Starkville’s former Chief Administrative Officer Lynn Spruill confirmed Wednesday she is in the process of filing an Open Meetings Act violation against the city after one alderman, defiant of his peers’ action, alleged the board improperly entered executive session Jan. 6 and canceled lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered-friendly policies.
Spruill said she is in the process of developing the claim and will file it with the Miss. Ethics Commission once it is complete.
Starkville’s former CAO first confirmed the filing on Twitter and then with The Dispatch. In addition to one of the largest property owners in the city, Spruill also serves as a member of the Greater Starkville Development Partnership’s board of directors and a columnist for this newspaper.
The claim, she said, will focus on Tuesday’s discussion before aldermen vetoed Mayor Parker Wiseman’s attempt to save the city’s equality resolution and plus-one adult insurance tier. The board previously rescinded the non-discrimination language and amended the insurance offering to those only in state-recognized marriages — heterosexual couples.
Earlier this month, the board entered into executive session to discuss the matter on the grounds of potential litigation. Vice Mayor Roy A. Perkins offered separate motions to gut the two policies, which were seconded by Ward 2 Alderman Lisa Wynn, the same representative who ensured Wiseman’s first veto would stand, thereby saving the plus-one offering in September.
Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver, Ward 3 Alderman David Little and Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn joined Perkins and Wynn to overturn Wiseman’s veto Tuesday. The same coalition nixed the policies earlier this month.
The two aldermen who consistently supported the measures — Ward 4’s Jason Walker and Ward 5’s Scott Maynard — again stumped for the policies in vain after more than 30 public speakers blasted aldermen over the policies. A majority of Tuesday’s speakers were in favor of the extensions and said the city’s subsequent repeal tarnishes the city’s image and rubberstamps potential discrimination.
It was Walker who blasted his fellow board members for their actions on Jan. 6, saying the board’s vote to go behind closed doors and discuss the two topics was, at best, a stretch of the law.
“I believe (the potential litigation) excuse is a fabrication. I asked who (the potential litigant was) and there was no answer to that question because they couldn’t give an answer,” Walker said during Tuesday’s meeting. “If you want to have this discussion, it should be right here before (the public). You don’t hide in executive session over something that is a stretch at the best.”
Walker, like many of his fellow aldermen, ran on transparency as one of his election platforms. Many new candidates took aim at incumbents in 2013 after the Mississippi Ethics Commission ruled the prior administration violated the Open Meetings Act in regard to planning efforts for the new city hall.
The commission warned them not to repeat their actions.
“You’re not always going to like the decisions I make, but you’re going to know where I stand,” Walker said. “Unfortunately, we’re (having discussions on policy changes) after the fact. That’s not how city government should work. It should be in front of the people, by the people and for the people.”
Maynard defended the policies by saying Starkville was deliberately choosing to be on the wrong side of history, but Perkins, Wynn and Vaughn did not make any comments on their actions from the table.
Little argued that he was elected to deal with local municipal issues, not to “help any grassroots effort secure any rights or privileges.
“I’m responsible for my own actions, and all the decisions I make are based on my moral compass. From the start, I never thought this was an LGBT issue. I think it was made into that,” Carver said Tuesday. “I am only one vote in one small town. It may be at a time when the nation is changing — it may not be — but at the end of the day … I have my vote and can use it the way I see fit.”
Carver also claimed a parody Twitter account — @BenCarverPrays — that began targeting him since early in the term is discriminatory in nature.
Other complaints still unresolved
Two other ethics complaints filed against Starkville aldermen last year are still unresolved.
One complaint claimed some or all of the seven-person board made decisions outside of the public purview in regard to a Feb. 2014 school board appointment, while another was filed against Vaughn after he participated in related votes.
Last year, aldermen appointed Juliette Weaver-Reese to a five-year term after denying former Starkville School District Board of Trustees President Eddie Myles an opportunity to interview for and continue serving in his capacity.
Myles failed to re-apply for the position in a timely manner, but Wiseman added his application to the agenda and set an interview time after the long-serving school board member said he was still interested in guiding SSD as it consolidates this year with Oktibbeha County School District.
The complaint focused on Wynn, saying her public comments during that board meeting indicate aldermen arrive at the table after hashing out votes outside of the public’s purview.
“Sometimes as board members, we have to make decisions behind the scenes that some of you may not understand, and they are quite difficult. Tonight was one of those,” she said during the meeting.
Starkville’s defense, as filed by board attorney Chris Latimer, asked the commission to deny each allegation. It says they failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted and lacked a basis of fact. The allegation of periodic, off-the-books meetings is purely speculative, he wrote in the defense, which falls shy of the clear and convincing burden of proof needed to establish an open meetings violation.
Wynn’s subsequent affidavit tempered her comments at the table by saying they were not meant to allude to behind-the-scenes meetings. Rather, it stated, the Ward 2 alderman meant to say she agonized over her personal decision about the school board appointment before coming to the table that night.
The Vaughn complaint was filed after the state ethics commission previously warned the alderman last term to stop participating in school board matters as he had a relative working in the city school system.
Vaughn, who seconded Wynn’s motion appointing Weaver-Reese, told The Dispatch his daughter worked for SSD after that meeting. He participated in the vote, the alderman said, because she did not live with him at the time.
Maynard and Walker both recused themselves from that school board vote since they also have relatives that work for SSD. The Ward 5 alderman confirmed he chose to recuse himself even though his son, who works for the school system, does not live with him.
City minutes show Vaughn adhered to the ethics commission’s request after it was issued in 2010 and recused himself from subsequent votes that year through 2012.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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