There was a special called meeting last night. So much took place; I don’t know where to begin. Some of you may be wondering about the picture attached to this post and I promise, I will address that matter. I want to apologize beforehand because this is going to be another long post. The first agenda item was to discuss the Lumberton Fireproof Panthers Volunteer Fired Department Contract and Services for the citizens of Lumberton. It seems that the State rejected the contract that was submitted. I’m not sure what’s going on but I will discuss the department later. It seems there is already declension among the group and I want to speak with former chief, Darren, to see if I can find out what happened. Also, I don’t know if anyone else noticed, but I need to know why the volunteer department need $600 in petty cash and why would they include this provision in their contract? That could possibly be the reason the contract was rejected and the board approve $600 in petty cash (for water and hydration material) they all need to be evaluated. Next was to address the fact that they are looking to reestablish the Lumberton Planning and Zoning Committee. The board wants individuals interested in serving on the committee to submit their resumes. I am not sure how effective this will be, Alderman Crider said it did not matter what the planning and zoning committee suggest, because the board will be the ones making the decision. You will understand that statement more later on in the post. There was supposed to be a discussion about the establishment of an ordinance limiting the number of animals in one location. That matter was tabled after a someone from the audience posed the following question: What if I have two small dogs, a housecat, and a couple of birds, a python and an aquarium: will I be in violation of the ordinance? Well, it’s back to the drawing board with that ordinance. Also, there was supposed to be a public hearing regarding the establishment of a noise ordinance. As a matter of fact, during prayer before the meeting, there was a car passing by with their music blasting. We almost started twerking because the music was drowning out the prayer. The public hearing has been rescheduled and will be held in October. The board voted to set their salaries. And they finally approved to pay Alderman Rogers the pay he was supposed to receive from last year. Alderman Dukes said he did not understand how they could pay him. So, in all thy getting; get an understanding. When the issue of giving up the salary came before the last board, the other individuals serving said they did not want to take a salary. However, Mayor Holder and Alderman Rogers said they wanted their salaries and it was added into the budget. The salary for the other aldermen was not added into the budget; therefore, they cannot get paid for a salary that was never budgeted. Please not, Alderman Dukes said “well, with three votes, they can get their salary.” No sir they cannot. Their salary was never included in the budget. But it’s rather telling that he would make such a statement and he is one that we need to keep a close eye on because little by little, his true intentions are beginning to show. That’s one of the reasons why I don’t like it when a person runs unopposed; we don’t have their campaign agenda to hold them accountable. We’re just going to have to watch Alderman Dukes and from what I’ve seen; he’s going to be rather similar to the person he replaced.
Another issue that came before the board was Mayor Winston’s request to rezone the Movie Star Building from M-1 to C-2. Firstly, there’s provisions in the Comprehensive Plan that prohibits spot zoning. The urgency to change the zoning of a building before getting a planning and zoning committee in place seems rather suspicious. Alderman Dukes said “when we have a business in place, we don’t need to slow the process.” Well, I beg to differ. If this is a shovel ready business, then we need to review their business plans, proposal, and projections. If they are ready to go into business, immediately, then this information should be in a packet before the board. What type of business they are looking to establish, what is their projected overhead, how many employees they are planning to hire, what is the pay ratio, what is their profit margins, how will this business effect Lumberton, how much revenue they have to ensure they are open for a number of years. These are the questions that need to be asked. Someone said it is good that we have educated, entrepreneurs serving on the board. Well, this vast knowledge that should be shared by their experience as a business owner was not showing last night. The only voice of reason was that of experience and that was shared by Alderman Quincy Rogers. It does not matter how much business knowledge one possess; it does not serve the City of Lumberton if we’re going to disregard guidelines that were set in place for a reason. If a business is interested in coming to any city, they would not have any problem submitting their business proposal; if they are on the up and up. Haven’t we learned anything from the fact that the Movie Star building was sold at loss to the City of Lumberton. I don’t know what’s going on with the need to change the zoning of the building, but I think if you gently scratch the surface, a Lott will be hiding in the shadows. So my advice to the board would be to tread lightly because this seems like another set up.
Another eye brow rising moment was the fact that Mayor Ben Winston wanted to have another audit performed for the City of Lumberton. We just paid $16,000 for an audit and we are being consulted by accountant Willie Sims. He is working with the City of Lumberton to help with their finances. I am not certain why the city would pay for an additional audit and out next audit is not due until 7/31/2014.
Now, for the meat of the meeting. The picture shows the paperwork for the fines owed to the City of Lumberton. The City of Lumberton is owed over $547,000 in fines and they have not been collected. When Stephanie Mulling, Sue Guidry and Cindy Wall were over the departments, they collected $11,654 (I may be off by a few dollars) in one year. Well, Betty Speights, Deputy Court Clerk, collected over $10,000 in one month. So, the collection process works but the person collecting the fines must actually work. Obviously, the other clerks were taking their cue from their leader and the results lead to this accumulation of unpaid fines. I say the large stack of papers when I went into the meeting and my mouth literally dropped when Chief Cowart explained to the board that the mountain of paperwork sitting in the middle of the board room was uncollected fines. Amazingly, Stephanie Mullings, Cindy Wall and Dennis Hobson managed to navigate the mountain of paperwork to pull the ticket I owed but for some reason, the process could not be applied to the remaining $546,859. So, the countless hours spent enforcing the law was just left in an office collecting dust. There were some that wanted to give the offenders amnesty, but I think they should pay their fines like everyone else had to do. Surprisingly, one business owner said “10% of something is better than nothing.” Well, the next time I patronize one of his establishments, I’m going to say here’s 10%; it’s better than nothing. I don’t think that would be acceptable for his bottom line and it definitely is not acceptable when it comes to the City of Lumberton. The problem here is that the clerks were not doing their jobs. The current clerk need to be given the tools needed to get this money collected because regardless of the discount that is offered to the offenders, the State want all their money. On another note, the previous clerk has not paid any of the state assessments since November of 2012. So the City of Lumberton is still playing catch up and every month, they’re discovering another unpaid account. It’s going to take some years for Lumberton to dig themselves out of the hole they were led into by the previous board. A lot of this could have been avoided if they would have listed to Mayor Holder and implemented a system of checks and balances.
There was a special called meeting last night. So much took place; I don’t know where to begin. Some of you may be wondering about the picture attached to this post and I promise, I will address that matter. I want to apologize beforehand because this is going to be another long post. The first agenda item was to discuss the Lumberton Fireproof Panthers Volunteer Fired Department Contract and Services for the citizens of Lumberton. It seems that the State rejected the contract that was submitted. I’m not sure what’s going on but I will discuss the department later. It seems there is already declension among the group and I want to speak with former chief, Darren, to see if I can find out what happened. Also, I don’t know if anyone else noticed, but I need to know why the volunteer department need $600 in petty cash and why would they include this provision in their contract? That could possibly be the reason the contract was rejected and the board approve $600 in petty cash (for water and hydration material) they all need to be evaluated. Next was to address the fact that they are looking to reestablish the Lumberton Planning and Zoning Committee. The board wants individuals interested in serving on the committee to submit their resumes. I am not sure how effective this will be, Alderman Crider said it did not matter what the planning and zoning committee suggest, because the board will be the ones making the decision. You will understand that statement more later on in the post. There was supposed to be a discussion about the establishment of an ordinance limiting the number of animals in one location. That matter was tabled after a someone from the audience posed the following question: What if I have two small dogs, a housecat, and a couple of birds, a python and an aquarium: will I be in violation of the ordinance? Well, it’s back to the drawing board with that ordinance. Also, there was supposed to be a public hearing regarding the establishment of a noise ordinance. As a matter of fact, during prayer before the meeting, there was a car passing by with their music blasting. We almost started twerking because the music was drowning out the prayer. The public hearing has been rescheduled and will be held in October. The board voted to set their salaries. And they finally approved to pay Alderman Rogers the pay he was supposed to receive from last year. Alderman Dukes said he did not understand how they could pay him. So, in all thy getting; get an understanding. When the issue of giving up the salary came before the last board, the other individuals serving said they did not want to take a salary. However, Mayor Holder and Alderman Rogers said they wanted their salaries and it was added into the budget. The salary for the other aldermen was not added into the budget; therefore, they cannot get paid for a salary that was never budgeted. Please not, Alderman Dukes said “well, with three votes, they can get their salary.” No sir they cannot. Their salary was never included in the budget. But it’s rather telling that he would make such a statement and he is one that we need to keep a close eye on because little by little, his true intentions are beginning to show. That’s one of the reasons why I don’t like it when a person runs unopposed; we don’t have their campaign agenda to hold them accountable. We’re just going to have to watch Alderman Dukes and from what I’ve seen; he’s going to be rather similar to the person he replaced.
Another issue that came before the board was Mayor Winston’s request to rezone the Movie Star Building from M-1 to C-2. Firstly, there’s provisions in the Comprehensive Plan that prohibits spot zoning. The urgency to change the zoning of a building before getting a planning and zoning committee in place seems rather suspicious. Alderman Dukes said “when we have a business in place, we don’t need to slow the process.” Well, I beg to differ. If this is a shovel ready business, then we need to review their business plans, proposal, and projections. If they are ready to go into business, immediately, then this information should be in a packet before the board. What type of business they are looking to establish, what is their projected overhead, how many employees they are planning to hire, what is the pay ratio, what is their profit margins, how will this business effect Lumberton, how much revenue they have to ensure they are open for a number of years. These are the questions that need to be asked. Someone said it is good that we have educated, entrepreneurs serving on the board. Well, this vast knowledge that should be shared by their experience as a business owner was not showing last night. The only voice of reason was that of experience and that was shared by Alderman Quincy Rogers. It does not matter how much business knowledge one possess; it does not serve the City of Lumberton if we’re going to disregard guidelines that were set in place for a reason. If a business is interested in coming to any city, they would not have any problem submitting their business proposal; if they are on the up and up. Haven’t we learned anything from the fact that the Movie Star building was sold at loss to the City of Lumberton. I don’t know what’s going on with the need to change the zoning of the building, but I think if you gently scratch the surface, a Lott will be hiding in the shadows. So my advice to the board would be to tread lightly because this seems like another set up.
Another eye brow rising moment was the fact that Mayor Ben Winston wanted to have another audit performed for the City of Lumberton. We just paid $16,000 for an audit and we are being consulted by accountant Willie Sims. He is working with the City of Lumberton to help with their finances. I am not certain why the city would pay for an additional audit and out next audit is not due until 7/31/2014.
Now, for the meat of the meeting. The picture shows the paperwork for the fines owed to the City of Lumberton. The City of Lumberton is owed over $547,000 in fines and they have not been collected. When Stephanie Mulling, Sue Guidry and Cindy Wall were over the departments, they collected $11,654 (I may be off by a few dollars) in one year. Well, Betty Speights, Deputy Court Clerk, collected over $10,000 in one month. So, the collection process works but the person collecting the fines must actually work. Obviously, the other clerks were taking their cue from their leader and the results lead to this accumulation of unpaid fines. I say the large stack of papers when I went into the meeting and my mouth literally dropped when Chief Cowart explained to the board that the mountain of paperwork sitting in the middle of the board room was uncollected fines. Amazingly, Stephanie Mullings, Cindy Wall and Dennis Hobson managed to navigate the mountain of paperwork to pull the ticket I owed but for some reason, the process could not be applied to the remaining $546,859. So, the countless hours spent enforcing the law was just left in an office collecting dust. There were some that wanted to give the offenders amnesty, but I think they should pay their fines like everyone else had to do. Surprisingly, one business owner said “10% of something is better than nothing.” Well, the next time I patronize one of his establishments, I’m going to say here’s 10%; it’s better than nothing. I don’t think that would be acceptable for his bottom line and it definitely is not acceptable when it comes to the City of Lumberton. The problem here is that the clerks were not doing their jobs. The current clerk need to be given the tools needed to get this money collected because regardless of the discount that is offered to the offenders, the State want all their money. On another note, the previous clerk has not paid any of the state assessments since November of 2012. So the City of Lumberton is still playing catch up and every month, they’re discovering another unpaid account. It’s going to take some years for Lumberton to dig themselves out of the hole they were led into by the previous board. A lot of this could have been avoided if they would have listed to Mayor Holder and implemented a system of checks and balances.
I was told Stephanie was mentioned in your blog yet again. After reading, you need to get your facts straight. You say the assessments have not been paid since Nov. 2012. The Dec. claims were approved Jan. 2, which was Stephanie's last day to work when she got the shingles. She had checks printed to be mailed after they were approved that night at the board meeting. But the Mayor and clerk never mailed them once Stephanie was put on FMLA. So how can it be her fault. And how she can be blamed if they were not paid after that. She no longer works for the City of Lumberton, I would so appreciate it if you would just leave my her alone. Thank you.
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