hard,” high-pressure job. As it became too much for her to handle, Wilson saw “a lot of things going wrong” and “way too many calls and complaints” about King’s work.
“I didn’t see things being taken care of. It was never personal,” Wilson said of his justification to remove King.
However, King told the board Tuesday that she put her heart into the job and worked long days and weekends as county administrator with an undermanned staff – “and I didn’t miss one beat.”
Supervisors appointed King to replace Joe Murray in 2020, when he retired as county administrator. King’s salary was $110,000 a year.
In the interim, while supervisors decide on a new county administrator, Adams County Chancery Clerk Brandi Lewis will do the job along with her other duties, which include administering chancery court and being county board secretary.
King has filed to run as a candidate for chancery clerk to unseat Lewis, who is running for re-election in the August Democratic primaries.
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