The Pelahatchie Board of Aldermen took care of bidness at a Saturday morning meeting last weekend. They cut the Mayor's pay by 3/4, approved the claims docket, and overrode several of Mayor Ryshonda Beechem's vetoes that took place earlier in February.
The Board of Aldermen overrode the following vetoes from the February 5 meeting at the meeting held on February 17:
*The Board voted "to deny payment to J. Scott Williams Architecture, PLLC past due invoice" for $8,126 from the drug seizure fund but approved a payment from the general fund. The vote was unanimous. Mayor Beechem stated in her veto:
"In light of the State Auditor's investigation, I submit a general vote of "no confidence" in this Board and its financial dealings. Furthermore, the Baord and the City Clerks have failed or refused to provide my office with releveant information regarding town expenditures and information needed to make an informed decision with regard to these expenditures...." (See below for letter).
The Board said at the February 5 meeting that it was not going to spend any of the drug seizure funds until the State Auditor completed his investigation and issued his findings.
*The Board voted unanimously to reject a proposal to purchase additional security cameras for City Hall. The proposal included a camera for the Mayor's office. Question: How can a Mayor veto a rejection and how can a Board override a veto of said rejection?
* The old "new business" v. agenda fight. This argument is common to governments throughout Mississippi. Some politicians wants to limit discussion items to those placed on an agenda so citizens can have notice of what will be discussed by their representatives. Others prefer to have the flexibility to discuss any issue they desire at such meetings. Mayor Beechem wanted all discussion items placed on the agenda but the Aldermen preferred to be able to bring up any issues they deemed worthy of attention without notice to the public. The Alderman overrode her veto.
*The Aldermen upheld her veto of a proposed cellphone ban. The Board voted at the February 5 meeting to ban cellphones from all Board of Aldermen public meetings. However, Mayor Beechem vetoed the measure. Yours truly had a friendly conversation (no sarcasm) with the city attorney and informed him that banning cellphone video cameras from public meetings might violate the Open Meetings Act. He spoke to Tom Hood, Executive Director of the Mississippi Ethics Commission, and requested an A.G. opinion. The Board did not override the veto.
It is the opinion of this website that the town can impose more narrow restrictions such as requiring cellphones to be placed on silent during Board meetings instead of banning them outright.
*The Board did not override the Mayor's veto of hiring a new city clerk.
*The Board overrode her veto of the claims docket.
*Aldermen reduced Mayor's salary from $1,000 per month to $250 per month and Aldermen's salaries from $500 to $250 per month. The Mayor vetoed the pay cut, calling it "pretextual, arbitrary, unnecessary, politically motivated." The Board overrode her veto.
The next meeting of the Board of Aldermen is scheduled to take place tomorrow night at 7:00 PM. It is not known if a steel cage will be place in the board room nor if there will be a time limit although the loser might have to leave town.
Mayor Beechem posted her vetoes on her Facebook page:
The Mayor also posted the minutes of the February 5 meeting on her Facebook page.
Oh yes, one reader said that JJ got it wrong when it came to the recently-retired city clerk's salary. The reader made this comment:
Hey Kingfisher, how about you do the right thing and correct yourself. You got the city clerks salary wrong, not once but twice! Betty did not make $100,000 a year nor $80,000 a year. Get your facts right or quit trying to be a reporter. I’m sure she started at a predetermined salary and received percentage raises each year. After over a quarter of a century of course it’s going to go up. You still have toothless old women wearing nasty pajamas and wore out tee shirts, not to mention their uneducated brain, blabbing about the $100 thousand dollars you prematurely wrote about and never corrected. Get it right or don’t write!
Well, knucklehead, here is a copy of the Pelahatchie roster of employees that was provided in response to a public records request:
Note: It sure would be nice if the town would start posting the agendas, minutes, and public meeting notices on its website as every other city in the Jackson metro area does.
15 comments:
I've ordered more popcorn.
It's UNreal that two of these goobs, including the preacher who led the invocation, actually wear ball caps to these meetings. What a lack of decorum!
Pelahatchie is a prime example of the government you get when the majority of the citizens don’t care enough to vote for their leadership. It is unfortunate that you have made this bed for yourselves and now you must lie in it. Next time maybe you will get out and vote!
But, 10:32, 'they' won't get out and vote. They'll just burrow deeper into their bunkers and go to Lowe's for 10 foot fence boards.
10:32, the issue was not just a lack of voter participation. The reason Pelahatchie has an imbecile for its chief executive is because there were three horses in the race. The other two candidates, either of whom would have been light years better, split the majority vote.
$82,000 a year for a clerk where the population is less than 2,000 and a deputy clerk at $54,000 is a story in itself. What are the salaries for towns comparable in size? When this came to light they both retired. There is a story there.
But, 4:44, it's been said on this blog before....these were honest, upright citizens and way above anything unethical. Accepting a salary that's four times what it ought to be isn't really unethical. Right?
Is it just me, or is the window assembly, shown in the cover photo for the YouTube video, set into the wall upside-down and backward?
1:16 AM, it's just you. Or its your being up looking at UTUBE at 1 in the morning. Window is installed properly; lower sash inside, upper sash outside. Don't know what you are seeing, but glad you are focusing on the important stuff.
Good eye, 1:16!
Yes, those extended STILES are supposed to be pointing DOWNWARD, ON THE OUTSIDE (whether it's for safety, for decoration, or to draw moisture downward, I don't know). Here's an example. Scroll down to 'Sliding Sash Windows' http://www.clearviewhome.co.uk/blog/modern-traditional-replacement-window-style-best-suits-home/2018/01/
As for you, 11:56, it's YouTube, not 'UTUBE'. And don't YOU have anything better to do, than to troll the Internet, looking for people to attack?
I saw you at the board meeting Monday 3/5/18 and I also saw you corresponding with the Mayors attorney a lot at the meeting so why have you not posted the video is it because it shows a lot of what the mayor has been doing all along and you are part of the plot between her and her attorney to always make things look like poor mayor. Does this show that your are indeed what I have been thinking all along. One sided and was invited by the mayor and her attorney
@6:11 AM careful what you wish for LOL.
Miles Davis was once playing at the Blackhawk. Some woman in the audience kept yelling for him to play a certain song. He didn't play it and as the night went on, she got louder and louder in her requests until he had her thrown out. Then after she was no longer in the building, he played the song for the audience.
Let's see, 31, I didn't touch a computer until yesterday morning after that meeting Monday night. It takes an hour to download a 12 gb file from my camera to my laptop, sometimes shorter. Then it takes an hour or so to upload to Youtube. Oh, have to scan the board packet as well and since I didn't get a copy of Mr. Barnard's handout, I had to get a copy yesterday. Then there is the already planned schedule of posts and topics as well.
As for your dumbass allegations that I was manipulated by the Mayor's attorney, I will clarify what took place, not that its any of your business. He came up to me and asked me a question about the Open Meetings Act. That was the topic of both discussions. Since you are sooooooooo intent on keeping up with what I do, you also noticed that I spoke to Brad Mills, the City Attorney as well for a while but you somehow failed to mention that fact. Of course, under what passes for logic in your feeble mind, that must mean the City Attorney and the Board of Aldermen were manipulating me as well.
In other words, I should withhold from posting the video for at least two weeks but since I know some good people are waiting to see it, I'm going to post it today.
Hey staff from city hall just walked off job due to harassment city hall closed emergently sign in window now. Will u cover
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