[03/21/01] An often-controversial Vicksburg police officer who was allowed to finish taking a promotional exam after he refused to do so the first time has been promoted.

Jimmy Sweet was made a sergeant effective Thursday and moved from the Detective Division to Internal Affairs.

“I am pleased with the way it turned out,” he said Wednesday morning.

The promotion was approved after a Feb. 12 meeting of the Board of the Mayor and Aldermen in a closed session on a 2-1 vote that was not made public until questions were asked.

In August, the Civil Service Commission had voted unanimously to allow Sweet to complete the 25 questions he refused to answer when he took a promotional test on June 13.

His reason was he said he’d seen a notice saying the exam would have 100 questions, not 125. He got a failing score, but after passing the test the second time he took it, he was placed on a promotion list with other officers, used when promotions become available.

The promotion will raise Sweet’s base pay to about $28,000, about a $500 increase. Much of many officers’ compensation is in overtime.

South Ward Alderman Sam Habeeb voted against the promotion because he has, “some performance issues with this individual.”

Although they wouldn’t comment publicly at the time, some officers expressed dismay Sweet was allowed to answer the same test questions months after seeing them.

Police Chief Mitchell Dent said he felt the promotion was justified, but disclaimed personal responsibility.

“Everything was done according to the Civil Service rules and regulations,” he said. “The decision was not made by me or any other individual.”

Sweet, who has been on the force for 15 years, aired his grievance about the exam at a Civil Service meeting in July, after failing the first test because the questions he didn’t answer were marked as incorrect. At that meeting, former commission chairman James Rucker said he told the 29 people taking the test there were 125 questions. He said the other 28 taking the exam answered all the questions.

In August, Rucker, who left the commission in December when his six-year term was finished, said Sweet was allowed to finish the test so the promotional process could move forward.

Sweet has been in the news several times. As a patrol officer, he once stopped then-Mayor Joe Loviza and performed a sobriety test, which Loviza passed.

Sweet was also publicly named as a suspect in a 1994 arson fire that damaged offices of the Narcotics Bureau in the former public library on Monroe Street. He was never charged, and his transfer to patrol from narcotics was reversed in a circuit court decision.