By a single vote, Pevely Police Capt. Tony Moutray gets to keep his job, although the Board of Aldermen suspended him for three days without pay.
Moutray has run the Police Department since the retirement of former Chief Ron Weeks in October 2017.
The aldermanic board voted 5-2 Monday night to fire Moutray, but a super majority, or six votes, was required to terminate his employment, Mayor Stephanie Haas said.
Board members who voted to ax Moutray were Marvin Jeffers of Ward 1, Ed Walters and Linda Hahn of Ward 2 and Wendy Arnold and Rick Arnold of Ward 4.
Those who voted against firing Moutray were Steve Markus of Ward 1 and Don Menkhus of Ward 3. The second Ward 3 seat has been vacant since the fall, when John Norton resigned from the board.
“Certainly, I’m glad to keep my employment here,” Moutray said after the vote. “The community support tonight pretty well defines why I come here to work every day.”
He said he would discuss with his attorney whether he would appeal the three-day suspension.
The vote to fire Moutray was taken in a closed meeting following a public termination hearing. That hearing focused on Moutray saying that the board would be “butt-hurt” after the board approved a new budget Dec. 27, 2017, that excluded the purchase of a used police car Moutray had requested.
After the board voted in the closed meeting, Haas announced the result in open session during the board’s regular meeting.
Haas also announced that a second vote was taken in closed session to suspend Moutray without pay for three days, and that one passed 5-2 with the board members voting the same way they did on the motion to terminate his employment. The suspension, however, didn’t require a super majority vote.
The suspension went into effect immediately, Haas said.
The termination hearing drew an overflow crowd, with about 170 or so people filling the City Hall board room and spilling into the hall. The majority of the crowd seemed to support Moutray based on the applause he received when the board made comments on his behalf and the catcalls that erupted when a board member criticized him.
When Haas announced that Moutray would keep his job, the room was filled with applause.
Several board members who sought Moutray’s ouster declined to comment at the end of the night, but Hahn, who voted to fire Moutray, said board members are restricted in what they can say about personnel matters.
“So much needs to come out that can’t come out,” she said.
Markus, on the other hand, said board members who voted to fire Moutray have a personal ax to grind.
“It’s all personal feelings,” he said.
The termination hearing, which began at 5 p.m. and ended almost an hour later, was conducted like a court trial, with Haas serving as judge, city attorney Sean Westhoff serving as prosecutor and Moutray’s attorney, Allison Sweeney, providing the defense. Haas on more than one occasion said she felt uncomfortable in her role as judge and stopped to ask Westhoff, as city attorney, for advice.
While several issues were brought up by both sides during the termination hearing, the focus kept returning to Moutray’s use of the term butt-hurt. Wendy Arnold, who made the formal complaint against Moutray, claiming the term constituted insubordination, and Hahn were the only two board members who said they heard him make the remark.
Wendy Arnold said that when Moutray said the board would be butt-hurt, she felt threatened.
When Sweeney, during cross-examination, asked Wendy Arnold what she thought the term butt-hurt meant, she said, “To me, it could be a form of rape.”
That answer drew many negative responses from the crowd, leading Haas to give one of several warnings to attendees to keep quiet.
During Hahn’s testimony, she said Moutray threw down his pen and in “kind of a disrespectful tone, said we would be butt-hurt.”
Sweeney asked Hahn if board members had their feelings hurt by the statement.
“I don’t think it’s feelings being hurt, rather than disrespectful,” she said.
Sweeney questioned Rick Arnold about his alleged use of “the N-word” in texts he sent to Moutray.
Rick Arnold refused to respond to the accusation at the hearing, although the next day he said what he had texted Moutray was taken out of context.
Arnold said he used the term “N-word pie,” which he said is urban slang for “something good” and that he and Moutray had both used it.
Moutray, on Tuesday, said he did not know the meaning of the term “N-word pie,” but would not comment if he had used the N-word in any way while conversing with Arnold.
At the end of the public hearing, Haas said she believed the termination vote should be held in open session since the hearing had been open, but added that “it’s the board’s decision.” By the same 5-2 split, the board voted to go into closed session to vote on Moutray’s employment.
The attendees were ushered outside of the room while the board was in closed session for about an hour. After that, Haas reconvened open session for the regular meeting.
During the citizens’ comments portion of the regular meeting, several people took the opportunity to talk about the termination hearing.
Norton, who resigned from the board in September, said the actions of the majority of the board underscored why he left it in the fall. He added he was glad such a large crowd was in attendance to witness the behavior.
“At least they can see what’s going on, and it’s pathetic,” he said.
While most of the speakers were pro-Moutray, a few were not. One, who identified himself as business owner John Pashia, questioned the way Moutray has been running the Pevely Police Department and encouraged the board to hire a new police chief.
Another speaker, former Alderman Dave Bewig who was impeached in 2014, said city leaders in general waste city money on personal grievances like the one against Moutray.
“It’s a little disgusting the board chooses to abuse taxpayer dollars on vendettas,” he said.
During board member and mayor comments at the end of the regular meeting, Jeffers summed up statements from some other board members and the mayor when he told the attendees,” I’m ashamed you had to come for this reason.”