The Meeker Board of Trustees fired Dickie Walton as town administrator last week.
After spending more than two hours in executive session Wednesday night and returning to the opening meeting, Mayor Jeff Wilbourn made the motion to terminate Walton.
At first, none of the other Trustees seconded the motion. Then, Trustee and former Mayor Aaron Head seconded the motion. Joining Wilbourn and Head in voting to terminate Walton were Vice Mayor Donna Weber and Trustee Billy Walker.
Shortly after the meeting was adjourned, Wilbourn was asked about the reasons for terminating Walton.
“I refuse to tell you that,” he said.
Walton, a few minutes after the vote, told a reporter, “There are no grounds, they just did it.”
The Trustees’ action came during a special meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 25.
Walton was hired in 2017 by the Town Board of Trustees. He also had received a three percent pay increase along with all other Town employees just a couple of months ago.
He said during an interview the next day the mayor and Head came into his office a few minutes after adjournment stating, “I was no longer welcome in that office, they asked for me my keys and told me I’d be allowed to come back and get my personal stuff but would have somebody with me.”
Talking about the next morning, he related, “I slept in late, my stomach stopped hurting and I feel a whole lot better today.”
Walton said he was never given a reason for his termination.
He said he does have 30 days to appeal the termination. “I need to put it in writing and give it to City Hall or mail it, either one.”
From there, he indicated, he’s not sure what he will do.
Walton only spent about 10 minutes in the executive session with the Trustees. He said no one raised their voice and indicated it was congenial.
He said one of the questions he was asked in executive session had to do with his asking two female employees if they would donate their time and sell 50-50 tickets at the Pumpkin Festival. “This was for the Growth and Development Committee. They did that and sold the tickets,” he acknowledged.
“We paid another employee to do that and they found out about it and wanted to be paid or take comp time,” he noted.
Walton said he told Town Clerk Mary Conner to just pay the women also. “But she never did that and didn’t tell me she hadn’t paid them. But I thought she did and it was said and done.
“I never found out until the executive session they hadn’t been paid. I was blind-sided that night.”
He said another situation he was asked about dealt with a Public Works employee who he reportedly fired and was related to the mayor. “I fired him several weeks ago but not until I contacted OMAG. Their recommendation was I fire him so I did,” Walton emphasized.
Another matter Trustees inquired about was an Oklahoma Municipal League conference that his wife Connie was also going to attend with him and the Town had sent in money for her to accompany him. He said he told them, “Connie was not going to attend it since there had been a question raised about it and the town could get refunded.”
Walton claimed prior to that meeting and again during the interview the following day that Wilbourn wants to be Town Administrator.
He said he still has never been provided a reason he was fired.