Buster Moton threatened Coahoma County Supervisors with promises to get them un-elected and with racial slurs unless they appointed him to the Coahoma County Tourism Committee.
Supervisors then voted 3-2 not to appoint Moton, at which point he held up a sign calling a supervisor a racially charged name and vowed to carry that sign around when the Viking Cruise buses come back to Clarksdale next spring.
“We’re coming after all of you, and that means you Mr. District 2 Supervisor,” said Moton, “We’ll see how things go in Friars Point.”
As Moton left the room District 2 Supervisor Pat Davis offered Moton a $20 bill.
“Buster I don’t like my sign, here’s $20,” said Davis. “Go buy you some nice crayons and make my sign nice.”
Dist. 3 Supervisor Derrell Washington got emotional as he said Moton had called him the night before and threatened him if he didn’t vote for Moton’s appointment.
“I listened to what he had to say until he threatened me,” said Washington. “Nobody is going to bully me into a vote. If you cave in to a bully, he’s going to do the same thing the next time he wants something from you.”
Supervisor Davis, Washington and Dist. 1 Supervisor Paul Pearson voted against Moton’s appointment. The motion to make Moton a Tourism Commissioner was made by Dist. 5 Supervisor Roosevelt Lee and seconded by District 4 Supervisor and board president Johnny Newson.
Newson and Lee are lame-duck supervisors having been defeated by Jesse Harris and Will Young respectively for their supervisor posts in county elections this fall. Newson and Lee’s Monday meeting was their last official meeting.
Coahoma County Supervisors meet the first Monday of each month and while they don’t always agree, it is only in the last few months that meetings have gotten chaotic and hostile.
In November supervisors knotted 2-to-2 on votes to allocate ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds or to name people to the Tourism Commission or four other posts waiting an appointment.
The board split with Pearson and Davis voting on one side and Newson and Lee voting on the other. Davis and Pearson said incoming supervisors should be able to name new board members and not out-going supervisors.
Washington was not at that November board meeting and didn’t vote on appointments, but did listen to the meeting on Zoom.
Washington did vote nay on a $115,000 allocation to Coahoma County Opportunity.
Washington once again told Newson Monday that he had years to make things happen across the county and Washington did not understand why they waited until after he lost the election to make these moves.
“This is all by design,” said Washington. “You rich people in the black community want to keep things the way they are and not help people who need help. You could have made a difference, but you waited until the last minute and are trying to drive a wedge. You want to burn it all down as you walk out the door. That’s not right by anybody.”
Newson and Lee pointed to the fact they are Supervisors until the final day of 2023 and have a right to spend county money and make appointments as they were elected to do. Davis and Pearson said they felt voters had decisively said they wanted new leaders with hands on the purse strings.
Newson and Lee’s wives – each appointed by their husband – served on the tourism commission and have resigned. Newson appointed Ralph Simpson to his post.
Board appointments are a major decision for county officials as they serve on board making detailed and complex decision in the name of their supervisor. The Tourism Commission board has an extensive budget and seeks to spend that money in the best ways to bring tourist to Clarksdale and advertise county resources.
The Tourism Commission is funded by a two percent restaurant and hotel tax.
In Other Business
• The board terminated its lease agreement with Ilex on a county-owned factory building in the county’s industrial park off Highway 322.
The project initially started as a desire by Yaupon Tea to grow, process and sell tea in Clarksdale.
The project was touted as a $2.612 million corporate investment to create 60 jobs.
Oliver Luckett spearheaded the project and partnered with Florida-based Yaupon Brothers, which pioneered the cultivation and processing of yaupon plants for consumer tea products.
Ilex never got the facility going and never hired the employees it said it would at the 38,000-square-foot former Gator Mills/Strom building in the Leonard Pharr Industrial Park.
In September the county met in executive session with Chamber Executive Jon Levingston. When it returned to open session the county voted to return $25,950 to the Mississippi Development Authority for the failed Ilex/Yaupon Tea project. The county also voted to return money to the Delta Regional Authority for the project.
In November 2021 Clarksdale made its sixth economic development announcement in four years with Ilex Organics, a supplier of yaupon tea and Mississippi-grown catfish fillets, formally saying it was opening operations in Clarksdale.
Ilex was to be headquartered in the old Ellis & Hirsberg building on Second Street. That building – with the bug out front – was to house Yazoo Yaupon, a business that sold a variety of flavors of yaupon tea and herbal cosmetic products, that were to be produced, bagged and sold in Clarksdale.
Both the Mississippi Development Authority and the Delta Regional Authority have clauses in their economic development agreements that allow them to “claw-back” funds if projects do not produce the jobs promised.
The county and city also returned economic development funds from the MAP-Easton Project headed up by the Chamber after the automotive insulation company went bankrupt two years ago.
• The board hired an attorney to defend the county in a suit filed by County Court Judge Kent Haney saying Coahoma County is not paying him the amount the state requires.
Supervisors have discussed this issue for more than a year and are seeking finalize this issue.
• The board approved October payroll of $618,118.02.
The board adjourned until 2 p.m. Jan. 2, 2024 at which time it will swear in and seat new supervisors and county officials elected in fall county elections.
