Jonestown mayor Kenny Lester recently being arrested and charged with five counts of felony embezzlement leaves many questions to be answered, but one thing is for certain.
Lester, who previously stated he was unaware of any of the accusations prior to being arrested Dec. 9, said he does not plan to step down as mayor.
When asked if there was anything that could make Lester step down as mayor, he replied, “No comment.”
The first indictment alleges that Lester, while serving as mayor, took $331 that residents paid for water bills and water line repairs and converted it for his own use between July 2017 and August 2018. A separate indictment alleges that Lester accepted a city-owned Glock Model 22.40-caliber handgun from an employee and pawned it for cash while he was the acting mayor of Jonestown.
If convicted, Lester faces up to 100 years total in prison and up to $5,000 in fines on each of the five counts.
Jonesown alderman Gregory Neely Sr. and alderwoman Brenda D. Green said the council did not plan to take any action since Lester has not been proven guilty.
They also said it would help Jonestown to have a city attorney to advise the board of its options. Carlos Moore was fired as the city attorney in October.
Lester had planned to veto Moore’s firing, but decided not to when Moore agreed to accept the vote. The council voted in December to place an advertisement in the newspaper for a city attorney.
Neely said it’s important to have a city attorney for advice on the issues with the mayor and other projects.
“I think the attorney will help us a lot to guide us on what we can or what we can’t do,” Green said.
However, Neely and Green emphasized they must wait for the results of the state attorney general’s office investigation before taking any action.
“The process has got to take place. We can’t do anything,” Neely said, adding a trial must take place. “We can’t make no move on that issue.
“We never had anything like this before (on the Jonestown City Council).”
Neely is not taking a position on whether or not the mayor is guilty.
“I’m not going to go on record as saying he did it or not,” he said.
“I don’t know all the details on the investigation. I don’t know what they’ve got on him. They probably know a lot more than we know. It’s just a mess.”
Green concurred.
“We should wait to see how everything plays out,” she said. “He still is the mayor until proven guilty.”
The case was investigated by Kenneth West with the Attorney General’s public integrity division. The case will be prosecuted by special assistant attorney general Brad Oberhousen.
Regardless of how everything plays out, Neely has taken issue with Lester’s performance since he became mayor in July 2017.
“He came in with a different agenda than others came in with,” Neely said. “He never got along with the board. He never got along with the employees. He tried to fire them.”
Police chief Rico Smith and water department head Lewarn “Killer” Flowers have been suspended for insubordination.
“He never sat down and discussed with us his agenda,” Neely said. “He just came in trying to fire people. We’ve invested a lot of money in training employees and then you’re trying to fire them?”
Neely also mentioned when Lester told the council he laid off two police officers and did not rehire them for financial reasons.
Neely has said he believes the funds are available for Jonestown to have three officers.
“He’s not doing his job like he should be,” Neely said.
“We’ve been dealing with this for a long time. We’ve been back and forth fussing and arguing.”
Neely said everyone needs to cooperate and the mayor needs to care about working with the board.
“We’ve got to find some type of working relationship with him until his term is up,” he said.
Jonestown alderman Unta Wiley and alderwomen Josephine Brown-Cosby and Yvonne Williams-Brooks all declined to comment.
When other local government entities face similar issues, they take an approach similar to the Jonestown City Council members.
“We hand it over to the state and let the state handle it,” Clarksdale city clerk Cathy Clark said to that city’s actions when it is alleged an elected official has committed a crime.
County attorney Tom Ross said the Coahoma County Board of Supervisors does not have any jurisdiction over elected officials and everything is on a case-by-case basis.
For city employees, Ross said personnel matters regarding when an employee is accused of any wrongdoing go into executive session. He noted there are also personnel policies.
“It just kind of depends on the facts of each case,” Ross said. “Generally, with employees, they’re dealt with on a case-by-case subject to provisions of the personnel manual and other policies the board may have.”
Clarksdale Public Utilities general manager Curtis Boschert faced this type of personnel matter shortly after taking his position in September.
Employee Kenneth Haywood was charged with murder, but not convicted of anything. He was suspended without pay pending a pre-disciplinary hearing. Haywood ended up resigning.
Boschert said each situation is different.
“It depends what they’re accused of, first,” he said. “It depends on what their duties are. It’s got to be on a case-by-case basis. We’ve got to look at what the charge is, how it relates to the duty that person does, the gravity of the charge.”
Boschert said he did face these types of issues during his tenure as Clarksdale city attorney and handled things in a similar manner.
“Sometimes people have been suspended with pay, sometimes without pay,” he said. “It depends on what it is.”
