Reprimanded in May for ‘lecturing’ council on zoning issue

Clyde Stricklin has resigned from his position as director of developmental services for Peachtree City.

The resignation was tendered Nov. 11 and effective that same date, said city Public Information Officer Betsy Tyler. She would not comment on why Stricklin resigned from the position, which pays $64,260 to $102,730 a year.

In declining further comment, Tyler cited “ongoing personnel issues,” adding that the matter “is not finalized yet.”

Stricklin himself wouldn’t comment either when contacted last week at his Peachtree City home.

Mayor Steve Brown said there had been some complaints from citizens groups such as homeowners associations about problems with “responsiveness” but he didn’t want to get into any details. The decision was up to City Manager Bernie McMullen, Brown said.

“Let’s just say things didn’t match up as well as we thought they would,” Brown said, adding that he wanted to be cautious with his comments because it is a personnel issue.

Stricklin was issued a written warning from McMullen in May for a variety of concerns, including the fact that Stricklin offered an alternative position paper on the rezoning request for Christ Our Shepherd Lutheran Church, which sought a change from office institutional zoning to a limited use commercial rezoning.

The warning also expressed concern with Stricklin’s decision to argue for a limited use commercial zoning for another development even though two council members were in favor of rezoning the parcel to office institutional instead.

“... During the discussion on the rezoning you chose to begin lecturing the council on why the LUC zoning was the better choice, even though you knew two of the council members were in favor of the OI zoning. Again, I find this judgment less than satisfactory,” McMullen wrote.

A copy of Stricklin’s personnel evaluation in August, authored by McMullen, lauded Stricklin’s improvement of the department’s operation and he was given a “fully satisfactory” rating for the entire review.

But that same evaluation also rated Stricklin as “marginally satisfactory” on two criteria categorized as judgment and decision-making.

The evaluation also cited that Stricklin “needs to improve his judgment when responding to questions and inquiries from Council, being more attuned to the political reality of his responses.”

While Stricklin was praised in the evaluation for several customer service improvements in the department, he was also chided for lacking detail on budget submissions and a need to communicate better with staff “to ensure everyone is in agreement on recommendations being presented to the Planning Commission and the City Council.”

Stricklin’s salary as of Oct. 1 was $84,314.98, Tyler said.