MUSINGS FROM THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING
(Some of us were there and some of us listened in)
1-17-08
SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS: Perkins, Leashore, Crenshaw and their cronies had been agitating for the Council to elect 3 more members to the School Board. Well, the Council elected 3 members, but NONE OF THEM were who Perkins and Leashore wanted on the School Board. Thanks to Martin, Evans, Williamson, Cain and Allen who voted "for the children" and against "politics as usual".
After the meeting, Mrs. Martin and a newly elected Board Member were verbally assaulted by "BABY SISTER" Perkins (Synethia Perkins Pettaway), sister of the Mayor. This is the second time we are aware of the "BABY SISTER" has taken her unstable wrath out on innocent people: the first being when she was among 3 people who cornered Viewpoint Host Randy Williams in an elevator telling him that they knew where he lived and would burn his house down. COME ON, MAYOR PERKINS, IT IS TIME TO GET "BABY SISTER" UNDER CONTROL!!!
Mayor Perkins had the Crenshaw block all vote for Daryl "Little Perk" Thomas and Tracy Shannon, Perkins flunky, to be on the School Board. Fortunately, the other 5 council members voted for Sylvia Smith, Jane Howard, and Winston Williams, all quality individuals to be on the board. To show that Perkins and his crowd of misfits never give up, we heard Ezekial Pettway call Viewpoint today and say that Sylvia Smith runs this website. The Rev. Ezekial does not even live in Selma, but has moved to the greener and safer pastures of Valley Grande; nevertheless, we hear Perkins is paying him BIG BUCKS TO BE THE JANITOR FOR THE WATER WORKS BUILDING. If anyone knows if this is true or not, please email us! Just for the Rev's information: this website is not run by one person, but by a group of people who are sick and tired of being robbed and having our neighborhood live in fear because Perkins and Martin are incompetent and will not stop THE OUT OF CONTROL CRIME IN SELMA!
WARD 3 RESIDENTS: It is time to call Mrs. Martin and speak kindly to her about NOT voting the $14,000 raise for Mayor Perkins. This time, it is SAM RANDOLPH (who has never met a pay raise he didn't like) and Leashore who made the motion to raise the Mayor's salary from $70,000 to $84,000 a year. Voting for this RIP-OFF were: Randolph, Leashore, Crenshaw and Ventor (no surprises there!). Voting AGAINST THE RIP-OFF were Evans, Allen, Williamson and Cain. Unfortunately, MRS. MARTIN ABSTAINED. This meant the raise failed on a 4 to 4 vote, but it also means IT CAN BE BROUGHT BACK UP AT THE NEXT COUNCIL MEETING. We are asking WARD 3 residents to call Mrs. Martin and KINDLY ASK HER NOT TO VOTE FOR THIS RAISE. REMEMBER: The Mayor also gets $25,000 from the Water Works, as well as vehicle and travel allowance, health insurance, retirement, and life insurance. WE ESTIMATE THE MAYOR GETS ABOUT $130,000 a year in salary and benefits from the City and Water Works!
BOND ISSUE: Not much was said about the Bond Issue; however, the Mayor continues to LIE about the Bond Issue to civic clubs and on the radio. The Mayor is saying how much the city needs to repair or replace "infrastructure" with the Bond Money. Does he think a $2 million movie theater is "infrastructure" or that rolling $1 million worth of leased equipment into the Bond Issue is "infrastructure". THE BOND ISSUE IS ABOUT ONE THING AND ONE THING ONLY: GETTING PERKINS RE-ELECTED! That is why it is being done right before this year's City Election.
BIAS IS PUBLIC SPENDING: The Mayor presented a proposal for $71,000 to re-strip certain city streets. NOT A ONE OF THEM WAS IN WARD 1(Williamson) or WARD 2(Cain). Does anyone think that is a coincidence? Most all of the money is being spent in WARDS 5-6-7-8 represented by Randolph, Leashore, Crenshaw and Ventor. Both Williamson and Cain pointed out the bias toward the taxpayers in Wards 1 and 2 by the Mayor and his public works Director, Henry Hicks. We have driven around in Wards 1 and 2 as well as on the streets to be stripped. We wonder if Hicks even goes out to these Wards because THERE ARE STREETS SUCH AS CHISOLM DRIVE IN WARD 1 WHICH ISN'T EVEN STRIPPED; yet, is the main connecting street between Old Orrville and West Dallas. As we have watched the Public Works department overspend their budget (remember, they were going to save us $1 million with the Mayor's re-engineering strategy a couple of years ago), we have come to believe that the order in which Department Heads should be fired are 1)Police Chief Jimmy Martin 2)Personnel Director Valeria Jones and 3)Public Works Director Henry Hicks, who while garbage and trash piled up for 2 weeks all over the city was out doing Perkins bidding by agitating against the City Council for not electing school board members.
SPEAKING OF PERSONNAL DIRECTOR VALERIA JONES: She had long since disappeared from the Council Chamber by the time Councilman Dr. Williamson asked again about her lies in telling the Council the new Personnel Manual would be ready by last August. Then she said by the end of December and now she simply hides when the issue is on the Council agenda. She also has done a sorry job of recruiting police officers and as the Police Study pointed out, some of those recruited and hired should themselves be in jail. When one considers some of the people Mayor Perkins has surrounded himself with as Department Heads, IT IS NO WONDER HE MAKES SUCH BAD DECISIONS.
WORLD'S MOST EXPENSIVE POLICE SEARCH: Mayor Perkins, Valeria Jones, and the City are conducting the world's most expensive police chief search for a city of 19,000 people. (1)A consulting firm was hired for $25,000 (2) Now a female friend of the Mayor has been hired as a consultant for $15,000 and (3) $12,500 has been appropriated to bring 2 or 3 people to Selma to interview for the job. We would like to agree with and expand on what Dr. Williamson said at the Council meeting: The Mayor is the Leader and he should exercise some leadership and name a Police Chief NOW without wasting any more money. He wanted the POWER to appoint the Police Chief. In a moment of stupidity, the majority of the Council gave the Mayor the power to appoint the Police Chief. Let him act like a leader. A quality of leadership which Perkins has never displayed is the ability to judge and discern leadership abilities in others. That is why he finds himself surrounded by inept and incompetent department heads. He does not have the ability to discern whether the people he chooses will be good leaders themselves. Consequently, we end up with people like Martin, Jones, and Hicks in positions of authority. We wonder if Perkins IS AFRAID to name the Police Chief - after his fiasco with Jimmy Martin, who has literally ruined the Selma Police Department.
ALL IN ALL, the last Council meeting was something of a disaster for Perkins and his 4 puppets on the Council: Crenshaw, Leashore, Randolph and Venter. Things were so bad for them that long before the meeting was over, Crenshaw and Leashore stormed out of the meeting like spoiled children who, if they can not have their way, will just take their ball and go home. Actually, things at the Council meeting were much nicer and cooperative after they left.
