Review of May 3, 2011 Board Meeting

The board meeting was rather lengthy, but they managed to accomplish some work. Terry Cannaday addressed the board wanting to re-start the already defective Parks and Recreations Committee. District 2 Supervisor, Ben Winston stated that he would donate some bases for the 5th Avenue ball park and wanted to help with the removal of the fence and pole that's located on the baseball field. The board granted Kim Rogers permission to use City Hall as a gathering spot for the domestic awareness walk that will take place on May 29, 2011. The board scheduled a meeting to hold a workshop to amend personnel policies on May 16, 2011. The motion to appoint a Planning and Zoning Commission in accordance to Ordinance 147 failed for lack of votes. (Hale and Rogers were in favor of adhering to the State Law that required cities to have a planning and zoning committee while Gibson, Crider and Johnson were not.) Vic Dubose, attorney for Ben Winston addressed the board to ask for a variance for his client in regards to the citation that was issued in June of last year. The board voted to grant Winston a variance for the storage of the trailers. The variance will expire in November of this year. It was revealed that the decision to grant a variance was at the discretion of the board members, but this process could have been resolved last year. Instead of coming to the planning and zoning committee to request a variance, Ben Winston decided to hire a professional liar (oops I mean lawyer) and fight a battle that really didn't need to get to this point. Ben Winston allegedly followed his advisor, Aaron Lott, and didn't want to adhere to the laws of the land and this set off a chain reaction. As a result of an elected leader's decision not to come before the planning and zoning committee to ask for a variance, several members of the board (Ben Winston's family, friends, and business associates) decided they would denigrate the laws of the land and do anything they could (legally or illegally; ethically or unethically) to make the citation go away. I am not saying that the Lumberton Board of Aldermen, let me re-phrase that, Gibson, Crider, Hale and Johnson, disbanded the Lumberton Planning and Zoning Committee at the behest of Ben Winston, but they definitely did it for the benefit of Ben Winston. Ironically, the decision to grant the variance was based on information that was provided by yours truly. I consulted with Lindsey Carter, city attorney, to inform him of the guidelines for granting a variance. Surprisingly, they (Gibson, Crider, Hale and Johnson) were receptive of this information. The information I shared with the city attorney came from the same documentation that outlined the city's obligation to have a planning and zoning commission.
In other business news, the city of Lumberton rezoned an additional 35 acres for the North Lumberton Industrial Park. Crider gave some information about the prospects of a city hospital and new speed limit signs are being ordered. Laci Lawler was re-hired as deputy clerk despite the fact that the last deputy clerk was terminated due to budget constraints; she is slated to begin June 1, 2011. Two new workers were hired for the city's grass crew and several new part-time officers were hired for the Lumberton Police Department.