Pine Bluff Parks and Recreation Department director April Layher has turned in her resignation. These developments came to light Monday as the Parks and Recreation Commission held an emergency meeting and immediately entered executive session, where they remained for nearly two hours.
After returning to the open meeting, commissioners Omar Allen, Reginald Johnson, Rodney Holcomb, Tina Owens, Harold Clark and Robert Jackson voted to accept Layher’s resignation. They voted to appoint assistant director Trudy Redus as interim director effective immediately. Layherr did not answer phone calls or an email with questions on Monday and did not attend the meeting. Earlier in the year, the commissioners scrutinized her payment of bills, and at a January meeting, they discussed paying bills and voted for a motion to see copies of all bills.
Layher was hired as the Pine Bluff parks director in November 2013. She was previously an enforcement analyst with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. Redus was initially not taking part in the executive session, but a commissioner later invited her into the meeting. She distributed a paper with a list of projects that Layher had prepared. Redus provided a copy of the paper to the news media. It lists projects at Townsend Park, the Bloom Tennis Center, Martin Luther King Park, the Splash Park Playground, Central Park, Hutson Park, Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Regional Park, the Merrill Center, the Irene Holcomb Bark Park, Jaycee Jeffries Park and the RV park.
After the meeting, Allen said the commission did not consider any person other than Redus to be the interim director. Asked why they took so much time to make that decision, he cited that four or five commissioners joined the commission less than two months ago.
“We wanted to know how the process and everything goes when you are looking for a search for your director,” Allen said. “We are making sure we follow proper policies and procedures.”
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Allen said the commissioners did not discuss any other business. Prior to the meeting, Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington confirmed Layher submitted her resignation on Thursday, June 1, and that her last day of work will be Thursday, June 15.
“She told me she has been thinking about this for a long time and she and her husband made this decision,” Washington said. “She works under the commission. I accepted her resignation.”
After the meeting, Redus said she began working in the department about seven years ago and enjoyed working with Layher.
“I am saddened that April is leaving, but you have to step up and get the job done,” Redus said. “We have some challenges, but we are going to be okay.”
On Monday, commissioner Quincy Pridgeon came to the meeting but left before the votes. Fellow commissioners Krandon Henry and Alexandra Kosmitis were absent.