After  nearly four hours of conflicting, and sometimes contentious testimony, the public hearing into the firing of a Vicksburg Housing Authority manager produced no resolution, and the VHA board was not expected issue a public decision until next week.

The hearing was called in response to former manager Rita Cutley’s claim that her Feb. 9 firing by VHA Executive Director Jim Stirgus was unfair and unwarranted. She is asking the board to reinstate her with full benefits.

Stirgus said Cutley was fired for repeated episodes of insubordination. “I have been in conflict with her over and over and over again, and others have as well,” he said. “I should have fired her a long time ago.”

Newly appointed board members Jay Kilroy, Charles Wright, Abraham Green and Christopher Barnett joined continuing member Ella Lee in listening to testimony and asking questions of Stirgus, Cutley and other witnesses.

The board was represented by attorney A.J. “Buddy” Dees and Stirgus by Travis Vance Jr. Cutley’s attorney was unable to attend the hearing, but she was accompanied by an adviser.

Kilroy, the interim board chairman, opened the hearing just after 5 p.m. and gave Cutley the opportunity to postpone the hearing until her lawyer could be present. She also was given the chance to have the testimony heard in executive session. As a personnel matter, a closed-door inquiry would have been permissible. Cutley declined both offers.

“We will hear the facts here tonight but we will deliberate in executive session and will not make a decision tonight, or at least not make the decision public this evening,” Kilroy said. A written decision would be sent to the parties within five days, he said.

Along with the Feb. 24 appointment of four new board members at once, Cutley’s firing is one more episode in a months-long period of turbulence at the housing authority that began with the arrest of longtime maintenance supervisor Charles Jones Jr. on cocaine trafficking charges.

Jones, 45, 924 Bowmar Ave., was arrested Dec. 19 after allegedly receiving a shipment of drugs at the housing authority office. Authorities also seized numerous vehicles and merchandise, some of it unopened, at his home.

At Friday’s hearing, Cutley testified that when she asked Stirgus why he was firing her, he told her there was a law that he could terminate employees “at will,” with no stated reason necessary.

But she believes she was fired for cooperating with Vicksburg Police Chief Tommy Moffett in his investigation into drug activity at the housing authority that culminated in Jones’ arrest.

“Mr. Stirgus said there was a Judas among us and he was going to find out who it was,” she testified.

Stirgus said it was against VHA employment policy for Cutley to provide inside information about housing authority activities without informing him, but that he could not have fired her for that reason because he did not know she had done it until Moffett revealed it at the board’s Feb. 17 meeting.

Cutley also implied that she might have been fired for her Feb. 6 written request to the VHA board to come before them at their next meeting to talk about Stirgus and how he was running the VHA. She put a copy of that letter on Stirgus’ desk and was fired the following Monday.

She told the board that Stirgus ridiculed her in front of other employees, made it difficult for her to take vacation time and was disrespectful to her on repeated occasions. VHA employees are afraid to complain for fear they, too, will be fired, she testified.

Also testifying were Moffett, VHA administrative assistant Margaret Sutherland, and former commissioner Carolyn Dent.

Dent said that Stirgus had discussed Cutley last year at board meetings, her attitude being, as Dent characterized it, unhappy and constantly complaining. The board had recommended firing Cutley in November, Dent said, but Stirgus had said she needed the job.

The VHA, which manages 430 homes and apartments in six different locations around the city, is independent from the city in budget and administration, but its five-member board is appointed by the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen. Board members are intended to serve staggered terms, but four new members were appointed when it was discovered that terms had expired and commissioners continued serving without official reappointment.

Three former board members were replaced without comment or notice, and the fourth filled the vacancy created by the death of longtime chairman Charles Abraham in December.

Stirgus, who has headed the VHS since 1988, hired Cutley in December 1999. Her title at the time was occupancy director, but during her nine years at the VHA her title was changed, along with some of her duties. In 2007, Cutley’s oversight over all VHA properties was split with two other employees. No loss of pay was involved., however.

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com.