It is astonishing that members of our city board have posted notices for two Special Called Meeting on some very important issues facing this town in just seven days.
While calling a meeting to address an emergency is perfectly legal and allowed by state law, quickly calling a meeting to ram something through city chambers is inappropriate.
That’s why your Clarksdale Press Register is concerned about a Special Called Meeting of Friday July 26 to address garbage collection and basically call for a price increase. Notice of this meeting was given at 4:45 p.m. on July 25 and posted on the front door of City Hall, which closed at 5 p.m. The meeting was at 9 a.m. the next morning.
And with complete honesty and appreciation, this newspaper would like to thank the City Clerk for sending a notice of this meeting to your Clarksdale Press Register. You can read the story on Page One of today’s newspaper.
As stated in the story, the garbage issue had been before the city for months. Mayor Chuck Espy was in charge and we wonder if the price increase was a reason to push quickly for its passage.
We are also concerned about a Special Called Meeting to address crime in Clarksdale and hire a director for a Gang Task Force. That meeting is scheduled for noon Thursday. We were again thankfully notified by the Clerk at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Did a dozen people need to die, hundreds of rounds get shot into Clarksdale houses and two women get shot on Espy Drive before the issue of crime needed to be addressed?
And we want to reassure the community the Clarksdale Press Register was at that meeting and will let you know what happened in our next edition.
Public business should be just that.
As Mayor, Chuck Espy calls all special meetings. Our Mayor touts his honesty and transparency to anyone who will listen to him blabber, but his actions indicate something else might be involved.
This effort to hide city business from public view is all too typical of the secret state that exists on so many levels in Mississippi. It erodes confidence in our government.
Far too many of those in power believe that only they should know what is really going on, and then they can pass along their version of the truth to the people who pay their salaries and who fund our government.
That’s not good government and it’s not good for Clarksdale.
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