Uncivilized disagreements marked 1948 civil service controversy

Frank Boyett
·8 min read

Mayor Robert P. Posey was ousted from the chair on seven occasions at the beginning of 1948 as new members of the Henderson City Commission began putting their stamp on city government.

Posey probably felt some of that stamping on his backside; Newly seated Commissioners J.C. “Crit” Hollowell and Andrew P. “Spatsy” Sights were none too gentle in their methods at times.

The main point of contention was the city’s civil service ordinance, which had been enacted May 27, 1946, and went into effect July 1 that year. It was clarified and strengthened in an ordinance passed Dec. 15, 1947. A citizen petition seeking repeal or a public vote on the matter was filed Dec. 24, 1947, but was rejected by the city commission.

The Gleaner of Jan. 6, 1948, said Holloway and Sights “took office by storm,” forcing Mayor Posey to twice relinquish the chairman’s gavel, ordered a delay in paying city salaries, ousted the city attorney, and decided to review the earlier decision to reject the citizen petition.

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Sights read a resolution to review that last action, but Posey refused to submit the resolution to a vote. After a second refusal, Posey was removed from the chair and a vote rescinded the earlier rejection of the citizen petition.

The same procedure occurred when Hollowell offered a resolution requiring the petition to be received and considered.

Yeah, yeah, I know. The blow-by-blow description sounds boring. Gleaner publisher Leigh Harris provided a lot more color in his commentary signed “Ima Watchin.’” He said the crowd was so big he couldn’t get in the room, but he listened to the minister’s prayer through the keyhole.

“Mayor Posey was pretty bloody, but he kept coming back for more. What they needed was a referee, not a preacher. If round one is a sample of what’s coming for two years let’s hire a hall and charge admission. We could make enough to build a new power plant.”

Posey again had to vacate the chair in a meeting two days later, in which the Dec. 15 civil service ordinance was repealed on first reading. Hollowell and Sights also declared in that meeting that five key positions did not fall under civil service, although they retained the five in “acting” capacities.

The Jan. 13 Gleaner reported the commission had repealed the civil service ordinance on final reading, although Hollowell and Sights relented and agreed to approve the payroll. They made it clear, however, that all personnel other than police and fire would not be allowed to contribute to their pension fund.

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That meeting followed the pattern of the earlier ones in that Posey surrendered the gavel four times.

Things really began heating up 75 years ago. The Gleaner of Jan. 20 carried two stories, one of which reported all 114 of the city’s employees had filed a lawsuit against the city of Henderson, the mayor and both commissioners.

The other reported the city commission had instructed the new city attorney, George Clay, to respond to the suit; that story said the mayor abstained twice on measures he did not agree with.

  • The lawsuit was asking for a declaration of rights. The employees wanted a judge to determine:

  • Whether they had the right to continue to hold their jobs, and whether they could be fired without cause and without a hearing.

  • What vesting rights they had acquired through the civil service ordinances, and whether they could continue to contribute two percent of their wages to the pension fund. (At the time the suit was filed there was about $11,000 in the fund.)

  • What was the constitutionality of the two civil service ordinances.

  • Whether key people − the city clerk, treasurer, auditor, assessor, and engineer − were employees of the city or officers. (If they were officers, they wouldn’t be eligible for civil service.)

Attorneys for both sides asked Circuit Judge Marlin Blackwell to decide the matter as quickly as possible. The facts were not in dispute; the disagreement was about interpretation of state law and the Kentucky constitution.

The old city hall was the scene of much controversy in 1948 as two new commissioners were seated. They rescinded civil service, and threw the mayor out of the chair seven times in the process, which led to all city employees suing the city commission. The city hall at Elm and First streets was built in 1903 for $21,601 and stood until it was demolished in 1971. Photo is from Illustrated Henderson, issued by the Henderson Commercial Club, in 1911.

John Dorsey and F.J. “Boss” Pentecost represented the city employees. Judge Blackwell heard from both and from the city attorney, according to The Gleaner of Feb. 18.

Clay maintained the civil service ordinances – and the state law that authorized them – violated the Kentucky constitution in that it was an illegal delegation of power. The General Assembly could not delegate powers that belonged only to it and the people of the commonwealth.

By the same token, he said, the city commission could not delegate its legislative power to hire and fire to any other body, such as a civil service commission. The same reasoning, Clay said, held true for the five key positions which the city attorney maintained were city officers. Those jobs were established by statute, he said, and no civil service commission had the power to control them.

Pentecost attacked the commissioners’ actions in agreeing to accept the citizen petition. That petition referred to the Dec. 15 ordinance, which revised the original May 27, 1946, ordinance. The state’s highest court had already ruled that the petition process could only be used on ordinances that changed or initiated a legislative policy, he said. “Those which merely put into execution previously declared policy did not fall within the meaning of the statute.”

The judge said he would hand down a decision within the week and Blackwell was true to his word. He ruled from the bench rather than issuing a written order, which was reported in The Gleaner of Feb. 21. It gave the city employees all they asked.

He said there was absolutely no question the city of Henderson’s action setting up civil service was in line with the Kentucky constitution. The federal government adopted civil service in 1883 after President James Garfield was assassinated by a disgruntled job seeker, and Blackwell noted since then it had found favor with many state and local governments.

“If able, efficient men want to make a career of public service, they will be more inclined to enter it if they are not subject to removal because of political changes,” Blackwell said.

Blackwell also set to rest the dispute over the status of the five key city officials set by state law. They were employees, he said, because they were directly supervised by one of the members of the city commission.

That ruling, of course, was appealed to the state’s highest court, which reinstituted the civil service system, according to The Gleaner of June 19, 1948. The mayor shouted “hurray!” on hearing the news. “I feel the taxpayers are getting … more and better service from all city employees” if they have no fear of losing their jobs, Posey said.

Before the court’s ruling, however, the city laid off 21 employees at a savings of about $47,000 a year, according to The Gleaner of Feb. 8, which was done because the city was failing to meet its expenses. The action, which was unanimous, was in the form of repealing the 1946 civil service ordinance.

100 YEARS AGO

The goats won the lawsuit.

In August 1922 Mary A. Cunningham filed suit against the estate of Thomas P. Mason, alleging about 30 goats he had brought to his farm north of the city had escaped in late 1921 and damaged 184 apple trees owned by her.

The Gleaner of Jan. 24, 1923, reported the case had gone to trial and testimony had taken up an entire day.

Cunningham had alleged the goats had caused $1,539 of damage, but testimony by orchard experts estimated the damage was more probably $2,000 to $3,000.

The Jan. 25 edition reported the trial had resumed a second day, during which the lawsuit filed by Cunningham was dismissed.

50 YEARS AGO

A large, two-story building in Spottsville was destroyed by fire, according to The Gleaner of Jan. 27, 1973, which said it had originally been built by Annie Stewart.

“Steamboat Annie” was called that because she owned the ferries at both Spottsville and Pike’s Landing. She had extensive business interests before her mysterious death in 1939; she had been one of the earliest locals to recognize the value of oil leases.

Fifty-four of her oil leases covering 4,225 acres were sold at the courthouse door at the end of 1939. They brought a total of $861 – and that was while Henderson County was undergoing its biggest ever oil boom.

25 YEARS AGO

The Gleaner of Jan. 28, 1998, reported the local Friends of Audubon was seeking to buy 281 acres near the Twin Bridges so it could be added to Audubon State Park.

The project did not come to fruition, however, until late 2011, when five local men bought 649 acres with the idea of holding it until the state of Kentucky could purchase it from them. That nearly doubled the size of the park.

Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com or on Twitter at @BoyettFrank.

This article originally appeared on Henderson Gleaner: Uncivilized disagreements marked 1948 civil service controversy