After nearly two hours of public debate, sharp accusations and at least one moment of raw personal reflection, the Mason Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted Monday night to rewrite the town’s charter and immediately install a retired law enforcement officer as interim town administrator.

The 5-2 vote on the charter amendment — which shifts day-to-day executive authority from the mayor to a board-appointed administrator — was the culmination of years of internal conflict inside a small town still working to rebuild its reputation with state oversight agencies. It was met with cheers from constituents and employees in the crowd.

A second vote, also 5-2, appointed Terry Leggett of Fayette County to fill the new position on an interim basis.

The votes were not easy.

Before the board called for the first roll call, residents filled the meeting room with a mix of frustration and cautious hope. Several speakers called Noeman out by name. Others questioned whether the board had been transparent about who Leggett was and how his name wound up on the agenda. And at least one alderman admitted she only came around to supporting the appointment after hearing Leggett speak for himself.

“I didn’t know you from Adam,” said Alderwoman Virginia Rivers. “And I’m the kind of person, I believe that you should have been brought to us so we would know what we were doing, who we were voting for.”

‘A historic night’

The mayor opened the meeting by calling it a significant moment for Mason.

“Today is very important and it is very historic moment for the town of Mason,” Noeman said, “and I request that everybody do the right thing.”

But the civility didn’t last long.

Before the board could take up the resolutions, residents lined up to speak. The two-minute public comment period stretched well beyond its limits as speaker after speaker weighed in — some in favor of the change, some skeptical, and some using the moment to air grievances that had clearly been building for months.

One woman, who said she has lived in Mason her entire life, pointed directly at the mayor.

“You think you own Mason,” she said. “You don’t want nothing to come into Mason. All you want is the money to go in your pocket and nobody else’s.”

She also called out the ongoing dispute over the town’s police chief, who has been without pay since November after Noeman terminated him — a termination the board refused to recognize. “I cannot believe you have not paid him since November, Eddie,” she said. “That does not make any sense.”

What the amendment does

James Lewellen, a municipal management consultant with the University of Tennessee’s Municipal Technical Advisory Service who has also been Collierville’s town administrator for more than 15 years, addressed the board and audience to explain what the charter change actually does — and doesn’t do.

“To understand the charter change, I need to back up a little bit and talk about the importance of charters,” Lewellen said. He explained Dillon’s Rule — a legal principle dating to 1868 — as the foundation of why charters matter: cities can only do what their charters authorize.

The amendment, he said, fixes a 2018 rewrite of Paragraph 12 that had given the mayor civil authority to effectively bypass budget decisions made by the board. It also creates the town administrator position.

“You’re not giving any authority away from the board,” Lewellen said. “You’re hiring a town administrator to help you govern and operate and run the town in the same way that you hire a police chief to run the police department.”

He emphasized that the board retains full hiring, firing and policy authority over the administrator.

“The town administrator doesn’t make the rules,” Lewellen said. “He follows the rules and ensures compliance.”

Noeman pushed back, arguing the change effectively hands Mason’s government to an outsider.

“You hand the town to city administrator, you know, not living here in the town and never involved in the daily operation here in the town,” he said. “We, the city council and the mayor, got hired from the citizen. So what that mean is we have connection to this.”

A vote on more than a charter

The loudest voice of the night may have belonged to the vice mayor.

Reynaldo Givhan delivered a lengthy, unscripted address before the vote, taking aim at what he called a “circus” atmosphere that had consumed the board.

“When I sat down, it felt like I couldn’t tell if we had the charter on trial or the mayor on trial,” he said. “This thing has got very, very personal. It’s not personal, it’s business.”

He also admitted he had initially opposed the change — taking it personally as an implicit knock on the mayor’s leadership — before changing his mind.

“I was wrong for that,” he said. “But we’re here to serve the people of Mason, the town, not ourselves, not what we feel personally, but what is right.”

Alderman Alethea Harris added her own argument for why the town’s finances needed closer professional management. She walked through numbers from last year’s audit, including a $2.8 million figure tied to CoreCivic that she said gave a misleading picture of the town’s actual cash position.

“The totals of our actual revenue that we have, or cash on hand that we can actually spend, as you can see, is not even close to the $4 million and some dollars,” Harris said. “And that’s why I have been advocating for a town administrator, because I believe that they’re knowledgeable in finance in ways that we aren’t.”

As she talked to the audience, Noemann was seen smiling and laughing. But that would not continue past the votes.

Harris also described the atmosphere at Mason City Hall as having become unworkable.

“I come up here sometimes to city hall,” Harris said. “I don’t want to go inside. The environment is so hostile in there.”

The mayor, addressing the same issue, said he had tried to address a range of personnel and financial concerns since taking office.

“From ’23, when I take over, there was no business at all,” Noeman said, pointing to improvements in audit findings and the town’s cash position. “Right now we have revenue.”

Leggett addresses the board

After the charter amendment passed 5-2, the board moved to appoint an interim town administrator. Leggett, who had been seated in the room, came forward.

“I trust that the board has reviewed my resume,” he said. “I have grown up in government.”

Leggett described a career that included 26 years with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, earning the rank of chief before retiring, then spending 44 years in total with the department. He also served as a Fayette County commissioner for 16 years and previously managed the city of Gallaway, where he said he helped resolve a utility crisis that had drawn state scrutiny.

“The State Utility Commission was threatening to charge them $10,000 a day for not being in compliance,” he said of Gallaway. “I brought in the right people there, and we were able to get all the gas in Galloway changed and complied with the state in six months.”

He was direct about why he wanted the job — and direct that he didn’t need it.

“First place, I don’t need this job. I’m not coming here for the money,” he said. “I like to fix things, and I think that I can help you fix Mason.”

Leggett said his first priorities would include preparing a municipal budget, which is required to be adopted by June to take effect in July, and beginning to address the town’s pending litigation. He also promised full financial transparency to the board from day one.

“You will have a list of all employees, where they work, how much they make,” he told board members.

When asked why he was no longer serving as Gallaway’s city manager, Leggett said a new mayor had wanted to go a different direction.

Several board members had expressed concern that Leggett’s name had been circulating in emails before the board as a whole was formally introduced to him. The town attorney clarified that the board retains full authority over the appointment — including the ability to terminate the administrator at will — and that a formal employment contract would be brought back to the board for consideration.

Harris motioned to appoint Leggett as interim town administrator, contingent on passage of the charter amendment and directing the town attorney to negotiate a contract for the board’s later review. The motion passed 5-2.

Noemann and alderwoman Carolyn Catron cast the votes against both measures.

‘We got to change the way we treat each other’

After both votes, Givhan called for something harder to legislate than any charter change.

“I get so sick of hearing about what’s going on in Mason when I’m on my 9-to-5,” he said. “‘What y’all doing out there? Y’all in the news again?’ We can’t just be like this.”

He said the board had to find a way to function together, regardless of how individual members had voted.

“We got to change the way we treat each other,” he said. “So let’s start working together.”

The meeting closed with a prayer from Rivers, asking for guidance regardless of who holds power.

“Anything that’s out of order,” she prayed, “we need you to fix it.”