Investigation in Progress

Last night, after the special call meeting, the member of the Lumberton Board of Aldermen gave Mayor Holder the approval to hire an investigator and they will adhere to any of the recommendations he/she makes. It seems that the group of aldermen that had no problem terminating the employment of several police officers, clerks, and chief of police, need additional proof to terminate the employment of the city clerk, in an at will state. Although the board is comprised of men, it seems that the City of Lumberton has selected the only eunuchs in Lumberton to serve as their representatives. I found it ironic that on the night Scandal returned to the airwaves, the City of Lumberton was dealing with it's own version of Scandal. After deliberating for hours, the do nothing board, passed the buck once again. Either Stephanie has Olivia Pope representing her or she has a special envelope with the secrets of several elected officials. If the latter is the case, I would like to take this opportunity to reach out to Stephanie and ask her could I have a copy of the files she compiled for situations like this. If you give me a glimpse into your book of information, I promise I will never utter your name on this blog ever again. Some may say that I overstep my bounds, but the only logical reason for the board not taking action to end this fiasco is the threat of something we may not know about. How else can one explain this mess? For years, there have been rumors of Stephanie stealing from city hall. However, the missing funds were not as noticeable as long as Cooper Power was in the city and paying a hefty water bill every month, but as the well dried up, it became a little harder to explain the shortages. Stephanie has had free reign for years and many of her actions/decisions were left unchecked. But somehow, she has managed to spin an impressive web. For instance, someone explained why our check payments for water bills are deposited late. Allegedly, Stephanie allow her friends/family to pay their water bill without having the funds to cover the bill. So, she, allegedly, hold their checks, along with everyone else to make it look like they were all paid at the same time. This also allow the person to have a time-stamped receipt showing the bill was paid before the 10th. Now, there are some that said Sue, allegedly said "she's not going to jail for anyone". Well, my view on that matter is, if Sue goes to jail, it will be due to the part she played in the matter. I don't care how you add it up, one person cannot steal from city hall alone. They must have a partner. Sue may or may not have been getting money from the situation, but I vaguely remember there was a time where she had a seemingly never ending surplus of comp time. Which brings me to my other point. When two police officers found out their insurance had lapsed despite having the funds taken from their account every week, Stephanie found a way to get them terminated. Where was the investigation then? When a hard working mother tried to find out about the status of her child support payments, Stephanie claimed she was threatened, and the woman was threatened with a tazer, despite having a heart issue, and was handcuffed and taken to jail. Where was the investigation then? When Mayor Holder was out of office for surgery, Stephanie along with Hale, Johnson, Crider and Gibson, wrote and adopted a new employee handbook that took all the superintending powers away from the mayor and when an police officer refused to sign the acceptance agreement requiring them to adhere to the new rules/regulations, this police officer was also terminated. Stephanie also, allegedly, went through a fine book of over $525,000 in fines, copy/pasted the judge's signature and had a person arrested for failure to pay a $141 fine. Now where was all of this initiative when it came to the other hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines owed the City of Lumberton? Well, we all know that this one fine was due to a personal agenda she and Hobson had. According to the reports, there's so much money missing from the fines collected, it may be a good thing she didn't collect any more fines. Also, there was the report of the free water being provided to certain businesses. Timothy Johnson said he would investigate but that never took off the ground. (Pssst... Stephanie, I would throw up both hands, do a cartwheel during the Homecoming Game and Lumberfest if you would show me the file you have on Timothy Johnson. . How you doing. .in my Wendy Williams voice). Also, the person that was fired for allegedly giving a $10 credit and then re-hired had given the board a certified letter outlining the improprieties she witnessed at city hall (and that was probably the real reason for the termination) but her plea fell on deaf ears. I could go on and on but I think you're getting the picture. I was not pleased that the board are placing yet another burden on the citizens of Lumberton. In case you didn't know, this investigation will not be free. However, it will finally put to rest any rumors and innuendo. We will finally know once and for all, what is going on at city hall. It's my hope that this investigation does not last too long and it is my hope that the men who permitted this fiasco to continue for so long, finally man up and do what need to be done. I'm looking forward to see what is revealed during this investigation. I will keep you posted. Peace and blessings.