Ward 3 Alderman David Little and Ward 5 Alderman Scott Maynard distanced themselves from Ward 2 Alderman Lisa Wynn after the first-term representative accused Mayor Parker Wiseman of maintaining a minor day-to-day role as Starkville’s chief executive.
Wynn’s attack came during a debate on implementing a 3 percent raise for city employees in the next fiscal year and a 33 percent pay increase — from $15,000 to $20,000 annually — for aldermen in 2017.
The board eventually approved employee raises but stopped short of increasing future aldermen’s pay.
The item, which Wynn asked Chief Administrative Officer Taylor Adams to place on Tuesday’s agenda, originally excluded the mayor’s position from receiving any additional benefits.
Wiseman said he supported a cost-of-living adjustment for employees — the board previously set raises as a strategic planning goal — but said the additional $35,000 Wynn wanted to allocate to the seven-person board should instead be used to help ensure no city employee earns less than $10 per hour in the future.
Almost 60 city workers earn below that amount, Maynard said. Increasing their pay immediately to $10 per hour would cost an additional $88,000 per year, he said, and cause “significant salary compression issues” due to those employees passing others presently making more money.
Both Little and Maynard both suggested tabling the measure in order to study its financial ramifications — years of raises to reduce the compression would be needed — but Wynn said she was in no mood to “play games.”
Wynn read aloud a prepared statement that attacked the mayor for a number of issues: his work as a Mississippi University for Women instructor keeps him out of the office during business hours; he almost missed a meeting with a developer because he first checked to see if his wife needed help with their infant son; and he skipped town in December for Mississippi State University’s bowl game.
Her anecdotes were peppered with mentions of conversations with city staff and fellow aldermen, including Little and Maynard, who she said shared her concerns.
Speaking of one of those conversations, she criticized Wiseman’s weekend commitments.
“Attending black folks’ churches on Sunday is not official city business. It’s off-season campaigning for the mayor. We were both laughing,” she said of the conversation.
“Other board members started to ask questions regarding no one being present in the office. As members of the board, we took action to provide some visibility for the office. This matter had to be dealt with because it had become known among department heads and city employees that the mayor had started missing chunks of time from the office,” Wynn added. “I cannot, as an alderman for our city, support a pay increase for the mayor, who is clearly disengaged from city-related matters in his role. For residents of our city, I apologize this has been revealed in a public context.”
In his defense, Wiseman rattled off a list of his administration’s accomplishments as Wynn briefly exited the board room.
“I think something probably needs to be clarified, Alderman Wynn: I don’t work for you; I work for the citizens of the city of Starkville, and those citizens have seen fit twice, by no less than 55 percent of the vote, to give me this job,” he said. “This is what my life’s work has been for the last six years. I assure you it’s much more than a 40-hour a week responsibility.
“Other than the time I took with my family over Thanksgiving and Christmas, everything I did in the months of November and December was city related,” Wiseman added, noting his Orange Bowl trip was part of the city delegation that met with dignitaries of the greater Miami area. “What I will not tolerate is wild accusations about my effort put into this job because, Alderman Wynn, while I have heard many criticisms over the years, this is the very first time anybody has called me anything but a hard worker.”
Aldermen quickly turned against the nature of the discussion, and both Little and Maynard said Wynn’s use of their conversations was taken out of context.
Little, who Wynn said described the mayor’s personal car as “pitiful,” said he actually wants to replace his 20-year-old, city-owned vehicle, while Maynard clarified a previous conversation by saying, “What I said was you couldn’t pay me enough to be mayor because of all the activities he has to attend at nights, on the weekends and on holidays.”
“I was elected by the people to handle the affairs of the city. Can we handle the affairs of the city and go on? It’s getting too personal,” said Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn.
“It’s hard to (conduct city business) when people are running around treating it like a junior high school, worrying about what the administrative assistant does or what the CAO said to somebody else. This isn’t junior high; this is the city of Starkville. We are a major city in the state of Mississippi and we should act like it,” added Ward 4 Alderman Jason Walker. “We have real issues to deal with, and we need serious people that are going to look beyond the simple answers on how you get there.”
Wynn’s motion was amended by Little to exclude the board from the proposed pay raise, while a failed Vaughn amendment would have prohibited department heads from receiving a cost-of-living adjustment.
The board eventually approved the Wynn’s amended motion 4-3, with Little, Maynard and Walker opposing the matter.
“I’m not sure why we were in such a rush to vote raises in March that won’t take effect until October,” Maynard said after the meeting. “I was not for the one-size-fits-all proposal, and that is why I voted against it.”
At the table Tuesday, both Little and Walker said they were not opposed to employee raises. The board deserves more time to study the matter during the summer’s budgetary processes, they said.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.