Tickets, Tires and A Whole Lot of Talking

Last night, there was a special called board meeting. There were only seven agenda items, but the meeting took over two hours to complete. The meeting started with a discussion on how to spend the surplus of $300,000 from the Katrina Go-Zone Project. One would think that a group that has no problem with mindlessly spending the citizens of Lumberton money would spend 45 minutes trying to get an understanding on how/where this money could be spent. The lease for the Gold Coast Skydivers is about to expire and the board has yet to get any clear understanding of how much money is being generated at the Lumberton airport. The overall consensus of the board was that they would like for the organization to remain in Lumberton, but they want the City of Lumberton to reap some of the financial benefits of the skydives since the City of Lumberton secured the grants that help make the airport operational. Now I have said many things about Stephanie Mullings, but I've realized that many of my observations have been one-sided. Last night, Stephanie was on a ball. She was giving out all types of info, explaining the facts regarding the lease agreement, and the memorandum of understanding and also gave some very insightful info about the amusement taxes the city should be collecting. Kudos to Stephanie! The board voted to hire Byron Lee at a pay rate of $10.00/hour at the recommendation Ben Barrett. The agenda didn't say what he was being hired for, but it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The board also voted, again, to give Roy Easley a raise, despite agreeing with Mayor Holder just two weeks ago that they should halt all raises due to budget constraints. So, if they're going to continue to vote to give Roy a raise, then they should give the guys that are out in the ditches and riding on the back of the garbage truck a raise, but you know Lumberton, they love to reward mediocrity. The board authorized the city clerk to advertise for depository bids for the City of Lumberton and the board accepted the resignation of Daniel Wilczek, effective March 1, 2012. The board then closed the meeting to go into executive session to discuss personnel issues in the police department and this is when the meeting got interesting.
While the board was in executive session, I had the opportunity to speak with two police officers. They were both talking about how they approach ticketing and it offered me some insight on mindset of police officers. It seemed that the two officers are honorable men and that's refreshing for the Lumberton Police Department. They were talking about officer discretion, etc. but I did agree with the writing of tickets for individuals riding children around in their laps or not in secured car seats. They have different approaches when writing tickets, but they both said they try to be fair, but without Melissa serving as court clerk, we have no way of knowing. But in all fairness, if he's being fair, then the majority of his tickets will not be on Myrick Avenue. . instead, he will have almost an equal amount of tickets on Main Street as he have on Myrick Avenue, he will have the same amount of tickets written around Wood-Hinton as 5th Avenue Park, there will be an similar amount of tickets in Wards 1 and Ward 2 as in Wards 3 and 4. I don't know what it's like to be a police officer and I have no intention of becoming a police officer. I can't imagine a person cursing out a police officer in this day and age, but I guess it happens. I'm taking the officer at his word, but he must realize the history of the police and the disenfranchised citizens of Lumberton. We've. . well. . I've personally witnessed the abuse of power that's been wielded by those wearing a badge. So, word of advice, wear you seat belts properly and don't ride around with your children in your laps. Personally, I think the people that have complaints against the police department should present their cases before the board and stop running to their aldermen to police the police. Document your interaction with the officer and keep a copy and send it to the board. With all of this technology, record your interaction with the officer. Almost everyone has a cell phone and there a way to record on your cell phone without holding the cell phone in the officers face. Soon after my conversation with the two officers, Chief Hobson had finished talking to the board members and I noticed he had a bag full of what looked like industrial tacks. I asked him about the rusty nails/tacts and he said that there were found along Myrick Avenue and he told me that the tires on more than one police car was damaged by the tacts. Now that's a bit much. If a man/woman has a problem with the police department, then they should be man/woman enough to confront the officer. Laying tact/nails indiscriminately in the road, hoping to flatten the tire of a police cruiser is the act of a coward and in case they didn't notice, police cars are not the only cars to travel in that area. So, a word of caution, be mindful when traveling on Myrick Avenue and North 10th Street because you might, inadvertently, get "stuck" by a trap that was set for the LPD. Later, the board ended executive session and it was noted that no actions were taken in executive session. However, the most interesting portion of executive session was the fact that the police officer stated that there was big, big drug problem in the City of Lumberton and I must agree. . there is a Hale of a drug problem in the City of Lumberton maybe the LPD will come up with a solution on how to tackle this problem over lunch.