City deserves more than shenanigans

Shenanigans:  secret or dishonest activity or maneuvering. Shenanigans:  the word best suited to characterize the exploits of the most talked about and, arguably, most dysfunctional city council in Demopolis history.

Thursday night, Councilman Jack Cooley introduced discussion regarding the Demopolis City Schools Board of Education seat currently held by Bobby Armstead, whose second appointment to the board has been expired for months. The understanding of the council as of its June 21 meeting was that the issue would be tabled until a consensus of some sort could be reached.

For months, the council had deadlocked at 3-3 over whether to appoint Conrad Murdock or Freddie Armstead Jr. to the seat. Rather than belabor the point further, it was tabled indefinitely.

Thursday, the first meeting after this current conglomeration of councilmen officially became a “lame duck” entity, Cooley saw an opening with the absence of Melvin Yelverton and raised the issue. Shenanigans.

Sensing he and Thomas Moore, who have both long been firmly entrenched in the pro Freddie Armstead Jr. camp, would be force fed a board member they did not want, Mitchell Congress objected to the council bringing up the issue in Yelverton’s absence.

Congress knew that without Yelverton, Murdock would win the appointment because Cooley, Mayor Mike Grayson and Councilman Bill Meador would vote in favor of Murdock.

So Congress rightly called to everyone’s attention that this process had always seen the council do nominations at one meeting and vote at another. The intention of that pattern was to properly study and vet the nominees. But the pattern persisted over the course of the late spring and the entirety of the summer despite the fact that the council had “vetted” Murdock and Armstead Jr. ad nauseam.

Congress also rightly recalled that at a previous meeting he motioned the council proceed with nominations and voting in the same night. He wrongly recalled that Grayson denied his request.

The truth is that Congress made that motion June 21. And Grayson deferred to the pleasure of the council. The council left Congress’ motion hanging and it died with no second.

Thursday night, three of the five council members in the room were eager to vote on the issue. Shenanigans.

So Moore and Congress offered up the ultimate power play. The got up from the table and walked away. That took the council’s quorum away. That rendered any business conducted after their walkout completely void. And it kept the embarrassing saga of the board of education seat on the agenda for at least a little while longer.

Were Congress and Moore within their right to walk out? Absolutely. But what was it? Shenanigans.

And, while two wrongs certainly do not make a right, the council members who remained for the duration of Thursday night’s meeting learned firsthand about forcing the council’s hand in the absence of one of its members.

Aug. 18, 2011. Cooley was not at that meeting. But he remembers that date. Why? Shenanigans.

At that time, the city council had long been deadlocked 3-3 on a vote over whether or not to approve the renovation of Fire Station No. 2. The renovation in question was a key component holding up the city budget and was no small matter in that it called for something in the neighborhood of $750,000.

When the council reached that portion of the agenda, Grayson requested it not vote on the matter in Cooley’s absence.

Congress unceremoniously ignored Grayson’s request to table the vote, himself motioning to approve $750,000 for the building and furnishing of Fire Station No. 2. Moore seconded the motion. Congress, Moore and Yelverton each voted in favor of the measure. Shenanigans.

It took him more than a year, but Cooley appeared to finally find a way to gain some measure of perceived retribution for the shenanigans that took place in his absence last August. He offered his own shenanigans. And Moore and Congress walked away, taking the cards out of everyone’s hands.

There have probably been days where Grayson and Meador felt they should have walked away during that meeting in August 2011.

Now, all the city can hope is that the councilmen that will take over in November are eager to avoid the childish antics of their predecessors. Whether well intentioned or otherwise, we have all seen enough shenanigans to last our city for quite some time.

Hopefully, the incoming councilmen will have the wherewithal to work together, compromise and keep sitting at the table no matter the outcome of the vote.

Demopolis deserves its elected officials to do what is best for the city itself rather than focusing on how to hoodwink three men with a dissenting opinion.

And if we cannot get that out of all six of our city councilmen, it is probably better that they all just walk away.