Members of the Greeneville Board of Mayor and Aldermen continue to try to coordinate their calendars to schedule a workshop meeting to discuss the still-controversial transfer of Department of Parks and Recreation maintenance employees to the Department of Public Works.

No date for such a workshop has been set at this time, but it is expected to be scheduled soon.

Meanwhile, Mayor Laraine King distributed to other members of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen this week a lengthy, detailed memo explaining and defending her decision to move the employees.

The controversy developed some 15 months ago when Mayor King, acting in her capacity as the town's top elected official, transferred the maintenance employees from the Parks and Recreation Department to the Department of Public Works.

The action was not brought before the full Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

Since then, critics of the move -- including Aldermen W.T. Daniels, Buddy Hawk and Sarah Webster, and members of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board -- have questioned the legality of the transfer and said that they thought the action should have been considered by the full board.

The mayor has maintained that transferring employees between town departments was within her authority and responsibility as the senior official of the town government.

She has also emphasized that the transfer has saved a significant amount of money for the town.

At the conclusion of the Nov. 3 board meeting, Alderman Hawk asked when a workshop was going to be held.

Mayor King said she has not been able to schedule a time when everyone could attend.

The board said all members of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board also need to be notified when a workshop is scheduled.

After the discussion, Mayor King gave each alderman a packet of information supporting her decision to make the transfer. (See related article.)

The packet included a five-page memo that stated, in part:

"It appears that the stakeholders in this discussion have not been able to arrange an agreeable schedule for a discussion. This discussion is significant because it is distracting us from pursuing the many important concerns affecting our town."

King also stated in the memo that she had the authority to make the transfer because the Town Charter calls for the mayor to have general supervision over all employees.

"The issue for discussion," she wrote in the memo, "is whether or not the decision I made, to transfer the supervision of the maintenance crew from the director of Parks and Recreation to the director of Public Works, was justified by the facts which I found when I was elected mayor, and by the results supported by the facts which have developed since that time."

The memo also stated, "If you have any disagreement with the facts as I have presented them, please put them in writing to me within one week, and I will then schedule a workshop to address them."

Attached to the memo were the following documents:

* lists of capital expenses since 2004 in the Parks and Recreation Department;

* a list of employees who have left the town's employment since Jan. 1, 2008;

* a six-year review of overtime expense by department;

* the town's expenditure reports since 2004;

* Parks and Recreation Department fuel consumption expense over the past three years;

* payroll information for the maintenance workers;

* wage totals for the last three years in the Parks and Recreation Department;

* account information related to concessions, games and league entry fees;

* a list of the 33 town properties currently maintained by the Department of Public Works and descriptions of that maintenance;

* a four-page list of major improvements made to those properties; and

* a copy of a letter dated April 28, 2009, from Town Recorder Jim Warner to Butch Patterson, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, outlining changes in revenues and expenditures since the transfer was made.

The results of comparisons of these documents are included in King's memo.

According to the memo, the financial information shows that:

"Fuel use for building, grounds, and maintenance crew decreased 2,321.5 gallons during the year; an improvement of 39.23 percent.

* "Maintenance worker hours of work decreased, saving $47,658.88 during the year; an improvement of 14.46 percent.

* "Overtime charges for maintenance workers decreased approximately $3,109.25 during the year compared to previous fiscal year; an improvement of 80.79 percent.

* "Basketball concessions, gate receipts, and fees increased $14,462.00 for the two-month season, an improvement of 20.88 percent.

* "Andrew Johnson School basketball goals were fixed after years of neglect, requests for replacement dating from 2005-06 budget, and serious safety concerns.

* "More work done at more places during 2008-09 year by combined crews under new management. Many more capital projects completed than in previous year. Nine projects completed in 2007-08. Eighty-two projects completed in 2008-09; an improvement of 911 percent.

* "Parks and Recreation budget in the black 2009, first time since 2003-04."

Mayor King for some time has been stating that the transfer has saved the town an estimated $100,000.

In her packet of information, the letter from Warner to Patterson states that, for the Parks and Recreation Department, revenues were up $34,429.75, and expenditures were down $65,746.78.