Lumberton Informer

August 2 is National Night Out Against Crime. Laurel and Hattiesburg has been on the news giving details of their plans for the event. Since there has been so much change taking place at the Lumberton Police Department, I wonder if Dennis Hobson will host a NNO in the City of Lumberton. If he's truly interested in repairing his "tainted" reputation, he might want to take this opportunity to team up with the Lumberton Library and have small cook-out or something so he could introduce himself to the children in the community. If memory serves me correctly, we've only had one NNO event in the City of Lumberton and it was held years ago. Surely, the board of aldermen will give Hobson a purchase order to buy some chips, sodas, hot dogs and burgers for this event. NNO has proven to be an effective, inexpensive and enjoyable program to promote spirit and police-community partnerships. Plus, the benefits a community will derive from NNO will most certainly extend well beyond ...

On Friday, July 22, 2011, I blogged about water bill issues and asked residents to e-mail me their complaints about their water bills and/or billing issues. I didn't receive an overwhelming response, but of the 42 complaints/concerns I did receive, most were from residents of Ward 4--Timothy Johnson's territory. The residents in that area are particularly peeved with their representation or lack thereof. I found it interesting that an area that has both a District 2 Supervisor (Ben Winston) and an aldermen living in their community would have residents that feel that their voices are not being heard. The water bill issue is nothing new and for the most part it's indicative of the lack of leadership on display in the clerk's office. Unfortunately, we have a city clerk that does not want to submit to a system of checks and balances. The WSOM (Water and Sewer Operation and Maintenance) account has lost $86,770 but Alderman Rogers is the only alderman that sees this as a pr...

It's been a week since the board of aldermen went into executive session to order Lindsey Carter, acting city attorney, to file an injunction against the Lumberton Informer on behalf of city clerk, Stephanie Mullings. I haven't received my letter or notice to appear. Maybe they will give me the notice at the next board meeting, which is Tuesday, August 2, 2011. While I'm waiting for the paperwork, I thought I would share some information regarding injunctions. Injunctions are orders of a court of competent jurisdiction commanding an individual, business entity, or government agency to do or stop doing something. Injunctions invoke what is called the equitable powers of the court and, as such, those seeking an injunction must come to court with “clean hands”.(Now, that's going to be a problem for the City of Lumberton. I can't wait to defend this blog in a court of law because I will get the opportunity to get information about cancelled insurance, deficiencies in...

There has got to be a better way. We can no longer allow this city to hold us hostage. Over the last few days, some people have voiced their concerns about how the City of Lumberton's water department is the epicenter of non-professionalism. Clerks are always on their cell phones and for some reason; citizens are not getting their water bills in a timely fashion and are still expected to pay late fees. Whenever I pay my bill, I usually interact with Sue and I have never seen her on a cell phone, but one time, Stephanie took my water bill payment; she wasn't on her cell phone, but I noticed that my receipt stated that the bill was received by Sue. Why did the board of aldermen purchase two cash drawers if the clerks are still using money from just one register? Another issue I have with the water department is the deposit of the checks. Generally, I pay the water bill on either the first or third of the month, but for some reason, it takes anywhere from 15-21 days for the check ...

If you've been watching the news, you noticed that all of the cities in this area have made some drastic cuts to their budgets. The cities of Hattiesburg, Laurel, Petal, Poplarville, Purvis, Columbia and Wiggins announced that they will not have any pay raises during FY (fiscal year) 2012 and they will be limiting all overtime pay, but the City of Lumberton has a different approach to budget planning. Clearly, Hattiesburg, Laurel, Petal, Poplarville, Purvis and Columbia has several revenue generating businesses within their city limits, but they still found it necessary to stop pay raises and overtime pay. But the City of Lumberton is including an $8,000 pay raise for Stephanie Mullings and Dennis Hobson in the 2012 budget. How are they planning on paying for these two increases in salary? At the last meeting, Kent Crider suggested that the City of Lumberton look into raising the fee for services like background checks, fingerprinting and notary. Currently, the City of Lumberton ch...

Yesterday, I informed you about Hobson's plan to bring on the rejects, but I was off on the proposed date of hire. I thought they would wait until the next regularly scheduled board meeting, but the board hired four new police officers last night: two full-time and two part-time officers. Since it was a special called meeting, I thought their names and rate of pay was supposed to be posted on the agenda, but they board made the decision to hire these officers during executive session. At last night's special called meeting, the board hired Robert Jones to clean the nasty floors at city hall for $1,200. Kudos to Robert, but how did this get on the agenda. Bobby Gibson recused himself at other meetings because of a $15.00 water bill adjustment for a family member, but stayed for the order to pay his brother-in-law $1,200 to clean the floors and carpeting at city hall. The board went over the budget and personnel policy, but the best part of the meeting was when the board emerged ...

I received an e-mail the other day asking me who would I like for Lumberton's next Chief of Police. The person went on to say that Dennis Hobson was doing a great job and how it's hard to get officers to come to this city (I guess we're all entitled to our own opinions.) For one thing, it is difficult to get good officers here in the City of Lumberton, but to fire six or more certified officers is not a way of getting good officers on the police force. Someone made a comment about the type of people that Hobson will bring into this city and it was a valid point; why would he bring in law-abiding officers when he's not willing to adhere to the law of the land. My sources said that he's not a certified officer; that he has paperwork showing that he completed training, but because of his "issues" while employed in Meridian, his certification has not been released. So, in the coming weeks, we should see what type of officers he will be bringing to our city. So...