The Indianola Board of aldermen met on Monday in a special call session to address two agenda items.
The most pressing of them was to approve paying a $2,000 fee to the Sunflower County Consolidated School District for use of the Carver Elementary School and the Gentry High School gymnasiums so the city basketball league can hold practices and host the basketball games.
The aldermen voted unanimously to pay the fee after a motion by Alderman Marvin Elder that was seconded by Alderman Gary Fratesi. Currently, City Parks and Recreation Director Carolyn O’Neal is not operating the basketball program pending the board’s decision.
Mayor Steve Rosenthal said O'Neal has not begun taking registration fees and such because she didn’t want to accept funds that she may have to return to the participants. “She’s weeks and weeks behind,” he said.
O'Neal met with the SCCSD superintendent Miskia Davis and the board of trustees at the SCCSD’s January meeting after being informed that Davis had denied her request to use some of the district’s facilities as in times past.
In that January session, O'Neal addressed what she said were concerns Davis had with regard to the city basketball league using the gyms.
Davis responded that her apprehensions were with regards to only certain buildings and that O'Neal could still use the Carver gym and the Gentry gym; however, for any event in which O'Neal’s program charges an admission or sells concessions the district is mandated to charge for the buildings’ use.
Originally, Davis said the cost would be $300 per day for the events, but SCCSD president, Edward Thomas said afterwards that the district has some options when it comes to setting the amount of the charges.
On Monday night Rosenthal explained, “Here’s where we stand, the school is saying there’s some new law.” He said he had received a photocopy of the statute in question around 5 p.m.; however, it was dated 2014.
Rosenthal said he was unable to get it to print off where it would be legible. “I am still not aware of any new law,” he said.
Rosenthal said regardless of that, the school district is now requiring the fee. He said based on the number of games the league normally plays the charges would have added up to $6,000. “They have agreed to do $2,000 for a season, because we said sometimes the season runs eight weeks sometimes it runs 10 weeks, so we wanted a fixed price,” said Rosenthal.
He said nothing was definite because the school board will have to meet and agree to accept the proposed pay amount. “The first step is to see whether we’re even willing to pay. This is our basketball, this is our program, we pay Ms. O'Neal and the two employees to operate the program,” Rosenthal said.
He explained the particulars regarding the program’s setup and the city’s involvement noting that the city signed the MOU with the district, it provides insurance and some equipment, which remains the property of the city.
A booster organization was formed to handle all of the proceeds from the one-dollar admissions and concessions. It provides premiums and incentives for the children, pays referees and officials plus the cleanup crew because if the money is received into the city’s general fund it cannot be legally disbursed for those purposes.
Alderman Sam Brock raised a question about the program’s overhead expenses that produced another question about the contract the city is operating under with regard to the program. A new MOU is signed every year, according to Rosenthal.
Fratesi reminded them that a board could not be obligated to abide by a contract beyond their term so the contract should have been revisited with the seating of the new aldermen, but it was not. He suggested rescinding the existing contract and initiating a new one.
They decided to revisit that matter during a regular session.
Also on Monday night, Rosenthal presented his choice to fill the city attorney's position left vacant after former City Attorney Gary Austin submitted his resignation effective December 31.
Rosenthal presented Cleveland attorney Daniel Griffith along with his law partner Arnulfo U. Luciano to the board and stated that Griffith was his recommendation. He said only four people submitted applications for the position.
Of the four, only one was currently practicing in Indianola even though he didn’t reside in the city, but Griffith was the only one who has municipal governmental background according to Rosenthal.
He said Griffith has represented the city in several lawsuits and has done a good job. He gave Griffith an opportunity to share his qualifications and credentials with the five-member panel of lawmakers, which included being city attorney for several municipalities and school boards.
Rosenthal said with Griffith, the board would also have the benefit of Luciano and the other members of the firm. Griffith estimated that about 90 percent of his work involves municipalities.
Additionally, he extolled the qualifications of the other members of his firm who would also be at the city’s disposal and affirmed that either he or Luciano would attend each meeting.
Griffith fielded several questions from the group before expressing his desire to come work for the city.
Alderman Ruben Woods questioned why they were only hearing from one of the applicants. Expressing that he was not casting any aspersions towards Griffith, Woods said, “I was under the impression we were going to have two different candidates to select from. If you put me on there all by myself, I’d look good too.”
Rosenthal said that when he and Woods discussed it, he told Woods that he had a second choice, “My job and my job description is that I make a recommendation, these people, as do department heads, work directly under me through the guidance of the board and it’s my job to make my recommendation that’s the protocol that’s been set and that’s the way it’s always been done,” he said.
Woods voiced his disagreement with Rosenthal’s statement and asserted that in times past members of the board have also made recommendations. He attempted to suggest that the matter be tabled when Rosenthal stressed that he was simply making a recommendation based on a suggestion made by Elder at a previous meeting. “I wasn’t planning to take a vote on it tonight,” he said.
