The “vacancy” sign is out again at the De Soto Police Department.
The city fired its interim police chief, Sgt. Michael McMunn, on Wednesday afternoon (Feb. 7), effective immediately. McMunn had assumed the chief’s role early last November after former chief Rick Draper resigned.
Neither Mayor Larry Sanders nor city attorney Mark Bishop could provide details about the firing, other than Bishop noting that McMunn would not receive any severance.
“It’s a personnel decision, just like any others, and so it’s a confidential matter,” Bishop said. “It’s wasn’t a super-quick decision, but once that decision was made, it was effective immediately.”
“This is just a situation that came up and it’s been dealt with,” Sanders said, adding that it was part of the ‘domino effect’ from Draper’s resignation, which came on the same day (Oct. 23) as the firing of former City Manager David Dews.
McMunn had been named interim police chief on Nov. 3, with city clerk Ann Baker tapped as interim city manager the same day. McMunn’s hourly pay was $21.58, or $44,886.40 a year based on 40-hour weeks.
“We thought we had the situation a little bit under control so that we could do some extensive interviewing (for the new chief),” Sanders said. “The interim was short-lived. It’s disappointing.”
Sanders and Bishop both said the city will start interviewing candidates next week. Bishop said the city won’t appoint another interim chief in the meantime.
“We’re not actually promoting anybody to interim chief because we’re hoping this transition will be very fast,” he said. “So we’re just keeping the supervisors in their current positions and they’re just going to be the acting supervisor on duty at that time.
“The chief doesn’t work 24 hours a day. It’s not an ideal situation but it’s all we can really do under the circumstances, until we get a permanent chief in.”
The city won’t start looking for a new city manager until after the new police chief has been hired, city officials have said.