FAIRHOPE, Alabama—A month after the City Council placed a moratorium on hiring of new and replacement positions, that same council undertook a reorganization of the parks and recreation and public works departments, which split off divisions from within those departments into new ones, resulting in the hire last month of the heads of those two “new” departments.

The employment moratorium was adopted as a resolution on Sept. 12 in order to “allow for fair and appropriate City hiring practices” resulting from the completion of a compensation and job classification study under way by Evergreen Solutions Inc., which “will provide a thorough job description of all existing positions and recommended pay scales for these positions.”

The resolution also created an exception to the moratorium, stating that all new and replacement positions could be filled by approval of the council.

By means of that exception, two new department head positions were created during the reorganization, according to Mayor Tim Kant, and the hire last month of the heads of those departments.

That reorganization came as a surprise to Public Works Director Jennifer Fidler, who said she had not been consulted about any proposed changes at her department.

“It was news to me,” Fidler said. “I only heard about it after it appeared on the council agenda the Thursday before the Monday council meeting. I was never contacted about it or asked for input.”

Although Mayor Tim Kant and Council President Lonnie Mixon stated that the reorganization created two new departments—an “inside” recreation department, and a facility/vehicle maintenance department—the job announcements for the positions tell a different story.

Both of those “new” positions—“recreation center supervisor” and “facility/vehicle maintenance supervisor”—state that they are located within the parks and recreation and public works departments, not in two “new” departments.

What clearly distinguishes the positions from other jobs within the departments, however, is whom they report to.

In the rec center position, that person reports, not to the recreation center director, but to James Gillespie, the general superintendent at City Hall, the third-highest ranking position in the city.

Similarly, the new public works department position also reports, not to Fidler, but to Gillespie, according to records and Kant.

In both cases, only one person applied for each of the “new” department head jobs: Eddie Boyett at the rec center, and Ken Eslava at the public works department.

Boyett retired two years ago as head of the rec department, and returned to work in the new position on Nov. 21, according to staff.

Eslava had been the assistant public works director at the public works department and was hired for the new position on Nov. 28.

Eslava’s new position has been described variously as project manager, or as facility/vehicle maintenance supervisor, with a pay range of $65,000 to $75,000 for the latter, according to records.

Although described by the mayor as a “new” position within a “new” department, Boyett’s job is described as a “replacement” position in the job announcement, not a new one. The current position title already existed. That job was held by Elizabeth Chandler, who resigned without explanation in September.

The difference in the position descriptions for the rec center job is that the pay rate increased by $15,000 annually from Chandler’s $40,000 a year to the existing salary of $55,000 for Boyett. The new job description did add additional duties to the position not included for the position Chandler had.

One major difference between the position descriptions is that Chandler reported to Tom Kuhl, who replaced Boyett two years ago as parks and recreation director, and Boyett reports to Gillespie.

Boyett moved into his old office last month, with Kuhl moving next door into Chandler’s old office.

Kuhl could not be reached for comment.

“Basically, we created two departments: an inside recreation and an outside recreation,” Kant said, explaining that the former involves the rec center, pool, tennis courts and Rotary Youth Club, and the latter the many ball fields in the city. “And they both report to James Gillespie. It wasn’t against anything Tom’s done or not done. I thought it would be better management to have someone focus their management in the two different areas.”