Review of April 5, 2011 Board Meeting

For the most part, the regularly scheduled board meeting of the mayor and board of aldermen could be classified as SSDD. Several individuals addressed the board, including obtaining permission to shut down a segment of the road adjacent to the library in order to have a safe trip for the students participating in the field day activities, Melinda Carli stated that the Friends of the Library will be taking part in the activities as well as Jerry Walters, Fire Chief and Adrien Fortenberry, Chief of Police. Field day will be held on April 15, 2011 from 8:00 a.m. –2:30 p.m. There was some other issues discussed regarding the airport and the sewer improvement project, but the meeting didn’t become interesting until the broached the agenda item regarding the approval of the minutes. For this segment of the meeting, I think Timothy Johnson needs to move over two places to the left since his statements clearly suggests that he is the one making all of the decisions regarding the day to day operations of the City of Lumberton. Mayor Holder stated that the minute book had not been updated since December 2, 2010, and Mayor Holder also noted that she hadn’t received a copy of the revisions that were to be made to the minutes that were voted on last month. It was at this point that Timothy Johnson told the mayor that “if you don’t get the revisions to the minutes this week, let me know and I will take care of it.” And that statement let me further know that Timothy Johnson was definitely involved in the decision to stop payment of the payroll check that was issued to Sharese Pearson, since he seems to have more control over the clerks’ office than the superintending power of the city. WTBS. I noticed that Lindsey Carter made an appearance last night and I’m certain he’s not coming to the meetings out of the goodness of his heart, but since the board never voted to override the mayoral veto of his termination; who’s signing Lindsey Carter’s checks? Now, back to my recap of last night’s meeting.
The board voted to allow Peter A. Morrison of Morrison and Associates, Inc. of Nantucket, MA to do the redistricting for the City of Lumberton. There will be no charge for his services. The order to place all aldermen’s signatures on the City of Lumberton bank accounts failed. The board voted to allow Lumberton Land and Development to begin Phase One of their plans to develop a cottage village on Camp Avenue. The board of aldermen took on the responsibilities of the planning and zoning committee, but none of them knew that there was a guideline for the establishment of a subdivision or that’s what they wanted to convey. A motion passed to hire Johnny Buckley as an alternate building inspector. I like the idea of having an alternate on call; especially in emergent situations, but I really don’t think Bobby Gibson sought this man out just for emergency calls. It seems that they are actually trying to find a way around the contract that they have with Andrew Beamon. There was no guidelines voted on regarding pay, but I just think they’re entering into unchartered waters, and this could actually backfire on them. Now, they are going to have to prove that they contacted Beamon in a timely fashion and show justification as to why they needed to call an alternate. When all is said and done, they’re probably going to end up paying for two inspections since Andrew is under contract. Last night was the first time I met Johnny Buckley and I liked the fact that he encouraged the board to check his references and certifications to make sure he’s legit. The last two items on the agenda was to hire two part-time, certified officers—Glenn Lowery and Jonathon Hosey.