The position of chief of staff for the mayor of the City of Vicksburg was abolished Monday, leaving jobless Kenya Burks, the woman who was paid nearly $10,000 in unexpected overtime two weeks ago.

With Mayor Paul Winfield abstaining, North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield and South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman voted for the action after a two-hour executive session of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen following the regular meeting.

“The mayor has been stating for upwards of four months now that he did not think he needed the position and he was going to eliminate it,” said Mayfield. “We have been looking at that along with his new work chart. I didn’t know he was going to abstain, but that is the mayor’s office and that’s his decision to make.”

Winfield would not comment on the reason for eliminating the position.

“It’s a personnel matter and I am not at liberty to say,” he said. “We have had discussions about reorganization, but it is inappropriate for me to discuss it as it relates to any specific employee.”

Beauman also would not comment on when the issue was raised or why the position was eliminated. “I am not going to talk about what goes on in executive session,” he said. “My position has been clear since the beginning of this administration. I never thought it was a necessary position.”

The move is effective immediately, but Winfield said it could take a day or two for Burks to conclude her various duties and leave office.

Burks could not be reached for comment, however. Service to her city-issued cell phone has been terminated, and she did not return a message left on her office phone or respond to an e-mail inquiry.

Burks was informed of the decision prior to the conclusion of the closed session, Winfield said.

The move comes months after Winfield announced in a public meeting that he wanted to reorganize the city’s personnel structure as a cost-cutting measure.

He said early in 2010, about three weeks after terminating five long-term city employees, that he would begin the process. Departments needed to be realigned, he said, and the number of department heads needed to be cut from 25 to perhaps as few as 10.

Burks had assumed what was then the newly created position of chief of staff less than six months earlier at an annual salary of $70,000, shortly after Winfield took office in 2009.

When the mayor and aldermen voted to approve 3 percent pay raises to city employees in December, her annual salary was bumped to $72,100.

In a closed meeting April 4, the mayor and aldermen approved paying her $9,701.59 in back overtime pay for hours she logged in excess of 40 hours per week from July 2009 to January 2011. Burks said she had not asked for the overtime pay and was shocked to receive it.

As a government employee being terminated, Burks is not entitled to negotiate a severance package, said Walterine Langford, the city’s human resources manager. Burks is entitled to continue her insurance benefits through the U.S. Department of Labor’s COBRA mandates, and she is entitled to be paid for any remaining personal leave she had accumulated during her term of employment, based on possible accruals of 12 hours per month from her hire date of July 20, 2009, Langford said.

Burks’ duties will be split among Winfield and the remaining members of his administrative staff, he said. “We’re just all going to have to work harder,” the mayor said.

Remaining in Winfield’s office are Marie Thompson, intergovernmental policies adviser, and a receptionist.

Burks, a native of Lake Providence, received a bachelor’s degree from Northeast Louisiana University and, in 2003, a master’s in business administration from the Keller Graduate School of Management in Irvine, Texas. She previously worked in product management in Jackson.