The city of Belington could soon be seeking a new chief of police after council members chose to terminate the current chief's employment at Thursday's meeting.

Following a discussion that lasted more than one hour, council members voted 8-0 to terminate Preston Pierce as chief of police. Council members cited hostile work environment, billing for unapproved overtime, failing to properly call off work and insubordination as contributing factors to the dismissal. Pierce was placed on paid suspension June 11 following a 30-day performance evaluation.

"This is probably one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life," Mayor Sharon "Jean" Clark said following the meeting. "It's something that I can't imagine anybody would enjoy doing, seeing a young man lose his job over reasons that could be found valid or could maybe not be found valid. Nevertheless, they were reasons that the full council agreed on, but it was still a very difficult decision."

Although the job will not be posted immediately, Clark said the city would begin taking steps to find a replacement. The termination leaves the city will one full-time officer, patrolman D.J. Harris.

"There are no plans to interview anybody immediately," Clark said. "I'm sure it's something we will start working on because we do want to give our citizens police coverage. One of the most profound statements that I have ever heard since I've been mayor, that I disagreed with in the beginning but I understand, is that having a police officer available is a privilege, it is not a right. It's hard to get citizens to understand this, but it is the truth. We will try to get a police officer on board to help D.J. as quickly as we can."

During the meeting, Clark told council members Pierce had been placed on a 30-day performance review beginning on May 11 with three objectives to accomplish. She said the goals included proving face-to-face shift changes with Harris, delegating more duties to Harris and providing more constructive instruction to Harris. She said he failed to accomplish two of the three goals.

During the review period, Clark said Pierce also attended a training course at Glenville that offered free lodging. Rather than staying in Glenville, she said Pierce chose to travel back and forth each day from Belington. As a result, she said he charged the city for 22 hours of unapproved overtime. She said the charges included time for driving and studying at home.

After being told the overtime would not be paid, Clark said Pierce's attitude began to deteriorate. She said he began creating a hostile work environment with other employees at city hall.

Aside from the other allegations, Clark said Pierce called her to inform her he was taking a sick day on May 28, but neglected to inform the Barbour County Communications Center, which he was required to do.

Pierce, who requested his employee hearing be conducted in open session, addressed council to respond to the allegations. He said most of the problems stemmed from a lack of communication between himself, Harris and Clark. He said he was "not his chipper self" at work because of several personal issues. He said his attitude never affected his work performance.

"I was not hostile," Pierce told council. "I did not say one mean thing to anybody. I didn't do anything evil or malicious. I came in and did what I had to do at the office and I was out on the road for the rest of my shift. I did my job everyday."

Following the meeting, Pierce told The Inter-Mountain he is upset over the termination. He believes he accomplished all the goals intended during his performance review.

"I am not happy with the decision, but that's their decision," Pierce said. "There are very limited things I can do. The decision for them to terminate me was supposed to be based on a 30-day review. They gave me three goals I had to meet and if I met those three goals I would keep my job ... I met those three goals and exceeded those goals and they terminated me anyway. I think it's absolutely appalling that they released me from the police department based on stuff they weren't even reviewing me on."