S.O.S

Believe it or not, I'm at a loss for words. I don't know what we, as a city, are going to do about the things taking place at City Hall. I know we can submit a complaint to the Ethics Commission and the Mississippi Department of Public Integrity, but what else can the citzens of Lumberton do to make our elected officials realize that they were elected to serve the best intrest of the residents of Lumberton, not their own personal agendas? I am growing weary of sitting in meeting after meeting and having an alderman dismiss the comments from the audience like the voting public does not matter. I am also tired of the self-indulgent, self-absorbed non-professionals that are sitting on the board room and in the clerk's office. I don't have a copy of the law, but I am looking to find it, but I am still bothered by the comments made by Kent Crider at the Tuesday night meeting. When Mayor Miriam Holder decided that she would address the board, Kent Crider took his paperwork into his hands, looked at Bobby Gibson and said "you know what we said we would do if she did this. . .let's go." He walked out, but it took the others a few minutes before they followed suit. So, when did they discuss this, did they meet before the meeting, and isn't it illegal for three aldermen to meet outside the confines of a meeting? I don' know what you took away from the clips that were aired on WDAM, but I saw a Mayor that was attempting to fulfill her campain promise to offer transparency at city hall. Why was there such a revolt at the thought of her addressing the citizens that elected her to serve? Despite the threats lodged against me by the city clerk, I am still going to speak freely on the pages of this blog. We are supposed to believe that there is no preferential treatment extended to the city clerk, but no one is willing to explain why she is the ONLY person on the City of Lumberton's payroll that is not scheduled to have a cut in pay? They say we are in a budget crisis, and everyone must work together to get through these tough times. Could we at least get an explanation? I am also concered about the recent attempts to have Betty Speights(Deputy Clerk 2) terminated. OAN: Why was Betty able to uncover several discrepancies within the office of city hall after one year of employment, and Susan Guidry did not discover these "glitches" during her four years of employment. Is there some sort of colusion taking place at city hall? Also, when Susan Guidry was re-appointed by this board of aldermen as deputy clerk, she was given 6 months to take 3 more classes as a stipulation of her re-appointment.( I need to re-check the minutes to make sure those time line are correct.) Well, we are now in the 15th month of this administration, why haven't this matter been addressed by the board? The recent arrests in Bell, California, is a rude awakening abut what happens when there is no system of checks and balance. "One of the problems that was obvious with Bell was the lack of transparency and the lack of involvement on the part of the public," Dave Mora, West Coast regional director of the International City/County Management Association, said recently. I hope the City of Lumberton get some help before we get to that point or we might already be at that point. One thing is for certain, we don't need to continue on this path. I would like to know if there is a way to get a the state auditors to come into Lumberton to do a full audit. We have had several compilation audits, but we need an audit that will look at everything, and let us know how the City of Lumberton ended up in such a financial bind. Any suggestions?