For some reason, I was not interested in blogging about the latest board meeting in the City of Lumberton. I guess I have grown weary of ringing the bell. However, after checking the metrics for the number of people logging onto the blog, I decided to post the review. The first order of business was to discuss and review approval of Mrs. Rachel Jefferson's proposal and presentation to the board a website for the City of Lumberton. The board will review the matter and thanks to Alderman Quincy Rogers, they will review any other presentations for a city website. At the start of his term, Mayor Ben Winston asked me to gather information for a city website but he never presented the idea to the board which is completely fine with me. I have a number of followers of this blog and I informed Mayor Winston that until I am on the payroll of the City of Lumberton, this blog will never cease. So, I will continue to inform via my format and I have no intentions of presenting a proposal for webmaster for the City of Lumberton. So, those that were avoiding contact with me at the meeting can exhale because I have other plans.
Next on the agenda was to allow Ms. Anita Taylor use of the baseball field on April 16, April 30, and May 5, 2014 for Lumberton Head start Activities. Alderman Tommy Dukes seemingly had a problem with the field being used for the head start field day activity; an event that has been taking place for years. Dukes wanted to have a meeting with Ms. Taylor and discuss the matter because he was confused as to why the agenda stated they should contact Center Administrator, Ms. Angela Simon, with any concerns or questions. For the rest of us it was a no brainer, you would contact Ms. Simon if you had any questions or concerns but obviously that was a foreign concept. Hopefully, he will get a better understanding of the matter and that would not prevent the head start from having their field day activity. There was an order to allow the city clerk to put an ad in the Lamar Times for the RFQ (Request for Qualifications) for Energy Performance Contracting Services for the City of Lumberton. Mr. Robert Peterson of Empire Pipe and Supply presented a proposal for Master Meter Drive-by automatic meter reading system. The board passed a motion to allow the city attorney to determine legal cost of eminent domain process, if needed, for the parcels identified in the 2014 FAA/AIP Grant Project.
Now, this is when the meeting became interesting; department head reports. Most of the reports were rather mundane, but Tuesday's meeting was the first time I actually saw our Chief of Police conduct herself as a department head. Prior to the meeting, I was thinking Chief Cowart should take some criminal justice classes at USM and become an instructor at a police academy because I was beginning to think she didn't have what it takes to be an effective Chief of Police. Well, I guess when it's your name that's on the line, you begin to take charge. At some point, there was some confusion about the court system and who had access to the court records regarding tickets and fines. It seems there is a system in place where multiple people, including but not limited to the city clerk and chief of police, can access the records. On the surface, it does not seem to be a problem but when it was revealed that a person can go into the records and change and/or delete information and there's no way of knowing who changed or deleted the information, the problem became very clear. As we all know, there was problem with checks and balance with the last clerk and as Chief Cowart stated, she needed to have the system secure and corrected because she would be the one held accountable. After a heated debate, it was reveled by city clerk, Merlene Wall, that Mayor Ben Winston wanted her name added to the account. First off, someone needs to school Mayor Winston about the parameters of his duties and responsibilities as a Mayor in a code charter municipality. Side note: This is probably the reason why he passed the website project on to someone else because he and other members on the board do not appreciate my candor. I speak the truth and sometimes it may seem brutal but if speaking the truth is shunned by those that proclaim to be truth seekers; Houston we have a problem. I guess George Orwell was correct when she said "speaking truth is treason in the kingdom of lies." Pardon me for the program break but now back to our regularly scheduled blogging. Contrary to what Winston may think, I can be an asset to him and this city but I cannot force him to accept assistance; especially when his supporters are encouraging him to stay away from me. Nevertheless, the matter regarding the access would have continued to remain unchecked had it not been for an amendment to the agenda that was made by Alderman Quincy Rogers to have Merlene Wall's named removed. Thankfully, there was two other alderpersons that were willing to stand up and take corrective actions when a mayor makes decisions outside his authority.
Also during this time, City Clerk, Merlene Wall, made her report to the board. Needless to say, there's more information missing. This time, the personnel file for Officer K. Johnson has completely vanished. At some point during the discussion, Chief Cowart asserted that the files were never in her possession and she gave a recount of when Alderman Bobby Gibson, Alderman Kent Crider and Alderwoman Rebecca Hale allegedly removed files from the Chief of Police office after Dennis Hobson was terminated by the City of Lumberton. As I scrambled to turn on my camera, I pointed it directly at Alderman Crider because I was certain he was going to respond and he didn't say a word. I guess I found a method to keep Crider at bay; technology. At almost every board meeting, he shouts that he talked to the Attorney General and the Attorney General said this or that. Well, I searched the Attorney General's website and I found two (2) attorney general opinions submission by Crider; one was on January 29, 2010 and the other one was on August 20, 2010. So, when he shouted that it was not against the law for him to serve on the fire board and the board the alderman because he spoke to the attorney general; he was lying. As a matter of fact, Alderman Quincy Rogers presented the board with the opinion showing that is indeed against the law for a member of the board of alderman to serve in dual positions. According the
Miss. A.G. website, there are several opinions on this matter and all of them say it a violation. It states that "serving as a member of the board of commissioners and also serving as an alderman is a violation of Article 1, Section 2 of the Mississippi Constitution. At the last special called board meeting, Winston said he wanted Crider on the fire board but now that it has been proven that it's a violation of the laws, will the board take corrective actions and have him removed from the fire board and request the return of the Fuel man card that Crider currently has access to. Also in the report from the city clerk, it was revealed that the city owned computer was finally returned by the former city clerk and after having it tested by Best Buy; the internal had drive as intentionally damaged; allegedly speaking of course. Another side note: Chief Cowart has been asking for a budget workshop because there's not accurate record of what's in the city's budget. Also, I was just wondering why the police department is not allowed to use the monies they collect to help offset their budget expenditures. The public works director gave his report and once again, there was no one there to give a report on behalf of the city funded, Lumberton Volunteer Fire Department.
Mayor Winston gave his monthly report and he stated that we lost an opportunity to have a truck stop restaurant here in Lumberton. I'm jumping the gun, but there were some questions raised during the citizen's comment portion of the meeting about the fact that someone is approving permits without actually getting the matters presented to the Lumberton Planning and Zoning Committee. Just the other week, a woman was demanding to have electrical power connected to some trailers she have on Lower Airport Road and Johnny Buckley, building code inspector/enforcer, allegedly demanded to have the power connected. As far as I know, this matter and numerous other matters were never presented to the LPZC. As I stated in an earlier blog, someone is making side deals and that is not proper protocol. For the record, Lower Airport Road is zoned agricultural/residential and Buckley is trying to make decisions on what can and cannot be done in the City of Lumberton without taking the proper steps. The LPZC does not make the decisions; the final decision is made by the board, based on the comprehensive plan. They think this is just a favor for a friend, but I am certain that Kirkland is waiting for the board to approve this person's request to put trailers on Lower Airport Road so he can do the same since his request to do so was denied some years ago. And while we're on this subject, I don't recall any plans for a truck stop/restaurant being presented to the LPZC. Again, we have side deals in place and who knows, if the citizens of Lumberton knew of the plan, they could have submitted letters asking the company to locate their business in this area.
The board approved the minutes for the meetings and that's when Alderman Quincy Rogers presented to A.G. Opinion to Crider and the rest of the board. The paid and unpaid claims of March, 2014 were approved. The board voted to allow all public works employees to receive Hepatitis shots. The board is acquiring a truck that was seized during a drug raid. The police department will try a 15 day free trial subscription for Lexis Nexis Accurprint for government verification and identification software program for fines and collection purposes. BBI and Willie Sims will do some onsite budget training. There was an order to discuss and vote on the visibility o residential and commercial addresses throughout Lumberton. The board then closed the meeting to go into executive session.
After the board exited from executive session, Mayor Winston announced that no actions were taken. Well, I later found that to be not true. It seems that Kent Crider wanted the city attorney, Lindsey Carter, to take legal actions against me for posting the video of his untruths. When I see Crider, I can tell the lights are on but the elevator seems to be stuck. The meetings are public and can be recorded. How does he think they're aired on the news? There was something said to the effect that my blog say "Government Website" or something of that nature. To be honest, I really didn't notice. But since Crider and others are on my blog more than I am, I will take his word. But also on my blog is the following disclaimer: "The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the City of Lumberton. It should be quite obvious that any employee or elected official of the City of Lumberton has not approved, endorsed, embraced, friended, liked, tweeted or authorized any posts on this blog." I suppose Crider overlooked that portion of my blog. However, that is not the point. The point I am attempting to make is if they voted on an order to allow the city attorney to draft a letter for me to cease and desist, they are in violation of the
Mississippi Sunshine Laws because Mayor Winston came out and said no actions were taken. I'm not certain what was said but I will await the letter and once it's received, I will proceed to file my ethic violation complaints against the board and the clerk because it's time out for people not doing their jobs. There are laws in place for a reason and if the mayor is allowed to continue to violate the law without anyone going on record to correct him, then as they say in the streets, they can get it to. On another note, every month, we're hearing reports of missing money, missing paperwork, missing minutes, missing personnel files, etc. Instead of wasting the city attorney's time by having him draft a useless letter that will eventually become fodder for another blog post; use the attorney to find out what measures can be taken to try and get some answers on all that's missing from city hall. Take that energy and try to get some of the money we lost. Try to restore dignity to the office of the city clerk. Try to show that you're a board of progress and not personal agendas.
For some reason, I was not interested in blogging about the latest board meeting in the City of Lumberton. I guess I have grown weary of ringing the bell. However, after checking the metrics for the number of people logging onto the blog, I decided to post the review. The first order of business was to discuss and review approval of Mrs. Rachel Jefferson's proposal and presentation to the board a website for the City of Lumberton. The board will review the matter and thanks to Alderman Quincy Rogers, they will review any other presentations for a city website. At the start of his term, Mayor Ben Winston asked me to gather information for a city website but he never presented the idea to the board which is completely fine with me. I have a number of followers of this blog and I informed Mayor Winston that until I am on the payroll of the City of Lumberton, this blog will never cease. So, I will continue to inform via my format and I have no intentions of presenting a proposal for webmaster for the City of Lumberton. So, those that were avoiding contact with me at the meeting can exhale because I have other plans.
Next on the agenda was to allow Ms. Anita Taylor use of the baseball field on April 16, April 30, and May 5, 2014 for Lumberton Head start Activities. Alderman Tommy Dukes seemingly had a problem with the field being used for the head start field day activity; an event that has been taking place for years. Dukes wanted to have a meeting with Ms. Taylor and discuss the matter because he was confused as to why the agenda stated they should contact Center Administrator, Ms. Angela Simon, with any concerns or questions. For the rest of us it was a no brainer, you would contact Ms. Simon if you had any questions or concerns but obviously that was a foreign concept. Hopefully, he will get a better understanding of the matter and that would not prevent the head start from having their field day activity. There was an order to allow the city clerk to put an ad in the Lamar Times for the RFQ (Request for Qualifications) for Energy Performance Contracting Services for the City of Lumberton. Mr. Robert Peterson of Empire Pipe and Supply presented a proposal for Master Meter Drive-by automatic meter reading system. The board passed a motion to allow the city attorney to determine legal cost of eminent domain process, if needed, for the parcels identified in the 2014 FAA/AIP Grant Project.
Now, this is when the meeting became interesting; department head reports. Most of the reports were rather mundane, but Tuesday's meeting was the first time I actually saw our Chief of Police conduct herself as a department head. Prior to the meeting, I was thinking Chief Cowart should take some criminal justice classes at USM and become an instructor at a police academy because I was beginning to think she didn't have what it takes to be an effective Chief of Police. Well, I guess when it's your name that's on the line, you begin to take charge. At some point, there was some confusion about the court system and who had access to the court records regarding tickets and fines. It seems there is a system in place where multiple people, including but not limited to the city clerk and chief of police, can access the records. On the surface, it does not seem to be a problem but when it was revealed that a person can go into the records and change and/or delete information and there's no way of knowing who changed or deleted the information, the problem became very clear. As we all know, there was problem with checks and balance with the last clerk and as Chief Cowart stated, she needed to have the system secure and corrected because she would be the one held accountable. After a heated debate, it was reveled by city clerk, Merlene Wall, that Mayor Ben Winston wanted her name added to the account. First off, someone needs to school Mayor Winston about the parameters of his duties and responsibilities as a Mayor in a code charter municipality. Side note: This is probably the reason why he passed the website project on to someone else because he and other members on the board do not appreciate my candor. I speak the truth and sometimes it may seem brutal but if speaking the truth is shunned by those that proclaim to be truth seekers; Houston we have a problem. I guess George Orwell was correct when she said "speaking truth is treason in the kingdom of lies." Pardon me for the program break but now back to our regularly scheduled blogging. Contrary to what Winston may think, I can be an asset to him and this city but I cannot force him to accept assistance; especially when his supporters are encouraging him to stay away from me. Nevertheless, the matter regarding the access would have continued to remain unchecked had it not been for an amendment to the agenda that was made by Alderman Quincy Rogers to have Merlene Wall's named removed. Thankfully, there was two other alderpersons that were willing to stand up and take corrective actions when a mayor makes decisions outside his authority.
Also during this time, City Clerk, Merlene Wall, made her report to the board. Needless to say, there's more information missing. This time, the personnel file for Officer K. Johnson has completely vanished. At some point during the discussion, Chief Cowart asserted that the files were never in her possession and she gave a recount of when Alderman Bobby Gibson, Alderman Kent Crider and Alderwoman Rebecca Hale allegedly removed files from the Chief of Police office after Dennis Hobson was terminated by the City of Lumberton. As I scrambled to turn on my camera, I pointed it directly at Alderman Crider because I was certain he was going to respond and he didn't say a word. I guess I found a method to keep Crider at bay; technology. At almost every board meeting, he shouts that he talked to the Attorney General and the Attorney General said this or that. Well, I searched the Attorney General's website and I found two (2) attorney general opinions submission by Crider; one was on January 29, 2010 and the other one was on August 20, 2010. So, when he shouted that it was not against the law for him to serve on the fire board and the board the alderman because he spoke to the attorney general; he was lying. As a matter of fact, Alderman Quincy Rogers presented the board with the opinion showing that is indeed against the law for a member of the board of alderman to serve in dual positions. According the Miss. A.G. website, there are several opinions on this matter and all of them say it a violation. It states that "serving as a member of the board of commissioners and also serving as an alderman is a violation of Article 1, Section 2 of the Mississippi Constitution. At the last special called board meeting, Winston said he wanted Crider on the fire board but now that it has been proven that it's a violation of the laws, will the board take corrective actions and have him removed from the fire board and request the return of the Fuel man card that Crider currently has access to. Also in the report from the city clerk, it was revealed that the city owned computer was finally returned by the former city clerk and after having it tested by Best Buy; the internal had drive as intentionally damaged; allegedly speaking of course. Another side note: Chief Cowart has been asking for a budget workshop because there's not accurate record of what's in the city's budget. Also, I was just wondering why the police department is not allowed to use the monies they collect to help offset their budget expenditures. The public works director gave his report and once again, there was no one there to give a report on behalf of the city funded, Lumberton Volunteer Fire Department.
Mayor Winston gave his monthly report and he stated that we lost an opportunity to have a truck stop restaurant here in Lumberton. I'm jumping the gun, but there were some questions raised during the citizen's comment portion of the meeting about the fact that someone is approving permits without actually getting the matters presented to the Lumberton Planning and Zoning Committee. Just the other week, a woman was demanding to have electrical power connected to some trailers she have on Lower Airport Road and Johnny Buckley, building code inspector/enforcer, allegedly demanded to have the power connected. As far as I know, this matter and numerous other matters were never presented to the LPZC. As I stated in an earlier blog, someone is making side deals and that is not proper protocol. For the record, Lower Airport Road is zoned agricultural/residential and Buckley is trying to make decisions on what can and cannot be done in the City of Lumberton without taking the proper steps. The LPZC does not make the decisions; the final decision is made by the board, based on the comprehensive plan. They think this is just a favor for a friend, but I am certain that Kirkland is waiting for the board to approve this person's request to put trailers on Lower Airport Road so he can do the same since his request to do so was denied some years ago. And while we're on this subject, I don't recall any plans for a truck stop/restaurant being presented to the LPZC. Again, we have side deals in place and who knows, if the citizens of Lumberton knew of the plan, they could have submitted letters asking the company to locate their business in this area.
The board approved the minutes for the meetings and that's when Alderman Quincy Rogers presented to A.G. Opinion to Crider and the rest of the board. The paid and unpaid claims of March, 2014 were approved. The board voted to allow all public works employees to receive Hepatitis shots. The board is acquiring a truck that was seized during a drug raid. The police department will try a 15 day free trial subscription for Lexis Nexis Accurprint for government verification and identification software program for fines and collection purposes. BBI and Willie Sims will do some onsite budget training. There was an order to discuss and vote on the visibility o residential and commercial addresses throughout Lumberton. The board then closed the meeting to go into executive session.
After the board exited from executive session, Mayor Winston announced that no actions were taken. Well, I later found that to be not true. It seems that Kent Crider wanted the city attorney, Lindsey Carter, to take legal actions against me for posting the video of his untruths. When I see Crider, I can tell the lights are on but the elevator seems to be stuck. The meetings are public and can be recorded. How does he think they're aired on the news? There was something said to the effect that my blog say "Government Website" or something of that nature. To be honest, I really didn't notice. But since Crider and others are on my blog more than I am, I will take his word. But also on my blog is the following disclaimer: "The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the City of Lumberton. It should be quite obvious that any employee or elected official of the City of Lumberton has not approved, endorsed, embraced, friended, liked, tweeted or authorized any posts on this blog." I suppose Crider overlooked that portion of my blog. However, that is not the point. The point I am attempting to make is if they voted on an order to allow the city attorney to draft a letter for me to cease and desist, they are in violation of the Mississippi Sunshine Laws because Mayor Winston came out and said no actions were taken. I'm not certain what was said but I will await the letter and once it's received, I will proceed to file my ethic violation complaints against the board and the clerk because it's time out for people not doing their jobs. There are laws in place for a reason and if the mayor is allowed to continue to violate the law without anyone going on record to correct him, then as they say in the streets, they can get it to. On another note, every month, we're hearing reports of missing money, missing paperwork, missing minutes, missing personnel files, etc. Instead of wasting the city attorney's time by having him draft a useless letter that will eventually become fodder for another blog post; use the attorney to find out what measures can be taken to try and get some answers on all that's missing from city hall. Take that energy and try to get some of the money we lost. Try to restore dignity to the office of the city clerk. Try to show that you're a board of progress and not personal agendas.
Very good , keep up the good work.
ReplyDelete