BELLE — The city of Belle is once again without a public works director as Jason Lewis, who was hired in July, submitted his resignation on Oct. 13 listing complaints about the municipality’s administration.

“I had some serious disagreements with the city’s administrators about how to complete my job,” Lewis said. “I reported staffing problems within the department to the administration that were never addressed.”

Lewis brought up an issue that was brought to light at the Oct. 11 city meeting. Alderman James (Pudd) Mitchell said there was a sewer back-up and called another employee instead of Lewis, who was the public works director at the time.

“Pudd Mitchel not calling me for the major sewer problem — that I found out about a week later at the council meeting — DNR has to be called for sanitary sewer overflows and I can’t report what I don’t know.”

Lewis said overall he can’t run the department successfully under the administration.

“I was very unhappy with the city and the way it was being ran and had no control over nothing,” said Lewis, who has four years of experience as a public works director in the Belle and Bland municipalities.

Lewis added that he submitted a resignation letter and discussed his reasons with Mayor Daryl White, Jr., on Friday, Oct. 13, as his resignation was effective immediately. An official request was sent for a copy of the letter on Monday afternoon. City Clerk Frankie Horstman said she had no record of a letter, but she would forward the request to the mayor and board.

Without a licensed public works director, the city is once again out of compliance with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Lewis follows former public works director Tony Baretich, who had similar complaints about city management.