District 1 Supervisor Glenn Donald’s attempt to have the county purchase vehicles for the supervisors sputtered out of the gate last week, but he never let off the gas, and the motion eventually passed.
“I’m asking that Sunflower County buy a vehicle for the Supervisors that desire one. If you don’t want one, you don’t have to have one,” Donald told the board during its Friday meeting.
Donald said that each board member signs a document pledging to ride all of the roads in the county.
“Our salary does not compensate us enough to buy a vehicle to ride these roads,” Donald said, later adding, “You can at least put 100,000 miles on a vehicle in one year.”
District 2 Supervisor Riley Rice reminded the board that a vehicle would be considered part of their salaries and would have to be reported to the IRS.
Rice, District 3 Supervisor Sherry Gaston and District 5 Supervisor Gloria Dickerson all stated they were not interested in having the county buy them vehicles.
“I don’t want one myself,” Dickerson said.
Rice stressed the need for the board to stay within the fiscal year budget.
“Why do we do a budget, and then we go into the general fund?,” he asked. “We need to stop going into the budget…We need to start sticking to the budget.”
Donald told him that the year’s revenue was the budget and that property tax revenue from the solar farm in Ruleville would make it possible for the county to buy the vehicles.
Gaston suggested the county buy one vehicle and leave it parked at the courthouse, making it available for the supervisors to pick it up as needed.
Donald replied that he is out early most mornings and late some nights, making that arrangement less than ideal.
After District 4 Supervisor Anthony Clark, who was present via Zoom, dropped out of the meeting briefly, the board seemed positioned to table the discussion until the next meeting in February.
Donald persisted, and eventually Gaston seconded his motion.
Rice voted nay, and Anthony was still off Zoom when the vote was taken.
Dickerson said, “I vote aye, let him have his truck.”
After the vote was taken and the motion passed, Anthony returned to the meeting. Donald pressed him for a vote, and Anthony said yes.
