The small town of Alexandria, Tennessee, is outraged less than a month after a new mayor was elected who reportedly forced the entire police force to resign.
Mayor Beth Tripp, who took office on Aug. 1, asked the city to have some “patience” as it deals with a number of problems plaguing the area, including complaints about its dirty water supply.
Following his election, Police Chief Travis Bryant accused Tripp of “micromanaging” the police department and giving him orders with “no experience” in police work, ultimately leading all three police officers on the force to resign on Tuesday.
“She tried to reassign our duties to the sheriff’s department, and then it became a micromanagement issue,” Bryant said. NewsChannel5.
Mayor Beth Tripp has been accused of micromanaging hops in Alexandria, Tennessee, prompting the entire department to resign.
Bryant blamed a conflict with the mayor’s office for his force’s decision to step down from their roles, saying Tripp “wanted to take over the police department and has no experience.”
In a response interview with the outlet, Tripp said he was left with a mess made by previous elected officials in the city and denied “micromanaging” the police force.
“I don’t understand it,” he said. “Because I was asking them to do their job, so if I was asking them to do their job, does that sound like I’m going to hand it over to the county?”
Tripp said his first few days in office have been consumed with trying to find more police officers and insists he is “working on all solutions.”
The mayor was elected as the only candidate on the ballot, although two others ran write-in campaigns, and she won with just 88 votes in the small town of about 900 residents.
Police Chief Travis Bryant is also angry about the quality of the city’s drinking water.
Residents of Alexandria, pictured, are concerned about the ongoing fighting.
He said his short time in office has so far been a tough test as he says he inherited several problems he is working to address.
“Every day is something new and different, but I’m working as hard as I can to fix them all,” he told NewsChannel5.
While he admitted that facing angry voters is something that “is going to happen in politics” and “is nothing new,” he did not expect such an attack so early in his term.
“I didn’t imagine it would be this serious,” she added. “To keep attacking me for no reason, when all I’m trying to do is my job?”
In addition to losing her police force, Tripp has also faced off against residents who are angry about the city’s filthy water supply, which she said was a problem previous administrations also had but never fixed.
“Things were neglected,” he continued.
“There were 160 complaints (about the water)… on July 18, that’s a lot of complaints, that was before my time.”
But some residents say they have had problems with the water supply since last year, and Tripp admitted he needs time to turn around his town’s fortunes.
“I hope people will be patient and give me the opportunity to correct things that need to be corrected,” he concluded.