Heflin Mayor Anna Berry issued responses last week to an "exhibit list" introduced by Heflin Police Chief Ty Payne and his attorney Jason Odom during a hearing earlier this month.

Chief Payne had been placed on adminstrative leave and the hearing was held to determine if he got his job back or permanently relieved of his duties.

Payne got his job back due to a lack of votes to support termination.

The April 15 issue of The Cleburne News used only a portion of those exhibits (ones particularly dealing with the chief) in a story as they were distributed to the media and council members.

The following responses by the mayor addresses those particular issues raised by Payne and his attorney in their exhibits which had been made public.

His his exhibit Payne said his department could not be run on an eight hour shift.

Mayor Berry responded, "Chief Payne does not work overtime and comes in rarely on weekends and holidays. He does come in to work out in the mornings and then goes home to shower before returning to the office. Since this issue has been raised, he no longer signs in on the gym sign in sheet. I have reminded him to do this."

Since the chain of command was discussed in the exhibits, Mayor Berry responded, "The Mayor is the Chief Executive Officer of the city. She is the head of every department including the police department."

Odom introduced a letter from the Alabama Municipal Insurance Corporation in which Chief Payne was praised for his efforts to control loss.

Mayor Berry states, "The letter from Roger Owen, Loss Control, was for one year. Chief Payne's record for personnel retention shows an actual turnout rate of 130%."

The mayor further adds, "Chief Payne was given an opportunity to work with me for a six month period to address the issues that I felt needed to be addressed for him to continue in his position."

In her printed statement Berry said Payne was placed on administrative leave during a meeting with him.

She states, "In this meeting, Chief Payne was asked why he would not follow my instructions to eliminate a position to help with his budget overrun. He stated that he could not do what I had asked him to do. At that point, I told him he was on administrative leave and relieved of his duties. This included use of his office and city equipment."

Referring to a March 18 article in The Cleburne News in which Chief Payne said he was asked by the mayor to do something he felt unethical, Mayor Berry responded, "The Chief has never offered any proof of this untrue statement."

The article also noted that Heflin Police Department Investigator Lee Shaw had also been laid off.

In her responses, Mayor Berry said, "Lee Shaw was an at will (salaried) employee. The city was not required to offer him a reassignment. The salary he made as an hourly investigator included a supplement for doing building inspections. To help with the police department budget, the building inspector position has been taken out of the police department budget for the rest of this fiscal year. He does not out rank any other day shift position with the exception of animal control as this is a day position and always has been."