Dear Sir,
I’ve been missing you, Mr. Mayor. It’s a sad situation when a public citizen, an old one at that, has attended more official meetings at City Hall these last two months than the mayor of this city has.
You’re an elected official responsible for administering the business of this city — and the way you have conducted yourself during these last two months is a disgrace. It certainly does not demonstrate to our citizens that you are capable of taking care of our city’s business.
What do you mean by not being there to vote to pay our bills, appoint our new judge, hire and fire new employees, get our current employees paid their monthly salaries, and show that you take all these situations seriously?
You gave yourself such an ungodly salary increase (over the objections of any local citizens with any sense!) — and now you are playing politics with our budget, legal system, and employees. I think you should be required to give back your salary checks for these two months during which you have not fulfilled your own civic responsibilities. We shouldn’t have to pay someone who is MIA for the top administrative position in this city for an entire two months.
By the way, if you are not showing up for this part of your job, why should we have to pay you mileage NOT to be here? You should give that money back too.
I’m going to add one more thing: I had the misfortune to be present when you bullied the publisher of our local newspaper. Before one meeting started, I witnessed you give him a blistering order to get up from the front row position from which he has observed and reported on the proceedings of all these administrative meetings for years. You made him move to the rear of the room and sit on what was basically a milk crate — and threatened to put him in jail if he so much as said one single word.
Not a good move, Mr. Mayor.
I have no idea what brought on that disgraceful episode, but I have to say that you most certainly did not come off looking like a respectable city official, much less one capable of handling all the affairs of this city. What gives you the right to act that way? That’s a spoiled bully talking, not a top civic official! You can most certainly do better than that.
Sincerely,
Raymond E. Cole
Clarksdale, Miss.
