Recap of November 5, 2013 Board Meeting: The Grinch Edition

I would like to apologize for the delayed recap of the November 5, 2013 meeting but just as Paul stated in 1 Thessalonians 2:18, “Satan hindered me.” Well, I’m not sure that is entirely correct, but it does apply to part of the reason for not blogging. Before attending the board meeting, I was wrestling with a decision about whether or not I should continue to blog. I had an encounter that left me feeling some type of way. Just for the record, this is going to be a long blog post and it by no means is going to be politically correct. (Content removed.....it may be uploaded onto my other blog...the content was not germaine to this post and was not directly related to Lumberton Politics.) There were several people on the agenda that were supposed to speak but they were not in attendance. There was a proposal submitted by Charles Marshall of Ms. Regional Housing Authority. I will blog about that later. The department heads gave their reports. Please keep Ryan Easley, Director, Public Works in your prayers because he was in the hospital for a rotator cuff injury. Mayor Ben Winston gave his monthly; I want to thank some white people for their support report. This month it was Ms. Sunny Mitchell. He wanted to thank her because she reported that some relative were visiting and they liked the way the medians were decorated. The board approved the $50,000 payment to have the roads leading to Azalea Garden repaved. This was part of the contract with Ms. Regional Housing Authority. During the building process, the service roads were severely damaged and they are making good on their promise to repair the roads after the completion of the buildings. FYI: Open house for the Azalea Gardens senior living facility will be November 14, 2013. There was an agenda item to hold weekly meetings and workshops. This is when the meeting started to unravel. Thankfully, we have Alderman Quincy Rogers on the board because his experience has been valuable and he is willing to speak up when laws are being broken. This is not Crider’s first term as an alderman, but he’s silent whenever the legality of certain agenda items come into question, but he’s always whispering into the ears of Mayor Winston. Interesting? He proposed the weekly meetings as workshops but he also said the board can vote at the meetings. Well sir, that is not true. Either these are going to be categorized as special called meetings or workshops. If they’re workshops, there will not be any voting. If they are special called meetings, the agenda cannot be amended. Alderman Duke then barked that he can attend at least two meetings but when Alderwoman Rogers and Alderman Rogers suggested that the board returns to having the workshop on Monday before the meeting. Dukes then yelped, “That didn’t work.” Well, how in the Hattiesburg did he know if they worked or not. If memory serves me correctly, he did not start attending meetings until after he was elected to serve as alderman. As Alderman Rogers said, the meetings did work; the participants just did not want to listen as the laws were being outlined by Mayor Holder. I’m not certain about Dukes agenda but Ward 4 is going to have another four years without any representation. It was at this point that Winston said the meetings are needed because Lumberton need help. I don’t understand why the workshop can’t’ be held on the Monday before the board meeting. For some reason, Winston feels that the meetings are needed every week. It was at this point that Winston made a reference to his campaign where he said he was endowed with “supernatural powers.” He said he did not know that the city’s finances were so dark. At this point, I was somewhat pleased that he remembered his statement. I was glad because if he remembered that statement he also remembered the statement he made that “there are several shovel ready bidnesses (businesses) that are waiting for him to get elected to start locating in Lumberton.” Well, you have been in office for over 100 days and I have yet to see any shovels or businesses rushing to get to Lumberton. Was this just another empty campaign promise Mayor Winston? Another interesting agenda item was the board’s decision to hire Mr. Mark Fijman of Phelps Dunbar Law Firm to represent the City of Lumberton regarding a legal matter involving former police officer, Ms. E.K. Johnson at the recommendation of city attorney, Lindsey Carter. The attorney is taking on this case for $7,500. There was an order to allow Merlene Wall, city clerk to attend the City Clerk Winter Educational Conference. There was an order to reimburse Alderwoman-at-Large Cora Rogers for her attendance to the CSD Compliance Workshop in Tupelo, Ms. on September 20, 2013 in the amount of $513.07. This was another contentious part of the meeting. According to Rogers, she attended the meeting at the recommendation of Mayor Winston. Alderman Dukes felt she should not get reimbursed for attending the meeting. The vote was taken and since Alderman Jay McGraw was absent, the vote was tied. Mayor Winston refused the break the tie. Alderman Quincy Rogers told him he had to break the tie and he flat out refused. Winston then said he will pay half of the cost and told Cora that she had to swallow the rest. When he was pressed to have that added to the minutes, he said she would just have to take him to court. Another contentious part of the meeting came when the board had to vote on the agenda item to discuss and vote to allow the city clerk to decorate city hall for all holidays. Apparently, Winston did not want this on the agenda because he said, “ I told her not to put this on the agenda.” Well, that was just the beginning. It was said that there was a group threatening to sue the city because they were opposed to having city hall decorated. Well, let them sue. These days, you can indict a hamburger but just because you get an attorney to take your case does not mean you are going to win your case. The board voted on the matter and again, it was a tie vote. Winston asked for everyone supporting the decorations to raise their hands and almost everyone in the audience raised their hands. He looked out and said to the audience “you don’t count; I was talking about the people up here.” Winston also went as far as saying it was against federal law to decorate public building and that the White House was in violation of this law by decorating for Christmas. At one point, Winston also threatened to have a citizen ejected from the meeting for expressing her first amendment rights. But I hope no one was surprised by this move. Before the election, he tried to have a octogenarian (person who is 80-89 years of age) widow banned from “his” church; it’s doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to see that he would attempt that at a public meeting. I have tried to let some things pass, but this is where I draw the line. So excuse me while I drop a little biblical knowledge on you. We have this mayor that’s getting all these favorable comments and posts every Saturday as he stands at the intersection and pray for unity/growth in the City of Lumberton. But this is the same person that does not have a problem trying to eject a person from church or a board meeting. Now, if you will, turn your bibles to Matthew 6:5. If you notice, Jesus is speaking and he says thusly: “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, That they have their reward.” Now that I have your attention, I would like you to now turn to Luke 20:46-47. I’m not going to go into the entirety of the scripture but it warns us to “beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greeting in the marketplace and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” Now, keep in mind, the sin is not the audible prayer but it is the pretentiousness. Jesus condemns the hypocrisy of pretending to have a relationship with God while oppressing the very people He loves.” I don’t know his heart, only God knows what’s in a man’s heart, but in the words of a dearly beloved and departed pastor “I’m just a fruit inspector.” Pardon the break but back to the recap of the meeting. The measure to allow city hall to be decorated for the holidays passed and the Christmas parade will be December 14, 2014. There was an agenda item to start the process of getting a drug dog but the process was not completed because some aldermen did not understand the process. Also, Rick Carbello, donated a car to the Lumberton Police Department. From what I was told, there was an impromptu meeting after the official meeting, but I generally don’t stick around after the meeting has been concluded. I apologize for the long post, but it may be some time before I get around to posting again. Govern yourselves accordingly.