Review of February 7, 2012 Board Meeting

Mayor Holder opened the meeting by letting the public know that the funds have been released and the $9.5 million dollar senior living facility, Azalea Gardens, will soon begin construction on Camp Avenue. No comments were made during citizen's comments. Glen Powell and Gary Hickman informed the board that there's still $298,000 left in grant money that need to be used or returned to the state. The remaining funds could be used for park benches, gazebos, planting trees, bleachers, etc. Montoya Ball was granted permission to conduct the research needed to obtain the placement of a historical marker at the 5th Avenue Cemetery. Montoya informed the board that the cemetery is not registered and she would like to work to get the area registered. The board voted to have Mayor Holder sign the resolution for the 2012 CDBG Water System Grant. They also voted to advertise for a grant administrator and engineer. Mayor Holder noted that the city is not at the point that they must halt new hires, raises and workshops/training conferences since they need to have a 25% reserve in place for the next board. Unfortunately, they board hasn't been mindful of their spending and are now in a crunch to ensure that money is saved for the next board. The board voted to adhere to the Smoke Free Ordinance around all city owned building, grounds and vehicles; which means that no one is allowed to smoke within 15 feet of city owned building otherwise, the City of Lumberton could be subjected to repayment of the grant money they received from Smoke Free Mississippi.
The only major point of contention came when Timothy Johnson didn't want the mayor to change the wording of the motion requiring the advertisement for a CPA. I don't know if they paid attention, but when Alderman Rogers made a motion, he said that I make a motion to the order that was made by Mayor Holder and it was seconded by Rebecca Hale. It will be interesting to see what will be reflected in the minutes. The board voted to promote Officer Elsie Cowart to the position of Captain. She will not get a pay raise at the moment, but she will be the call out person and will have access to a take home car if the chief is not on duty. The board then attempted to amend the budget so they could grant a raise to Officer Michael Decell who was being moved from part time officer to full time officer at a pay rate of $12.50/hr. The vote on the motion was a tie and Mayor Holder voted against the budget amendment stating that the "we are already over our budget." Mayor Holder stated that the police department has already used 23% of it's budget and Rebecca Hale attempted to correct the mayor by stating that they police department should be at 33% but then Mayor Holder then stated that the police department is already used 44% of it's budget. Check mate. The board voted to hire Jacob Mathis as a full time certified part time officer at a pay rate of $10.50/hr. The board didn't get the opportunity to vote to override the mayor's veto of Joel Burkhalter as full time certified part time officer at a pay rate of $10.50/hr because his certification information was missing from his folder. The vote to override the mayor's veto to raise Roy Easley pay to $12.00/hr. failed. The board later went into executive session and Harold Williamson was terminated from the public works department. Meeting adjourned.