HARRODSBURG — City Commissioner Bubby Isham got what he was after Monday night when his fellow commissioners voted unanimously to fire cemetery sexton Jerri Carter.
The 4-0 vote following an executive session terminated Carter, who had been previously suspended twice this year, for the stated reasons of unsatisfactory work performance and lack of supervision, Mayor Eddie Long said this morning. Isham made the motion for Carter’s dismissal, Long said. Last month, Isham briefly resigned his commissioner’s post when his motion to fire Carter failed to get a second from any of the commissioners. He called the commission “incompetent,” but later rescinded his resignation and rejoined the group.
Carter could not be reached for comment. She had been suspended twice earlier in the year, including once for a month, for insubordination and dereliction of duties.
Isham blamed Carter for large-scale illegal dumping that was discovered in Spring Hill Cemetery that included hundreds of tires, fencing and a vehicle gas tank.
The refuse has since been removed from the cemetery, and investigations by the state Environmental Protection Agency and Harrodsburg police were unable to identify who was responsible for the dumping, Long said.
Carter’s termination was not related to the dumping but was caused by an ongoing pattern of job performance issues, the mayor said.
“It’s more like she was given some things to do and they didn’t get done,” Long said.
