Editorial: Mayor Conley breaks tie on city manager selection

On Aug. 28, the Belleville City Council had one item on its special meeting agenda: Select a city manager. And, after an hour of discussion, the selection was Jason Smith, current city manager of the city of Litchfield. Now the contract will be negotiated and Smith will take his position in about 60 days, if all goes well.
The voting came to Councilmembers Fielder and Bates voting yes on a motion to hire Smith and Voigt and Beebe voting no. The mayor broke the tie with a yes vote for Smith.
The no voters were not against Smith. They just wanted to have Steve Jones promoted to city manager. A large number of entries on social media wanted Jones selected, but reportedly, only a handful brought their idea to council members.
The council agreed to ask Smith to train Jones as city manager, so if Smith decides to take a better-paying job someday, Jones would have the skills to handle the job.
Jones currently is acting city manager. He was hired by the former city manager to be projects manager. Then the city manager took a much higher-paying job in the city of Monroe and the council asked Jones to fill in.
Smith was watching Monday’s meeting via zoom and he immediately agreed to train Jones. More details next week.