KENLY – The Kenly Town Council has hired an outside firm to conduct an independent investigation involving issues with new hired Kenly Town Manager Justine Jones and town employees.
On July 20, Police Chief Josh Gibson and his four full-time officers submitted their resignations simultaneously to Jones. At the same time, Town Clerk / Assistant Town Manager Sharon Evans and Utilities Clerk Christy Jones resigned.
The Town Council held an Emergency Meeting Friday night. The board met in closed session but did not make an announcement after emerging.
Today (Wednesday), the board announced they have hired a firm recommended by the NC League of Municipalities to conduct an independent investigation.
Town Attorney Alan “Chip” Hewett said, “Since the Kenly Town Council learned late last week of the mass resignations from the police department and administrative staff, Council held an emergency meeting to determine how to move forward and keep the Town operational. The prudent course of action is to find out what happened and not make any rash decisions. The Council has instructed the Town Attorney to oversee thorough investigations beginning next week to determine the facts and circumstances relating to the resignations and the allegations of hostile work environment. Citizens should know that the Council is committed to ensuring that services will continue without disruption and that their needs will be met during this time. Once the investigations are complete, Council will convene and act accordingly based on the findings and conclusions.”
As it now stands, the Town of Kenly will be without a police force after August 3, 2022. Sheriff Steve Bizzell says the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office will provide law enforcement protection to the citizens of Kenly.
The town council has asked the outside firm to complete their investigation as soon as possible.
Justine Jones was hired as the town manager June 2, 2022.
I’m sure the investigation will be as useful as when the SBI investigated the Kenly PD for multiple issues.
I bet since she is black they will now investigate it unlike when all the other stuff was goin on under the police a chief What it all boils down to is they don’t like taking orders from a minority person Typical Johnston county folks
Did anyone hear what came of the investigations of misconduct at JCC a while back? Me, either.
I’m certain we know what the real issue is. It’s going to interesting to see the conclusion.
Kenly is a sh**hole to start with
Way to stand up against her woke agenda Cheif Gibson. Boy I bet the meth heads are having a field day on Kenly right now.
“Stand up?!?!” You’re joking, right? He ran away like a child.
so i guess you are referring to everyone in kenly. what a shame, sounds like you are judging everyone in town because of a few bad apples.
Amen John!
So once again kenly town council is happily spending money they don’t have? You decided to get someone outside the town to hire a left-wing manager now your going to spend more money to investigate it? Who’s getting a kick back? You shouldn’t have hired her in the 1st place with her background and the fact she sued the last place she worked at.. time for the people of kenly to elect new politicians because obviously these can’t do their job
Totally agree with LGBrandon. It’s apparent someone did not vet her too well.
The same crowd that hired this diversity dumpster fire in the first place. Brilliant……🙄
Once again incompetence, ineptitude, and total fecklessness, result in the citizens paying the bill. Two questions are key. 1. Did the Town Council know of this background before they hired the candidate? 2. If they did, a)why did they hire the person? b) If they didn’t know, why didn’t they know? Second time a “national search” resulted in substandard results.
Alright, way to go and waste taxpayers money because Council didn’t do their job screening applications!!! We support the PD & staff. Maybe Council needs to resign. It’s a shame there is one person on Council who despises the town staff and is never at town functions to see the PD protecting and serving. 1. That person probably set the manager up and told her to micromanage them so they’d quit and that person would get what they wanted. 2. Way to lead the town there!!! Great leadership by our council. 3. I’d like to know from each Council member as to WHY they voted to hire this person with the history of past jobs? 4. What made her so qualified out of a “nation wide” search to be #1? 5. Was it 5-0 to hire her? 6. Council needs to answers the citizens soon. Either way there’s going to be a lawsuit!!!
Exactly. Apparently all are in in it. Time to take a closer look at the books and find out where the money is going to because it’s obviously not going to the right place. Who is the one person who despises the staff and is not doing their job? Time to put them on blast and vote them out
At the very least a law suit. I wonder how “Independent and “impartial” the agency they hired are?
The good ole boys don’t work for a woman especially one of color
JoCo report please add an option on your site that doesn’t show comments to your news posts. I’ll gladly pay an upgrade fee for it!