DELTA CHIEF QUITS ELIMINATED POSITION

DELTA -- Police Chief Marty Keys resigned Thursday night following a closed-door meeting with the city's aldermen, who had voted earlier this week to eliminate his position.

Mayor Gary Anderson said the arrangement includes a severance package. Terms of the package weren't announced.

City Attorney Joe Rice said the severance package would be disclosed once it has been finalized.

Keys said his resignation took effect immediately, leaving the city of 450 people in Cape Girardeau County without any local law enforcement. Keys had served as the city's officer for the past six months.

Keys and the board cited "a difference of opinion" regarding the operation of the police department as the reason for the resignation.

The Board of Aldermen is scheduled to meet Monday night to consider how best to provide future law enforcement in the Cape Girardeau County community.

City officials said a new officer could be hired or Delta could proceed to elect a town marshal.

Prior to going into closed session in an office in the Delta Community Center, the board and the mayor held an open meeting in the center's gymnasium.

More than 30 area residents turned out for the meeting, with some voicing support for Keys and others defending the board. Two Cape Girardeau County sheriff's deputies observed the meeting from the back of the room.

Some in the audience waited out the closed session to hear the board's decision.

The city's four voting aldermen attended the open meeting, presided over by Anderson. Board member Brenda Strickland left after the open meeting to meet another commitment

Board members Hughes Lesch, Donna McClard and Daniel Baggett approved the resignation agreement.

"You have publicly humiliated me," Keys told the board during the open session.

Prior to the meeting, Keys said he didn't feel he could continue to work for the city. "There is no trust left," he said. "I'm done."

In the open session, Delta resident Rick Woods questioned the board's decision earlier this week to eliminate the position of police chief.

"To abolish a position and leave us without protection is not wise," he said. "It reflects incompetence," he said. He suggested the board should resign.

Woods insisted Keys has been doing his job as the city's police officer.

But Delta resident Jerry Bond said many residents seldom see Keys patrolling the city. "We heard we are paying for a police officer that is a ghost," he said.

Keys has argued that the board wanted him to operate a speed trap for out-of-town motorists, not investigate crimes.

Lesch said the board doesn't want a speed trap. But Lesch suggested Keys should have been in a position to write more traffic tickets if he were doing his job properly.

Rice said he knows of only four pending cases involving tickets issued by Keys.

Anderson has been at odds with the board over the aldermen's decision to eliminate the police chief position. As mayor, Anderson only votes in case of a tie.

Board members said they didn't fire Keys earlier in the week but that they had voted to eliminate the position of police chief, effective May 10.

Rice said the city board could hire a police officer without giving that person the title of police chief.

If the board doesn't have a police officer, the fourth-class city would have to elect a marshal as stipulated by state law, Rice said.

Lesch said the board has no intention of doing without law enforcement in the city.