Neither mayoral candidate David Mayfield or his supervisor, parks and recreation director Margo Yates, knew until the day Mayfield was terminated from his job that running for city office violates city employee policy.

Yates said Mayfield, a seasonal groundskeeper for parks and recreation department, was terminated July 30.

“I didn’t realize it was in the handbook that he can’t be a city employee,” Yates said.

Mayfield had worked as a groundskeeper since spring.

Mayfield said city administrator Roger Holter went to East Park Tuesday morning to tell him about the city policy and that he could no longer work for the city.

“It’s called incompatibility,” Mayfield said. “I didn’t know that was in the manual. “Roger Holter came out and showed me the policy guideline that you couldn’t run for elective office.”

Holter declined to discuss Mayfield’s termination, saying it is a personnel matter.