Martinsville City Manager Aretha Ferrell-Benavides’ status has switched from fired to suspended, following the city council’s decision to adhere to termination instructions in the city charter.
The decision comes almost a week after councilors voted to fire Ferrell-Benavides with cause following an Aug. 7 closed session. During their Tuesday regular session, councilors decided to amend their previous decision by conforming to language in the city charter.
Tuesday’s decision temporarily undoes the Aug. 7 termination.
“The city attorney is authorized and directed to provide Aretha Ferrell-Benavides written notice of specific reasons for her removal,” reads part of a resolution councilors passed in a 3-2 vote, with Rayshaun Gravely and Mayor L.C. Jones dissenting. “Her removal shall be final and effective 60 days from the date of such written notice.”
The city will continue to pay Ferrell-Benavides during that 60-day period, while she is considered suspended and relieved of all duties and authority.
“This essentially ensures compliance with a very old charter provision, which requires 60 days,” said Councilor Aaron Rawls following Tuesday’s meeting. “I think this was before the days for contracts with city managers.”
Following the 60-day period, the Aug. 7 termination with cause will once again take effect.
Jones, the mayor, had also voted against the Aug. 7 termination, which passed 4-1, saying he would have preferred for the completion of a financial audit. Two weeks before the vote, council members had initiated an audit into city expenditures and placed Ferrell-Benavides on paid administrative leave.
He reiterated that sentiment on Tuesday.
“We rushed last week when she was on leave. We could have waited, deliberated another week or so on this,” Jones said. “Because we didn’t wait, we’re now covering our tracks and trying to fix the issue that we did last week.”
Ferrell-Benavides called attention to the city charter in the days following her firing. The language relating to the termination of a city manager is in Chapter 5 of the charter.
“The city council shall appoint the city manager for an indefinite term and may remove him at any time by a majority vote of all its members,” it says. “At least sixty (60) days before such removal shall become effective the council shall advise the manager in writing of the reason for his removal. The council may suspend the manager from duty (with pay) during the sixty (60) day period.”
In a public message sent on Saturday, Ferrell-Benavides, who filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against the city in July and has said she was fired in retaliation, said her firing did not adhere to the charter’s language.
“At no time have I been provided with the alleged reasons for the removal, beyond the vague statements issued to the media,” she said. “No specifics of what is alleged to have occurred to support these vague statements have been provided to me, or anyone else to my knowledge. In addition, my termination without the 60-day notice period violates the foregoing law.”
While council members didn’t say whether their Aug. 7 decision to terminate Ferrell-Benavides was based on language in her employment contract, that document stipulates that “City council may terminate the manager’s employment without cause by a majority vote at any time, with or without notice.”
Resolving conflicting language between two guiding documents is something local governments try to avoid, according to Paul Mahoney, who served as county attorney in Roanoke County until his retirement in 2015 and is now a member of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors. He said that while charters are backed by the authority of the state legislature, explaining discrepancies to a judge can be embarrassing.
“In my opinion, I would look at a hierarchy, in that the charter is granted to the city by the Virginia General Assembly,” Mahoney said. An argument could be made for either a city code or contract since both are essentially decided on by the council, he said.
Tuesday’s vote is the most recent in a timeline of events related to Ferrell-Benavides. On July 22, Martinsville’s council formally approved a pay increase for her after weeks of negotiating. The next day, the board voted to place her on paid administrative leave.
On Aug. 7, the board decided to terminate her employment, followed by Tuesday’s decision to adhere to the city’s charter.
