Starkville aldermen rejected a temporary donation of office space from former Chief Administrative Officer Lynn Spruill Tuesday despite Starkville Police Chief Frank Nichols saying his department needs additional space ahead of police station renovations.
Starkville Police Department operations are expected to be divvied up between six off-site locations — two substations, Fire Station No. 5, the Sportsplex annex, leased Synergetics space and City Hall — while its headquarters are renovated after aldermen approved up to almost $28,000 to prepare unused space in the city’s administrative home for the temporary move.
Approximately 1,100 square feet of Spruill-owned Louisville Street retail space could have been used as SPD’s seventh temporary location, but a coalition of aldermen declined the donation.
Spruill’s offer: The city could utilize her property free of charge as long as it paid its portion of utilities.
Officials said the offer could be viewed as a $15,000 in-kind donation to the city.
Citing Spruill’s political history — the former CAO and current Dispatch columnist filed multiple ethics complaints against Starkville after she was relieved of her past duties in 2013 by the incoming board — and the will of Ward 2 residents, Ward 2 Lisa Wynn said she could not support the temporary lease.
“This board, by a vote of 5-2, voted not to reappoint Ms. Spruill, and since that time Ms. Spruill has filed four ethics investigations against the members of this board,” Wynn said.
Wynn said a “prestigious and prominent” resident has offered to provide space free of charge to the police department but did not disclose that resident’s identity or the location at the aldermen table. No action was taken on the pending donation, and it did not come back up for discussion.
Wynn also challenged Vice Mayor Roy A. Perkins, who adamantly argued in favor of accepting Spruill’s donation and characterized it as a sound business decision for the taxpayers.
“I challenge any taxpayer to tell me what’s wrong with accepting space that is donated to the city,” Perkins said.
Wynn said she found it ironic that Perkins would not name Spruill as the property owner in his argument for the lease, but Spruill’s name was listed in the public e-packet published ahead of Tuesday’s meeting.
Two other properties were donated to the city for SPD to house substations, Perkins said, and those donations went unchallenged by aldermen.
“It doesn’t matter to me … I’m not voting for the property owner,” Perkins said. “We have to look at the business side of things. When you handle taxpayer money, you have to have a very watchful eye with it.”
The motion to accept Spruill’s lease was defeated 4-3, after Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver, Ward 3 Alderman David Little and Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn joined Wynn’s opposition.
Carver said he did not trust storing sensitive information, evidence and weapons in public sector space, but Nichols said SPD has utilized Synergetics property since 2006 and stores a variety of sensitive things there.
After the meeting, Spruill said she was sorry her gesture “created such ill will” amongst aldermen.
“It is unfortunate that lingering political suspicions about my motives kept the police from being able to use needed space,” she said. “I am sorry that Ms. Wynn put her political vendetta against me ahead of the needs of the police department.”
Aldermen also approved a combined $5.4 million in bond issuances to fund SPD renovations. A 1-mill tax increase will help fund debt service and roll off the books once it is retired.
Renovations are expected to begin later this summer on the city’s former administrative home. SPD is expected to temporarily exit the building for about 10-11 months, and the project is slated to finish in April.
SPD’s administration will vacate its newly approved City Hall space one renovations are complete.
One of the board of aldermen’s first actions after coming into office three years ago removed Spruill from her job with a 5-2 vote.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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