Commissioner Dowdell wants to know if out-of-pocket payments is unlawful On the day following the City of Quincy's final budget hearing, Mayor Pro Tem Keith Dowdell provided The Gadsden County News Corp. with screenshots of Cash App receipts from City Manager Jack McLean, by way of the city clerk. City Clerk Janice Shackelford-Clemons said Dowdell believed the payments were sent to employees, to compensate them for speaking against commissioner raises. She noted she did not want to get in the middle of the controversy, but was passing the information on as the commissioner had requested. When asked where he got the screenshots from, Dowdell said he didn’t know. When asked what the payments were for, Dowdell responded, “The city manager is the only person that can tell you that.” Dowdell also said he didn’t know who the payments were sent to. He said he wanted to know if it was legal for the city manager to give money to employees, and he had reached out to an attorney to find out. As a point of note, Dowdell has previously publicly called for the City Manager McLean to be terminated. McLean said the payments were sent to two cashiers who had to stay at work during inclement weather while all other city employees were allowed to leave. Each Cash App receipt was for $100. One was dated September 3 and the note said “Thanks for your dedication to the city.” The other was dated September 16 and the note said “Thanks for hard work.” “I’ve known Keith for 23 years, and I don’t understand why he wouldn’t just come to me first and ask me,” McLean said. He said he thought the receipts were retrieved from his personal email account. “The clerk is the only other person who had access to it [email account],” McLean said. “She used to work for me.” McLean provided his copies of the Cash App receipts, which included the names of the employees. The amounts, dates and notes matched. One of the employees confirmed McLean’s reason for sending the Cash App. She said McLean sent it to thank her for staying at work during one of the hurricanes for an additional two hours, while the other employees went home. The other could not be reached. The employee who could be reached said she didn’t know how Dowdell or Shackelford-Clemons found out about the money that was sent, but she said the clerk had asked her for a copy of the receipt. Neither of them was among the disgruntled employees who addressed the commission at the recent city council meeting. Shackelford-Clemons said she did not know about the Cash App receipts until the mayor pro-tem told her about it. “I do not have access to his [McLean] email account,” Shackelford-Clemons said. “That’s a bold face lie.” Shackelford-Clemons said one of the employees sent a screenshot of the receipt to someone else, and it somehow ended up in the hands of Dowdell. She said Dowdell called her on Monday, September 27 and asked her to request a copy of the Cash App receipts from the employee, which she said she did. She said that employee then informed her of another employee who also received a payment from McLean. Public Works Director Reggie Bell - who spoke during the final budget hearing on behalf of employees who wanted the commissioners to give raises to employees instead of themselves - was also asked if he received payment to ask for raises for employees, or to contest the commission salaries. “No, not at all,” Bell said firmly. McLean said the money that he sent to the employees came out of his own pocket, and he said this isn’t the first time he’s done that. He added that he’s also given employees additional holiday bonuses from his own money. “I’m not going to play piggy bank with the city’s money,” McLean said. “It’s easy to use the city’s money and take credit for it.” Erin Hill - Gadsden County News Service
