Former Mountain Pine mayor explains resignation
MOUNTAIN PINE — The resignation Morgan Wiles tendered Tuesday made him Mountain Pine’s third elected mayor since July 2016 to leave office before the end of their term.
The turnover at City Hall mirrors the instability that’s beset the former mill town of about 800 people since Weyerhaeuser closed its veneer and plywood plant there in 2006. Wiles helped fill the economic void left by the timber company’s departure, relocating his window manufacturing and retail company in 2018 to the 389-acre Weyerhaeuser site where two generations of his family worked.
He served as interim mayor for a few months in the fall of 2017 before winning a four-way mayoral race in the November 2018 general election. He departed Tuesday with more than 20 months left on his term. City Attorney Terry Diggs said Wednesday that Recorder/Treasurer Malinda Henson will serve as acting mayor until the city council decides how to fill the vacancy at its regular meeting next month.
The letter of resignation Wiles submitted cited tension with the city council that was seated in January. The letter noted a misplaced focus on small-bore issues and an unwillingness to address the structural challenges facing the city.
“Unfortunately, I cannot see myself and the new council moving in the same direction with the same goals, timing or ideas where the city should be going and do not have time or patience to participate in unmotivated, same ole ways ideology where the most important issues should be addressed, not potholes and dogs,” the letter said. “Time is the most valuable thing we possess, and unfortunately I do not like to waste mine dealing with nonessential issues.
“The city has massive infrastructure needs like water, sewer, policing issues that need to be discussed and resolved, not minuscule things to make you feel like you’re doing your job as city servants.
I pray you realize the city has catastrophic needs, and you spend your time on those issues. ”you realize the city has catastrophic needs, and you spend your time on those issues.”
Running the city took time away from his business and three school-aged children, Wiles, 36, said Tuesday. The city needs a chief executive who can spend more time working with the council, he said. The previous council adopted a resolution in January 2020 establishing a minimum work month of 20 hours for the mayor. The position pays
$200 a month, which Wiles donated to the police department the city reconstituted in the spring of 2019.
“Last night stuff from the past got brought up,” Wiles, referring to the council’s regular meeting on the third Monday of the month, said. “I didn’t see the appreciation for some of the policing, for some of the donations that have happened. To be honest, I lost my temper. I’m being torn in three different directions. I missed my son’s soccer game to be there.
“… I want to spend more time with my family and more time on my business than arguing at every meeting.”
Many of those disagreements were over lines of authority. Wiles said the council asserted itself on executive matters such as personnel and the management of the reconstituted police force rather than focusing on its policy-making prerogative.
“When council starts telling police how to do their jobs and when to do their jobs, it gets frustrating,” he said. “I’m one man fighting a council of eight, and six of them are family. It’s very tough to do. I’m not one to move backwards. I’m hoping someone will step up and move it forward.”
Wiles said he’s worried the Mountain Pine School District won’t renew its school resource officer contract with the city. The contract helps fund the fledgling police department. To reward the school for taking what Wiles called a “leap of faith,” the city reduced the school district’s water rate by 50%. The school contracted with the Garland County Sheriff’s Department prior to the
2019-20 school year.
“That would be devastating,” Wiles, referring to the possibility of the contract not being renewed, said. Wiles said reconstituting what was a one-man police force with a new agency headed by Chief Miguel Hernandez and staffed by about 10 officers was one of the city’s most significant accomplishments during his tenure. The previous police department disbanded in 2017 after former Chief Chad King was unable to return to work following the gunshot wound he suffered responding to a call outside the city’s corporate limits in 2016.
“I wanted to make Mountain Pine a safer, cleaner place,” he said. “There’s a lot of positive news that’s happened in the last two years. Chief Hernandez has really done an amazing job with the community through clean-up efforts and food drives.”
Wiles said he’s hopeful the city’s new chief executive will have a better relationship with the council. “There’s several great people in that community who could step up tomorrow and do an amazing job,” he said. “They’re very intelligent and care about the community as much as I do. They have a forward-thinking process and may be able to blend better with the current council.”