Athens’ police chief fired, city manager suspended

ATHENS, Tenn. (WDEF) – The city of Athens, Tennessee, is experiencing some major shakeups in their city’s government.

“This had been a matter that had been an issue for a while.”

On Friday, October 8th, Cliff Couch was dismissed as the police chief.

Lieutenant Fred Schultz promptly filled his position.

“The council felt like this was an appropriate response.”

To add to the drama, City Manager Seth Sumner was suspended for two weeks without pay.

It came following a heated special session of city council that lasted just over four hours.

During that meeting, councilmen discussed the recent dismissal of Couch, as well as Summer’s possible involvement in a set of missing surveillence cameras.

Mayor Bo Perkinson wouldn’t make any direct comments.

“Certainly anything dealing with personnel is always difficult and the council was trying to address it the best way we knew how.”

That meeting was followed by a vote to conduct a followup evaluation of his performance.

Although controversial, the Mayor says he feels like it was the right decision.

“We felt like this is a good direction for the city and for Mr. Sumner.”

Mayor Perkinson says he’s confident the tensions will eventually die down.

“Looking forward to pressing on as the city of Athens and anticipating this being a step toward doing that.”