MILLINGTON, Tenn. — The Millington Mayor was missing in action.
All week long, WREG had to chase him.
Thursday night, a special meeting was held so the Board of Aldermen could choose a new police chief.
The city’s website even said Jones would be there and be a part of the discussion, but once again he was nowhere to be found.
“If he’s the mayor he’s supposed to be there,” Millington resident Manford Benton said. “You can’t lead from behind!”
“Something’s not right,” Benton continued. “You can tell, because of what happened at the police department. There’s a lot going on, but whatever’s being done in the dark will come into the light.”
It took less than 20 minutes for Art Heun, who was retired from law enforcement and has no previous connection to the Millington Police Department, to be named chief.
Alderman Chris Ford was the only one who voted against Heun being chosen.
“I thought we were acting a little bit too quickly,” he told WREG.
Ford told WREG Mayor Jones called at the last minute and said he was going to his son’s school event in Arlington instead of coming to the meeting.
“That’s more important than having a chief?” Benton asked.
Jones told WREG he was too busy to do an interview Friday, but did send a statement saying he had a long-standing prior engagement that he could not get out of and that the mayor is not included in the voting process anyways.
Many Millington residents beleived he still should have been there and said his response is making them question whether Jones, who is a part time mayor, is only part time invested in them.
“It’s like a bug,” Benton said. “When a bug gets into something it destroys the whole of everything. That’s what happened.”