Thursday, January 28, 2021
Members In Attendance Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. Alderman Simeon Profit Alderman Janice Fleming Alderman Leola Keys Alderman Wysinger Cleveland
The Town of Richwood met for a Special Meeting held January 28, 2021 7:00 p.m. at the Richwood Multi-Purpose Center, 2710 Martin Luther King Drive, Richwood, Louisiana to consider the following business:
I. Meeting Called to Order by Mayor Gerald Brown at 7:05 p.m.
II. Prayer- Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr.
III. Pledge of Allegiance – Unison
IV. Roll Call: The record shall reflect all (5) Aldermen present at roll call.
Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. Alderman Simeon Profit Alderman Janice Fleming Alderman Leola Keys Alderman Wysinger Cleveland
V. Adoption of Agenda:
It was motioned by Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. and seconded by Alderman Wysinger Cleveland to adopt the agenda.
• The record shall reflect a vote was taken to adopt the agenda with the following results : All (5) Aldermen voted yes to adopt the agenda.
Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. Yes Alderman Simeon Profit Yes Alderman Janice Fleming Yes Alderman Leola Keys Yes Alderman Wysinger Cleveland Yes
VI. Discussion of M5 Engagement Agreement:
Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. – stated, he had a couple things he did not agree with the main one is this is not a budgeted item and lastly the statement and other task as specified by the Mayor.
Alderman Janice Fleming- stated, I thought we said there was some money set aside in the budget?
Mayor Gerald Brown- stated, what I mentioned was that one of the specifics that Mayor Mayo mentioned he can assist us with was grants and grant writing ;there are provisions in the budget for grant writing and grant expenses. I think there is $ 20,000 for grant writer and $ 15,000 for grant expense and that is one of the items that Mayor Mayo’s consultant group will be assisting us with.
Alderman Janice Fleming- inquired, so it does fall up under that in terms of being in that it is not listed simply as this particular thing , it does fall in line with that, in that his organization will be doing that budgeted item, am I correct?
Mayor Gerald Brown- stated, I would say so.
Alderman Leola Keys- inquired, is this coming out of general I am not going to amend the budget.
Mayor Gerald Brown- stated, this is not an amendment, this is in the budget that has been approved it is shown in the budget as the last two lines of the expenditure section.
Mayor Gerald Brown – stated, while the Board was looking at that I would like to go back to one of your other points Mr. Reed, your other point was that it says, as any other duties as stipulated by the Mayor? Was that your other issue? What was the issue with that?
Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr.- stated, be more specific, that’s kind of opened ended with me, it could be almost anything, I’m not saying anything (inaudible) it’s not measurable, it’s not accountable when you say any other thing, that could be anything it needs to be more specific.
Mayor Gerald Brown- stated, let’s take for instance, when we were doing this budget last year we didn’t know the ramifications of Covid-19, we couldn’t have expressed something about Covid-19 per say there may be things that occur that may come up, that we will want to take an opportunity to look at we cannot specifically define that, because we don’t know everything that’s coming down the peak we don’t know what the President may do through some of his Executive Orders; we don’t know those things some of those things we might could take advantage of .
Alderman Janice Fleming- commented, I am still trying to see and hear … you said Mr. Reed you said you had to look into somethings, the questions that you have asked and said you had to look into are not questions, you got to research open ended statements and something not in the budget what did you have to research for that?
Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. – said, I understand they are reviewing a budget down on the other end there, if it was a budgeted item shouldn’t it have been presented as such and explain it is a budgeted item?
Alderman Janice Fleming- stated, he did say that.
Mayor Gerald Brown – stated, I did say that.
Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. – stated, I hadn’t heard that stated until now, until now
Mayor Gerald Brown- stated, I indeed did mention it.
Alderman Janice Fleming- stated, you abstained that’s what you do when you abstain, I don’t understand this.
Alderman Leola Keys- stated, Mr. Brown, I am not disputing your word that you brought it up I remember a question, I am not disputing your word that you brought it up, you know about the grant writer and this other stuff.
Alderman Simeon Profit- commented, isn’t that what we have been asking for is grant writers, and people to help us get what we need? And now we got somebody and there is a problem with it? … I’m not understanding can y’all help me out with that?
Alderman Leola Keys- inaudible comment
Alderman Simeon Profit- stated, Well it’s in the budget, it’s always been in the budget, as long as you guys have been on the Board you should know that.
Mayor Gerald Brown- inquired if Mr. Mayo had a comment?
Mr. Jamie Mayo- stated, obviously I can’t address the budget you guys handle the budget; I will not attempt to address that. But I will comment on Alderperson Reed you mentioned the last item of concerning any other task as specified by the Mayor. That is standard with most engagements in which you are dealing with Administration directly, however we also work with Alderpersons too. Because you all will probably call me about something or I will call you about something, I call Aldermen or Council Members and ask what you would like to see… and you may contact me and say Jamie, you can call me Jamie that’s my name; what about this what about that? Just because it says Mayor doesn’t mean that I will be strictly talking to the Mayor one of the first things I will be asking concerns priorities, do you have priorities of things you want to address.
Mayor Gerald Brown- stated, many of the things I will be discussing with him I will get from you … he cannot come in and have a meeting with the 5 outside of the public; the seven of us can’t go in my office and sit down and have a meeting that is illegal because it is outside of the public.
Alderman Janice Fleming- stated, I have concerns if we can do anything together as a Board, since we have had this new Board I don’t think we’ve completed not anything together, since we have been in office. It’s always something wrong with it always something that you have to go back and do. Listen, we are supposed to be here for the Town our personal vendettas have nothing to do with this we’re supposed to be here to do the best thing for the Town, not what Janice Fleming wants or not personally and that is what we are doing….. Y’all not paying attention…Excuse me … well y’all not paying attention,
Alderman Leola Keys- stated , she was being recorded…
Alderman Janice Fleming – stated you’re not supposed to be listening to recordings, you should give me the same respect you want. All you have to do is listen.
Alderman Janice Fleming- stated, do I need to say something else, I never did finish, so I’m going to yield in favor of the person that was talking while I was talking.
Mayor Gerald Brown – inquired if there were any other responses, that he wanted to hear from Mr. Reed since he called this meeting.
Alderman Leola Keys- stated, she had a question, in looking at the list of services the totality of all these services the line item concerning the grant is the $20,000 for grant writing what about all these other services.
Mayor Gerald Brown- indicated these other service items are bonuses.
Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. -indicated he was bombarded with this and needed time to research this.
Alderman Janice Fleming- stated I have a question, why didn’t you table it, you abstained so why didn’t you table it or ask us to table it so you would get an opportunity to do what you have gone and said you’ve done this time, you said you were bombarded, you didn’t table it, and now you come back and want us to revisit it, and Mayor told me it can be done, but I have never seen something that has been voted on and passed, and come back and redo it because one person has conjured up some stuff to make it appear unethical, I mean if you say you have $20,000 in a pot for a certain issue and you get something that comes along that can go under that particular topic that will fulfill that particular thing and you still going to come $ 5,000 to the good and you are going to get some extra stuff, I just don’t understand why we are not moving forward, we have not done a solitary thing for the Town, everything we do there is something wrong with it how are we going to progress? We can’t even pass to get somebody to do our compilations, we can’t get anything passed, we can’t pass anything , we can’t get anything passed and that is not saying a lot.
What is wrong with us doing what we were hired to do by the Town of Richwood are we going to go forward or are we going to just sit here and try to rub each other’s ego? I don’t have no ego thang in here… I don’t have anything personal to gain by being a part of this.
I don’t want to be the Mayor, I don’t want to be the CFO, the EOC or anything . We need to come on and do something for the Town… y’all keep saying we are stewards over the money, but you are not passing anything, so what you going to do sit up there and look at it? You’re not doing anything with it… this man came here to bring us something and you know he is in the best interest of us, we need him… if nothing more than the fact that he is the ex-mayor that did as many years as he did in the City of Monroe; he should know what he is talking about.
The people on the outside are waiting to see what we going to do, if we going to keep on arguing with each other or are we going to move forward; that is what they are waiting on . All they have seen is us on TV arguing with each other and we can’t do anything right… and its time we stop this pettiness.
Alderman Wilbert Jr. – stated, in all due respect, I didn’t conjure up anything Mrs. Fleming as you said…
Alderman Janice Fleming- stated, oh did I, I apologize for what I said.
VII. Adjournment:
It was motioned by Alderman Wysinger Cleveland and seconded by Alderman Simeon Profit to adjourn the meeting @ 7:42 p.m.
