Alexandria’s newly-elected mayor has resigned his seat just three days after being sworn in to the office.
Mayor Jim York announced his resignation at a city council workshop Friday, telling the aldermen present that he felt that they had conspired to prevent him from fully accomplishing his duties as mayor.
Some aldermen, however, claim that York was attempting to overstep the bounds of his office.
York was elected mayor on Sept. 5, after running unopposed for the seat. He received fifteen votes to take the office, previously held by Ria Baker, who held the position for seven years.
York accepted the oath of office at regular monthly meeting of the city council on Sept. 24. Alexandria aldermen voted at the same meeting to grant secondary check-signing authority to aldermen Bennett Armstrong and Tony Tarpley.
City Recorder/Clerk Ashley Roth is the primary signer. Roth, however tendered her resignation from the office, effective Oct. 15, at the Sept. 24 meeting.
The Review spoke to York at his home after the Friday workshop, and he said that after consulting with the Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS), he was informed that it would be within his rights as mayor to relieve the recorder of her right to sign checks in light of her resignation, which he apparently did on Sept. 25.
“MTAS told me that once my recorder put in her resignation, I had every right, and could have let her go immediately but I did not,” York said. “I did say that the recorder does appear on the check signing card and the mayor  does not. MTAS said they did not feel comfortable, and it was not a good business practice for that to continue. If she was leaving her job, she should not appear on checks, and that was why I asked her not to (sign checks).
Tarpley told the Review  after the workshop that he was present at city hall when the incident occurred, and that York did not act professionally.
"I came into the office to see if there was anything I needed to help them with since I had a little spare time,” Tarpley said. “I was talking with Ashley (Roth) when Jim (York) came in, and in a very unprofessional manner, I guess you would say he chewed her rear-end out. I don't know how else to put it. He said she was out of line in the meeting about  check signing and telling him every time he needed to have a motion. She was just trying to help him on the motions because he’s new at this. I would be the same way. I'd be lost. She was trying to help him there, but he got on her pretty heavy. I have been a supervisor in several different positions for several different companies and I never gotten onto one of my employees like that. Then when she asked him to tell her what she had done wrong, he got mad and stormed out of the building,” Tarpley said.
According to the aldermen, the Friday workshop was called to clear the air concerning what the mayor’s duties were under the city charter.
York made it clear that he felt that the council had conspired to make him a “figurehead,” and deny him the right to exercise the full responsibilities of his office.
He told the aldermen that MTAS representatives had informed him that he should have been sworn in as mayor the day after the election, as the city charter provides, rather than wait until the regular monthly meeting almost three weeks later.
The aldermen told York that the delay had no sinister purpose, but that it had been  the city's practice in the past to swear in newly elected officials at the first regular meeting after an election.
York was also told that city policy did not automatically give the mayor check-signing authority, and that former mayors were not always authorized to sign.
Some aldermen raised questions about the new mayors character, and as the argument became personal on both sides, York abruptly stood up and dropped a ring of keys, most likely to city property, on the table, telling the aldermen, “ I just can’t be a part of it anymore. You people really disappoint me, and if I’ve disappointed you I’m sorry, but this is it. I’m done.” At that point York left the building.
At his home after the meeting York said that his resignation will be forthcoming, and that if he is not going to be allowed to have any power to do the mayor’s job, he does not wish to remain in the office.
“I will be leaving office soon,” he said. Sept. 5 was the election, and my charter reads that I should have been sworn in and given the duties of Mayor on Sept. 6. I was not. Basically my hands were tied at that moment. It was Sept. 24 at the first city council meeting that I was sworn in.
“I am not going to have full control of city hall as per the city council, and I am not going to continue in the office If I do not have full reign and full power,” York shared.
 Alderman Addie Farley said after the workshop that the  Friday workshop was called to explain to York that under the city charter, the aldermen have right to chose who signs checks.
“We agreed to hold a communication workshop to explain the policies and procedures as it relates to the check signing,” Farley said. “During the conversation on Wednesday, he (York) told her (Roth) she was no longer able to act in her full recording duties and was no longer first signer on the checks. We spoke with the city attorney to verify that so long as she was in good standing with the city that she could remain with her full responsibilities. But because Jim (York) is her boss, she couldn't sign checks until there was an action to inform him that she could continue on signing checks until her resignation date. This workshop was to inform Jim of that and to explain why he could not be the check signer. It was because we had voted for someone else to be the check signers. He thought it was a power granted to him. This workshop was to clear up that disconnect,” Farley said.
Farley said former Mayor Ria Baker had the authority to sign check at the end of her term, but that it due to extenuating circumstances.
“Mayor Ria was check signer for the very last few months because one of the check signers left,” Farley shared. “The mayor does have power granted to him or her if one of the existing check signers leaves. In the interim, the mayor becomes an automatic signer until the next meeting and then the board can either approve that position to remain or assign someone else. We allowed her to stay on until the end, and that's why we were having to redo it now with the new board members and mayor coming on,” she said.
York said that he felt the ability to sign checks is a very important part of the job, and that it was a major factor in his resignation.
“That was pretty large, because one of the primary concerns of a mayor is how the money is disbursed,” he said. With highway paving projects and the water expansion project coming up, a lot of money is going to go through our accounts. I would have liked to have had a first hand look as those checks were signed and also have had my signature reflected on it. If not, I don't need to be in that office.
“I don't feel I have their respect or support,” he continued. “It's not worth it. I'm a business owner. I need to focus on my business, and not be in the middle of things that are so dramatic at this point,” York concluded.