The Pine Bluff City Council voted against giving the police chief his job back. Mayor Carl Redus fired John Howell last week
for insubordination.
Howell and more than a hundred of his supporters attended a meeting Monday night hoping to get that reversed.
Council members voted, five for and three against. At least six of the council members had to be for reinstating Howell for the firing to be reversed. The council went into executive session for nearly two hours after the public meeting.
Mayor Redus says a search for an interim chief is underway and a nation wide search will be conducted for a permanent chief.
Mayor Redus fired John Howell one week ago. Howell has been Pine Bluff police chief for the past four years. Before becoming chief, he worked at the Criminal Justice Institute after retiring from state police.
