Near the conclusion of the Nov. 2 city council meeting, the council voted 4-1 to place an item on the next meeting’s agenda to terminate Belcher’s employment with the city. David Quinn was the lone dissenting vote.

The action came after a previous workshop meeting during which the council was scheduled to discuss goals Belcher was to work towards in order to gain a contract extension.

Her current contract with the city expires in September 2010.

However, members of the council were reluctant to set such goals, citing “trust issues” with Belcher and her performance. The council adjourned from the workshop less than an hour after meeting after councilman Warren Driver stated that no progress was being made.

Belcher’s contract with the city has been at issue for the past several months. During a September meeting, the council voted not to extend her contract. Council members later adopted a list of goals that Belcher was to work towards to possibly earn an extension.

But it appears as though she won’t get the chance.

“How are we going to overcome what was so vividly apparent in our last meeting on the trust issue?” councilman Derek Townsend said. “So how do you overcome, or do we want to overcome, the trust issue?”

During an Oct. 21 meeting during which the council was scheduled to go into a closed-door session to discuss Belcher’s job performance, the embattled city manager opted instead to hold the discussion in public.

Council members Bill Webb, Mark Stoll and Townsend each questioned Belcher on several issues in which they questioned her job practices.

Driver, however, has not spoken in detail during public discussions about Belcher’s job performance.

Mayor Gretchen Fagan has attempted to get council approval for a list of goals for Belcher to work towards, but Stoll, Townsend, Webb and Driver have been reluctant to move forward with such a plan.

“My personal opinion is nobody can do anything to magically earn your trust,” Fagan told the council. “Time is what earns trust. My personal opinion is, and the opinion I’ve gotten from citizens is, we need to stop this. What we’re doing is very bad for the City of Tomball.”

“If you want to move forward and get these things accomplished, you need to bury the hatchet,” Fagan added. “We’ve got to figure out a way to get past it. Set goals and set objectives that are measurable. Or we can just take our ball and go home and not do anything. Which is, unfortunately, the image we’ve been giving over the last several meetings.”

For the past two years, the City of Tomball has been working with urban planners to develop a comprehensive plan to address the city’s future growth. That plan was recently completed and is scheduled to be presented to the council in December.

A portion of the goals Fagan was encouraging the council to adopt, the same list the council initially approved in a previous meeting, included Belcher’s role in carrying out the plan.

“I feel we can move forward with the comprehensive plan no matter who is sitting in the City Manager’s position,” Stoll said. “I don’t think the comprehensive plan is dependent upon who is sitting in that position today. Once again, I still have the trust issue.”

Belcher did not speak specifically about her job performance review at either the Nov. 2 workshop or regular council meeting.

She was hired by the city in 2006 to replace Ben Griffin. Her current contract pays her $130,000, as well as health insurance. Should the council choose to terminate her employment, the city would still owe her the money through the term of the contract, approximately $120,000, as well as her health insurance coverage.

The city would also need to pay the salary of whomever they hire, should they choose to hire a new city manager, to replace Belcher. The city recently hired Christal Kliewer to replace the retired Mary Coker to fill the assistant city manager’s position, and it’s possible she would fill the role on an interim basis.

Fagan said that after Griffin’s departure, the city hired a firm to conduct a search to find a suitable replacement at a cost of $20,000. She was unaware if the city would hire another firm should they decide to fire Belcher.

The city and the council have received dozens of e-mails, letters and public comments in support of Belcher. One of those supporters, Lori Wallace, is a member of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.

At the conclusion of the Nov. 9 meeting, Townsend asked to put on the next meeting’s agenda a measure to remove Wallace from the Commission after he claimed Wallace made disparaging suggestions to the media regarding the council.

“The reasoning behind it is because she has been in the paper encouraging legal action being taken against the city for defamation of character and other things,” Townsend said. “It’s disconcerting to me that we have anyone in our governmental body talking bad about anyone.”

Wallace, in an e-mail to the Tribune, denied making such a statement.

“In no way did I encourage Ms. Belcher to file a lawsuit, nor was that ever my intention,” Wallace wrote.

The Tomball city council is scheduled to meet next on Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. at City Hall, located at 401 Market St.

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