The People Want Results

Mayor Holder was given the opportunity to address the concerns citizens had regarding her decision to stop signing the payroll checks for the City of Lumberton. As outlined in Miss. Code 21-39-18, “the checks shall be signed by the mayor or a majority of the members of the board of aldermen.” Contrary to what Tim Johnson stated on the news, this Mississippi law gives the aldermen the authorization to sign checks. But Bobby Gibson, Alderman at Large/Mayor Pro Tempore has the authority to sign checks as well. As a matter of fact, Bobby Gibson did not make any attempt to sign the checks when he returned from his trip to Jackson. Gibson and Johnson arrived at city hall today to tell the reporter to meet them at the library for their interview. If Gibson was concerned about the employees not receiving their paycheck, he would have been at city hall first thing Friday morning with a pen in his hand. My advice to Mayor Holder is to send out a memo to the Board of Aldermen outlining the law and her reason for not signing the payroll checks. By sending the aldermen a memo of your intentions, they can not claim that you are doing this because they failed to reinstate your salary. In addition to sending them the memo, I would also like to suggest that you refrain from defending your actions on the news. I guarantee you that someone will contact News 7, but I suggest rhat you do not respond to the media. If Bobby Gibson conviently has an out of town meeting every Thursday, it will be clear that he is not concerned about Lumberton’s employees. On the news, Timothy Johnson offered us more lip service. He stated that they don’t have any disregard for the mayor, but nothing could be further from the truth. Gibson, Crider, Hale and Johnson have spent the first two years of this administration fighting our mayor on almost every issue. Tim has this ability to make people think he cares about this city, but he’s a pro when it comes to feigned humility. He knows how to talk the talk but his words are as empty as his campaign promises. Timothy Johnson manages to say “with all due respect” while at the same time, embodying impertinence.
Kent Crider also managed to string a few words together and inform us that he, Bobby, Tim, and Rebecca are doing what the citizens of Lumberton want them to do. Is he so thick headed that he thinks the citizens want to be the laughing stock of the state? They are so focused on pressuring the mayor in the hopes that she will resign. I said it before and I will say it again; Bobby, Kent, Rebecca and Tim hate Mayor Holder more than they love the City of Lumberton. If that statement were not true, they would have been able to work past their personal agendas and get down to finding viable solutions for this city. Instead, they want to micro-manage every department, with the exception of the clerk’s office. Since Kent is totally oblivious to what the citizens want, I’ll give him and his crew a few pointers. The citizens of Lumberton want companies to come in and replace the jobs that were lost with the closing of Land O Lakes and the eventual closing of Cooper Industry. The citizens of Lumberton want more than one grocery store. The citizens of Lumberton want their kids to have somewhere to go after school, during the summer and on the weekends. The citizens of Lumberton want a group of police officers that can patrol the streets of Lumberton without the risk of losing their job because they arrested a relative of a board member.
The City of Lumberton is standing at the proverbial fork in the road. The blatant disregard for our mayor, employees and citizens serves as a reminder that as far as we’ve come, we still have a long, bumpy road ahead. Which path will our city take? Which Lumberton will prevail?