Mississippi court denies former police chief’s due process appeal

Recently, the Mississippi Court of Appeals addressed a former police chief’s appeal of the City of Greenville’s decision to accept and enforce his resignation. It upheld the city’s decision and addressed the statutory requirements employees must satisfy to appeal municipal decisions. Let’s take a closer look.

Facts

On August 4, 2015, Delando Wilson was appointed police chief of Greenville, Mississippi. He was reappointed each year thereafter. His last appointment in February 2020, however, was for a two-year term.

On the first and third Tuesday of each month, regular board meetings were held for general city business. During a January 5, 2021, city council meeting, Wilson informed the mayor and the Greenville City Council that he was “considering resigning.” The council interpreted Wilson’s statement as an oral resignation, and it voted unanimously to accept it and begin the transition to a different police chief.

On January 19, 2021, Wilson attended the city council meeting and informed it that he wasn’t resigning. The council treated this statement as a request to reconsider the January 5 vote to accept his resignation, but it denied the request and set the last day of his employment as January 31, 2021.

Wilson filed a lawsuit in the Washington County Circuit Court seeking to keep the council from enforcing the resignation. The court dismissed the suit saying it didn’t have jurisdiction to hear the case because Wilson hadn’t appealed the council’s decision within 10 days, as required by state statute.