Deadbolts, Deadbeats, and Dead Ends

Recently, the email box for lumbertoninformer@yahoo.com has been filled with people wanting to know “Why is the Mayor stealing from the city clerk’s office?” Well, I am certain this question is a direct result of the clerk’s request to have a deadbolt lock placed on her office door. For the record, the city clerk did not say that the mayor was stealing from her office; she just insinuated that the mayor was breaking into her office. Stephanie said that for the last 5-6 months, she’s noticed that her office door was ajar, things had been removed from her desk, and that she was missing a notepad that contained all of her information. Again, she never said that the mayor was responsible for any of these things happening; she just made an inference that the mayor was the culprit. There are only two people with a key to the city clerk’s office and that’s Stephanie and Sue. Sue may no longer have a key, but when Betty was employed with the City of Lumberton, Sue had a key to Stephanie’s office. Since there is only one or possibly two keys to the office, Stephanie was saying that someone, without a key to her office, is going into her office. First of all, everything in that office, aside from a few personal items, is the property of the City of Lumberton. If our clerk was concerned that someone had broken into the office, why didn’t she contact Chief Fortenberry to have him investigate the matter? Ooops, I almost forgot, filing a false police report is a crime. But there’s a better way to get the word out, and have the citizens of Lumberton think the mayor is a criminal; mention it at the board meeting and that way you can let people think the mayor is stealing from the clerk’s office and you have a record of this “incident” as a part of the official minutes. I don’t know the real intent behind this move to have a deadbolt lock put on the city clerk’s office door, but I’m certain that something will be reported as missing and she will have the minutes to fall back on. Either something is already missing or will mysteriously vanish in the future and the safety net has already been cast because when it happens the first thing Stephanie’s going to do is say “remember when I told you about my office door being ajar” and bingo, built in defense because I am certain that all of this will go into the minutes. Another thing the clerk said peaked my interest; she said that the lock to her office was easy to pick. I don’t know who she’s hanging around, but I don’t know anyone that can pick a lock or maybe someone knows about the ease of picking that lock to her officer door because it’s similar to the one on the mayor’s office door. One may never know. I just wonder what happened to the plan to install a video camera in the hallway of city hall. It seems that they realized that the camera, which was a tool they wanted to use against Chief Fortenberry, would actually provide a record of all the public works employees that lounge at city hall and it would show the clerks leaving the building without clocking out. When will all of this end? The clerk and board of aldermen are politically raping our mayor. Some of you may think that my wording is harsh, but one definition of rape is to plunder; despoil; to seize, take, or carry off by force and that’s exactly what they’re doing to Mayor Holder. The first attack came when they seized her salary and now, like in most rape cases, they’re trying to damage the reputation of the victim, by making the implication that she’s a thief. I have never seen an instance in this city where the mayor is not given a salary or an instance where the mayor is not permitted to get the mail for the city he/she governs because the city clerk instructed the postal workers, with the support and approval of the board of aldermen, not to allow Mayor Holder to receive mail for the City of Lumberton. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, the currents of bias and division that fueled the conundrums of the past have truthfully only cloaked themselves in subtler, more nuanced garbs, and as such, require a far warier and sophisticated frame of mind to navigate them successfully.