The Italy City Council met in a called meeting Tuesday afternoon with 16 citizens in attendance. Deliberations regarding real property and the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, dismissal or discipline of City Administrator, Teri Murdock, were held in closed session.

Citizens Frank Jackson and Albert Garcia spoke during citizens comments.

Jackson explained that even though he is on the council, he is also a citizen and had chosen to speak during this time.

“I am speaking on behalf of Teri Murdock,” Jackson began. “Teri makes sure the job is done and done right. She and her staff have been blamed for things the council has done, things like ordinances.”

“She and her husband have promoted the city,” he continued. “There have been problems between the mayor and Teri. I will not be a part of this witch hunt. I think we have wasted enough time on this. We need to get busy doing city business. I hate to see our people harassed.”

Albert Garcia was the second citizen to address the council.

“I want to say something on behalf of the quiet people, the ones that don’t come up here and complain – they are good citizens,” Garcia said. “We are tired of hearing the negative and the awful things being said.”

“We have a lot of good coming our way,” Garcia explained. “Italy is a great place to live and raise our families. We have a good city and school. Let’s work to get things done.”

The council spent the next 1:45 in executive session. They returned to regular session and voted to take no action regarding real property. They also voted for the council to interview the city employees and city administrator and to install security cameras in city hall and council chambers.