Yesterday's News

The board of aldermen held a special called meeting yesterday. Bobby Gibson served as moderator for the meeting since Mayor Holder did not make it to the meeting. (I wonder how will I be able to blog about this meeting that I didn't attend and Mayor Holder was not there; especially since everyone says that she controls what is said on this blog.) Anyway. . the board was addressed by Kathy Taylor regarding insurance for the employees of the City of Lumberton. I know the board is choosing insurance carriers based on what plan best suits the aldermen, but what about the other city workers that actually put in work to obtain this insurance. Has anyone taken a survey of the employees to see which insurance carrier they would like to have or is this another board based decision that says to hell with what others may think? The board attempted to override the mayor's veto of the hiring of Stacy Lawler, and after an exhaustive round of explanations, Hale was able to convince Gibson that he not able to vote because he was chairing the meeting. The board voted to send our clerk to another training meeting in Gulfport, despite the fact that the City of Lumberton is still in a budget crisis and this is not a mandatory training conference. Which brings me to another vote during the special called meeting. The board voted to pay two officers for a training program they attended. I am not an employee of the City of Lumberton, but I have attended a lot of board meetings and when JoAnn Ladner was city clerk, I paid attention to what was being said. The pay for the officers was not listed on the agenda. Whenever you have an agenda item to pay anyone, the amount should be listed. Instead, the aldermen voted to pay without the agenda stating how much the officers will be paid and now it's going to be a part of the official minutes. But the best part of the meeting happened after the meeting was adjourned. Bobby Gibson told Hale, Crider and Johnson to meet him in the back for an executive session and like sheep being led to the slaugther, they went into an illegal meeting with a reporter from the Hattiesburg American sitting in the audience. I was up early this morning checking hattiesburgamerican.com to see what was written about the meeting and to my surprise, the reporter, like many others, have swept it under the rug. I'm glad that Mayor Holder was not there and I hope she's finished with trying to tell the board about their duties and responsibilities as elected officials. She's fully aware of Hosea 4:6 that says "my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge" and if you keep reading it goes on to say "because you have rejected knowledge."